How to Argue & Win Every Time: At Home, At Work, In Court, Everywhere, Everyday

The author redefines "argue" as "communicate", then tries to tell you how to "win at communicating". He does this by presenting a lot of half-truths and monologues borne of a critically incomplete understanding of even his own example situations. The result is a lot of really, really bad advice.

This book is useless as a guide to arguing (or even communicating), but possibly potentially useful in understanding the kinds of broken thinking you may encounter in others while trying to argue or communicate with people of like mind with the author.

I was not a big fan of lawyers until I read this book. What a helpful and wonderful persepctive in dealing with anyone anywhere. The use of real world examples is dead-on.

Simplicity isn't emphasized, but it is fair for Spence to assume virtually all of the other books on public speaking include banal adages like "start with an impact statement" or "limit your presentation to 2 to 4 main points." I appreciated him not selling me a repeat of the basics.

Spence's point about emotion is no one cares to argue over or hear why 2 + 2 = 4. Consequently, issues worth arguing over are normally decided by a sense of justice, responsibility or the like, which involve emotions. I took Mr. Spence to assume along with his audience, with good reason, that you cannot persuade a jury, judge, board of directors or the like by logic alone. You must address what people care about.

This is an extremely helpful book from one of America's greatest trial lawyers. It is also an easy read. In short, Spence believes that arguing is important because it shows that you believe in something important. To go through life without sharing these beliefs is not to live at all.

I was initially turned off by the title because arguing can have a bad connotation these days (i.e. being confrontational). However, Spence uses the term arguing to mean sharing your deep held beliefs with others. If we all would do this, he suggests, we would all be more enlightened.

Most important, Spence shows you how to share your beliefs. "The first trick of the winning argument is the trick of abandoning trickery."

A note for trial lawyers. Although this book is not intended to teach trial techniques, Spence's message about being true to yourself when you argue in court for what you believe and in the rest of your life is well worth remembering.

Every household should have this book. It is so good, I would like to memorize it. Full of wisdom and practical logic this book shows that any argument can be won when it comes from the heart and a well prepared mind. Gerry Spence's approach at winning an argument is very creative, sensitive, compassionate as well as intelligent and astute.