 Books by CG Chair Philip K. Howard
The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines our Freedom
In the last 50 years we've rebuilt our legal system on the idea that any individual who feels aggrieved--a person who has spilled hot coffee or falls off a seesaw, or an inept teacher or bureaucrat resisting dismissal, or a disruptive student avoiding suspension--has a right to a legal proceeding. America, we've been taught, stands for individual rights. But what about the rights of the students who deserve a good teacher, or a classroom that's not disrupted? Who's protecting them?
No one. No one's in charge of any common judgments. Not a teacher over a classroom, or a principal over a school, or a judge over a courtroom. Who are they to judge? Fairness, we've been told, is a matter of proof. But how do you "prove" who is trying hard and who is not, or whether a seesaw is a reasonable risk? You can't. It depends on your point of view. But no one has authority to make these common judgments.
Americans have never trusted authority. But the government decisions we've lost were not coercive. On the contrary: they were used to limit how self-interested people could use legal powers to coerce other citizens, whether through lawsuits, or by resisting management judgments in a school or agency. Our beliefs won't matter until we let those with responsibility act on their beliefs. What good are the parents' views about a teacher if the principal can't act on them? As this vacuum moves farther up the chain of responsibility the more damage it creates: "Remove a judge's authority to assert views of what's right and reasonable, and the entire society starts acting like a nervous wreck."
Selected Reviews
"This book sits at the center of important questions about frivolous litigiousness, disdain for authority, and the tendency of bureaucracy to stifle judgment and initiative."
The New York Times Book Review
"Philip K. Howard's book rings true. Teachers have such a hard time being themselves, dragging around the millstone of bureaucracy. Will all our well-intentioned efforts to regulate and manage our way to social welfare backfire, creating a society where people aren't free to exercise their own judgment and good will?"
Wendy Kopp, Founder & President, Teach for America, and author of One Day, All Children...
"Howard is on to something...[He] makes his case through anecdotes, and he packs some powerful ones."
The Washington Post
"This book provides unique insight into important aspects of modern life. Philip Howard has a gift of clear vision into these vital issues, and is sure to provoke fresh debate on how our society is organized."
Former Senator Howard Baker, Jr.
"[A] rich seam of anecdote...Howard writes well, punctuating his text with skillfully told tales and choice quotations from the good and wise."
The Economist
"You'll never see America the same again...[this book is] like nothing you ever read, better even than The Death of Common Sense."
Andrew Heiskell, Former Chairman and CEO, Time Inc.
"Philip K. Howard has identified...the price we pay for our distrust of authority. By pointing to...the intricate array of rights and legal safeguards, he makes a provocative case which should provoke spirited debate."
Derek Bok, President Emeritus, Harvard University
"I have been a huge fan of Philip K. Howard since I first read The Death of Common Sense. This book is even better and explains so well much of what is wrong with modern America. This book will surprise you at every turn. It is like a gale of fresh air."
Senator Zell Miller
"A powerful...look at our litigious society."
Publisher's Weekly
The Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America
Why did the New York City building code crush Mother Teresa's plans to build a shelter for the homeless? Why do your tax dollars pay for policing elementary school art displays? How did a handicap-access law deny public bathrooms for thousands of able-bodied people? America is drowning: in law, legality, bureaucratic process. Abandoning our common sense and individual sense of responsibility, we live in terror of the law, in awe of procedure, at was with one another. Philip K. Howard has written the explosive manifesto for liberation--one of the most talked about sociopolitical treatises of our time. Citing dozens of examples of bureaucratic overkill--everything from the labeling of window cleaner as a toxic substance to the U.S. Department of Defense spending $2 billion on travel and $2.2 billion processing the paperwork for that travel--The Death of Common Sense shows how far we have wandered, how we got into this mess, and how we can--and must--get out.
Selected Reviews
"Impressive...thoroughly researched...pointing to logical solutions...about what works and doesn't work in the United States."
Los Angeles Daily News
"A brilliant diagnosis...forceful, trenchant, and eloquent."
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
"What Mr. Howard is trying to do with this thoughtful little book is drive us all sane."
New York Times
"Mr. Howard's argument is fresh, reflecting an impressive combination of wisdom, wry humor, and quiet passion. . . .When we think about 'reinventing government,' it's a good place to start."
New York Times Book Review
"The delights of this policy prose poem lie in its perfect details, its civilized tone, its sure sense of where the ill-made legal shoe pinches."
Wall Street Journal
"One of the most important, thought-provoking books I've read in years, and it will grip you from the first page. Every doctor and teacher frustrated by paperwork, every judge frustrated by mandatory sentencing guidelines, every banker and businessman tied in regulatory knots, every manager terrified to fire someone for doing a poor job--every taxpayer--will find The Death of Common Sense a blood-boiler. What makes it important, thought, is not its (amazing) anecdotes, but that it sp elegantly synthesizes them...and points to solutions."
Andrew Tobias
"Lucid, economical prose...its lessons are valid and needed therapy for our suffocating democracy." Baltimore Sun Packed with splendid examples of absurd regulatory inflexibility." Seattle Times "A wildly important book which should change the direction of public debate in this country....Not often does a book appear that is startling and yet so obviously correct....Philip Howard gives Americans their voice back. "
Andrew Heiskell, former publisher of Time, Inc.
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