About this title: Hailed by "The Guardian" as "essential reading from Washington to Westminster" this is a groundbreaking study of how the mind works, and what this means for why candidates win and lose elections.Since the 18th Century, the idea of mind that has captured the imagination of philosophers, cognitive scientists, economists and political scientists is of a dispassionate mind that makes decisions by weighing evidence and reasoning to make the most valid conclusions. It bears no relation to how the mind and brain actually work.In this landmark book, Professor Drew Westen - a scientist and ...
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781586484255ISBN:1586484257
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781586484255ISBN:1586484257
Description: New in new dust jacket. Damaged in shipping. Bottom corners bumped. New. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 480 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781586484255ISBN:1586484257
Description: Very good. No dust jacket. HC. This is a new book with some handling wear that consists of: No DJ. Book and cover are clean and bright with tight binding. Very Good. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 480 p. Audience: General/trade. Satisfaction guaranteed. Domestic orders shipped daily using Media Mail rates from USPS with Delivery Confirmation. W/E and holidays orders shipped next business day. read more
Description: Good. 1586484257 Hardcover with moderate shelf-wear, rubbing, fraying, tears, fading, smudges, stains, chipping and bumping to dust jacket cover, board edges, corners, and spine. Binding is tight and square. Inside pages are free from underlining, note taking, and/or highlighting. Book is in stock and ready to ship same or next business day. Select Expedited shipping and receive your book within 3-5 business days. Buy with confidence! Please leave feedback after your purchase. It helps other ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781586484255ISBN:1586484257
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. HC. This is a new book with some handling wear which consists of a DJ that has a small 1 1/2 inch by 1/2 piece missing in the lower right corner; DJ has light edge wear. Book and cover are clean and bright with tight... Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 480 p. Audience: General/trade. Satisfaction guaranteed. Domestic orders shipped daily using Media Mail rates from USPS with Delivery Confirmation. W/E and holidays orders shipped next business day. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9781586484255ISBN:1586484257
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. HC. This is a new book with some handling wear which consists of a DJ that has edge wear with 2 small tears. Book and cover are clean and bright with tight binding. Very Good. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 480 p. Audience: General/trade. Satisfaction guaranteed. Domestic orders shipped daily using Media Mail rates from USPS with Delivery Confirmation. W/E and holidays orders shipped next business day. read more
Description: New. 1586484257 *BRAND NEW* Hardcover with DJ. Fresh from the publisher with No remainder marks and No price tags. May have shelf wear on edge. read more
Description: New. A Brand New Copy. Never Read. Buy with confidence from an Independent Bookstore where the owners, a husband and wife team, have over 30 years of combined bookselling experience. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Date Published: 5/5/2008
ISBN-13:9781586485733ISBN:1586485733
Description: New. 2008 Paperback. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again! ! ! ! read more
"Drew Westen, an Emory University pshycologists, uses brain mapping and other neurological measures to demonstrate conclusively that politics is all about emotion. He then shows just as conclusively how Democratic candidates and strategists have missed this point for decades--at great cost to their own fortunes and the nation's. Eminently readable, this book was required reading among Democratic candidates and strategists in 2008. The result speaks for itself."
"The dust jacket has one line that is at the center of this book: "The idea of the mind as a cool calculator that makes decisions by weighing the evidence bears no relation to how the brain actually works." Drew Westen uses this thought as a takeoff point in his book, "The Political Brain." He asserts that (page xv) "The political brain is an emotional brain."
One point that he hammers throughout the book is that Republicans do a better job of connecting with voters at an emotional, gut level than do Democrats. Ds tend to make rational points; Rs wed their points to emotional appeals, ending up doing much better. He provides examples from the Gore-Bush and Bush-Kerry campaigns. One interesting feature of the book is the author's development of how Gore and Kerry could have crafted statements to wed emotion to policy talking points in a way to, in Westen's view, would trump the Republican efforts. As an example of where Democrats have succeeded, he notes Bill Clinton's wedding of talking points to emotional appeals.
The discussion of neurosciences and how they tie into the argument is a bit underdeveloped. Westen does discuss some studies and notes some of his own research. Nonetheless, he could have elaborated more completely and made a more compelling case. He also addresses the evolution of what he terms "the passionate brain," in which (page 51) ". . .Feeling and thinking evolved together, and nature `designed' them to work together."
He discusses specific policy arenas and how Democrats have ceded the potent ground wedding emotion and thinking, from abortion to gun control to race to taxes. He takes Democratic consultants and campaign advisors to task. There is a bit of "conflict of interest," in some senses, since he also consults for Democrats. He is most explicit about one goal of this volume during his policy arena by policy arena analysis on page 380: "The central point of this chapter is that Democrats need to talk about values, morality, and faith again, but not by talking like Republicans. They need to offer a counternarrative that has as its core beneficence, tolerance, and humility, not hate, contempt, and dogma." That quotation surely provides a taste of Westen's passion and his political perspective.
One real annoyance with the book that I purchased. Each chapter is studded with numbered footnotes--but nowhere in the volume are the corresponding citations. One must go to a web site to get them. This keeps the volume shorter, but it makes it more difficult to check out citations. One might not necessarily be near the Internet while reading the book and wanting to check something out.
His call to realize that there is a passionate component to politics and political discourse, his linkage of evolution and brain structure and function to political thinking and behavior is well taken. There are some less than optimal elements to the book, as noted, but, overall, this is a provocative volume that will get readers to thinking."
"Interesting book about the large role emotion plays in our political choices. Emotion almost invariably overrules any logical response we might have."
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