Conversation: A History of a Declining ArtEssayist Stephen Miller pursues a lifelong interest in conversation by taking an historical and philosophical view of the subject. He chronicles the art of conversation in Western civilization from its beginnings in ancient Greece to its apex in eighteenth-century Britain to its current endangered state in America. As Harry G. Frankfurt brought wide attention to the art of bullshit in his recent bestselling On Bullshit, so Miller now brings the art of conversation into the light, revealing why good conversation matters and why it is in decline. Miller explores the conversation about conversation among such great writers as Cicero, Montaigne, Swift, Defoe, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Virginia Woolf. He focuses on the world of British coffeehouses and clubs in “The Age of Conversation” and examines how this era ended. Turning his attention to the United States, the author traces a prolonged decline in the theory and practice of conversation from Benjamin Franklin through Hemingway to Dick Cheney. He cites our technology (iPods, cell phones, and video games) and our insistence on unguarded forthrightness as well as our fear of being judgmental as powerful forces that are likely to diminish the art of conversation. |
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Page 2
... never stopped ranting about the evils of " the System . " ( He had a Ph.D. in history . ) A colleague at a Washington think tank , where I worked in the mid - 1970s , talked continually about the negative effects of modernity . ( He had ...
... never stopped ranting about the evils of " the System . " ( He had a Ph.D. in history . ) A colleague at a Washington think tank , where I worked in the mid - 1970s , talked continually about the negative effects of modernity . ( He had ...
Page 3
... never said another word to me for the remainder of the evening . Most people who make their views known on t - shirts and bumper stickers do not want to be questioned about their opinions . I once was accosted by a young woman who was ...
... never said another word to me for the remainder of the evening . Most people who make their views known on t - shirts and bumper stickers do not want to be questioned about their opinions . I once was accosted by a young woman who was ...
Page 5
... never present in Mind at what passeth in Dis- course . " According to Swift , " Whosoever labours under any of these Possessions , is as unfit for Conversation as a Mad - man in Bedlam . " Conversation , Swift also says , suffers from a ...
... never present in Mind at what passeth in Dis- course . " According to Swift , " Whosoever labours under any of these Possessions , is as unfit for Conversation as a Mad - man in Bedlam . " Conversation , Swift also says , suffers from a ...
Page 8
... never more easy than in her company . " ( Mrs. Johnson never married . In the eighteenth century the term Mrs. signi- fied a woman of a certain age . ) According to Swift , Esther Johnson was an unusual woman . " Never was any of her ...
... never more easy than in her company . " ( Mrs. Johnson never married . In the eighteenth century the term Mrs. signi- fied a woman of a certain age . ) According to Swift , Esther Johnson was an unusual woman . " Never was any of her ...
Page 9
... never positive [ dogmatic ] in arguing , and she usually treated those who were so , in a manner which well enough gratified that unhappy disposition ; yet in such a sort as made it very contemptible , and at the same time did some hurt ...
... never positive [ dogmatic ] in arguing , and she usually treated those who were so , in a manner which well enough gratified that unhappy disposition ; yet in such a sort as made it very contemptible , and at the same time did some hurt ...
Contents
29 | |
EighteenthCentury Britain | 79 |
A Conversational Triumph Lady | 119 |
Raillery to Reverie | 150 |
From Benjamin | 194 |
From | 242 |
NINE The Ways We Dont Converse Now | 264 |
TEN The End of Conversation? | 291 |
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Common terms and phrases
According Addison admired agree American anger appeared argues asked attacked attended avoid became become Boswell Britain called century cities civil clubs Coffee coffeehouses common continually conversationalist conversible world critic culture describes dinner discussion easy effect eighteenth-century England English enjoyed essay feel Franklin friends give guests human Hume ideas implies important Instant Messaging interest Italy Johnson Lady Mary leading learned less letter listen live London look mainly manners means meet mind natural never one's opinion party passions person play pleasures poem polite popular praised questions raillery reason refers remark salon sation says seems sense social society Socrates solitude sounds speaks Spectator sublime suffering Swift talk thing thought tion told turn versation wants women Woolf writers wrote young