In pursuit of fairness at any cost, we have created a society paralyzed by legal fear: Doctors are paranoid and principals powerless. Little league coaches, scared of liability, stop volunteering. Schools and hospitals start to crumble. The common good fades, replaced by a cacophony of people claiming their “individual rights.” By turns funny and infuriating, this startling book dissects the dogmas of fairness that allow self-interested individuals to bully the rest of society. Philip K. Howard explains how, trying to honor individual rights, we removed the authority needed to maintain a free society. Teachers don’t even have authority to maintain order in the classroom. With no one in charge, the safe course is to avoid any possible risk. Seesaws and diving boards are removed. Ridiculous warning labels litter the American landscape: “Caution: Contents Are Hot.” Striving to protect “individual rights,” we ended up losing much of our freedom. When almost any decision that someone disagrees with is a possible lawsuit, no one knows where he stands. A huge monument to the unknown plaintiff looms high above America, casting a dark shadow across our daily choices. Today, in the land of free speech, you’d have to be a fool to say what you really think. This provocative book not only attacks the sacred cows of political correctness, but takes a breathtakingly bold stand on how to reinvigorate our common good. Only by restoring personal authority can schools begin to work again. Only by judges and legislatures taking back the authority to decide who can sue for what can doctors feel comfortable using their best judgment and American be liberated to say and do what they know is right. Lucid, honest, and hard hitting, The Collapse of the Common Good shows how Americans can bring back freedom and common sense to a society disabled by lawyers and legal fear.

The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom

Howard, Philip K.

Ethics & Professional Responsibility

Ballantine Books

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line will appall and irritate — and entertain — readers every bit as much as Philip Howard’s first book. Why is it that no one can fix the schools? Why do ordinary judgements fill doctors with fear? Why are seesaws disappearing from playgrounds? Why has a wave of selfish people overtaken America? In our effort to protect the individual against unfair decisions, we have created a society where no one’s in charge of anything. Silly lawsuits strike fear in our hearts because judges don’t think they have the authority to dismiss them. Inner-city schools are filthy and mired in a cycle of incompetence because no one has the authority to decide who’s doing the job and who’s not. When no one’s in charge, we all lose our link to the common good. When principals lack authority over schools, of what use are the parents’ views? When no one can judge right and wrong, why not be as selfish as you can be? Philip Howard traces our well-meaning effort to protect individuals through the twentieth century, with the unintended result that we have lost much of our individual freedom. Buttressed with scores of stories that make you want to collar the next self-centered jerk or hapless bureaucrat, The Lost Art of Drawing the Line demonstrates once again that Philip Howard is “trying to drive us all sane.”

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line: How Fairness Went Too Far

Criminal Law

Random House]

How to restore the can-do spirit that made America great, from the author of the best-selling The Death of Common Sense. Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices―teachers can't maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban the game of tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: "Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller." Philip K. Howard's urgent and elegant argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess, and he lays out the basic shift in approach needed to fix it. Today we are flooded with rules and legal threats that prevent us from taking responsibility and using our common sense. We must rebuild boundaries of law that affirmatively protect an open field of freedom. The stories here will ring true to every reader. The analysis is powerful, and the solution unavoidable. What's at stake, Howard explains in this seminal book, is the vitality of American culture.

Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law

W.W.Norton&Company

The secret to good government is a question no one in Washington is asking: “What’s the right thing to do?” What’s wrong in Washington is deeper than you think. Yes, there’s gridlock, polarization, and self-dealing. But hidden underneath is something bigger and more destructive. It’s a broken governing system. From that comes wasteful government, rising debt, failing schools, expensive health care, and economic hardship.
Rules have replaced leadership in America. Bureaucracy, regulation, and outmoded law tie our hands and confine policy choices. Nobody asks, “What’s the right thing to do here?” Instead, they wonder, “What does the rule book say?”
There’s a fatal flaw in America’s governing system―trying to decree correctness through rigid laws will never work. Public paralysis is the inevitable result of the steady accretion of detailed rules. America is now run by dead people―by political leaders from the past who enacted mandatory programs that churn ahead regardless of waste, irrelevance, or new priorities.
America needs to radically simplify its operating system and give people―officials and citizens alike―the freedom to be practical. Rules can’t accomplish our goals. Only humans can get things done.
In The Rule of Nobody Philip K. Howard argues for a return to the framers’ vision of public law―setting goals and boundaries, not dictating daily choices. This incendiary book explains how America went wrong and offers a guide for how to liberate human ingenuity to meet the challenges of this century.

The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government

Constitutional Law

How to restore the can-do spirit that made America great, from the author of the best-selling The Death of Common Sense. Americans are losing the freedom to make sense of daily choices―teachers can’t maintain order in the classroom, managers are trained to avoid candor, schools ban tag, and companies plaster inane warnings on everything: “Remove Baby Before Folding Stroller.” Philip K. Howard’s urgent argument is full of examples, often darkly humorous. He describes the historical and cultural forces that led to this mess and lays out the basic shift in approach needed to fix it. Today we are flooded with legal threats that prevent us from taking responsibility. We must rebuild boundaries of law that protect an open field of freedom. The voices here will ring true to every reader. The analysis is powerful, and the solution unavoidable. What’s at stake, Howard explains in this seminal book, is the vitality of American culture.

Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Administrative Law

The federal government is ailing and needs a cure. The cure lies in embracing a principle long known to the American people but little recognized by Washington—until now: common sense. In this pathbreaking report, Vice President Al Gore, presiding over the National Performance Review, at the request of President Clinton, charts a fundamental shift in how government conducts itself. This report understands that a government that recognizes who its real customers are, works with them to understand their needs, and puts them first, not last, is a government that deserves to govern.

Common Sense Government: Works Better and Costs Less

Business & Money

Economics

An attorney explains how a rule-bound government has promoted bureaucratic gridlock, created a litigious society, and become detrimental to intelligent decision making on the part of judges, industry, and government

The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America (CLOTH)

G.K.Hall & Co.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “We need a new idea of how to govern. The current system is broken. Law is supposed to be a framework for humans to make choices, not the replacement for free choice.” So notes Philip K. Howard in the new Afterword to his explosive manifesto The Death of Common Sense. Here Howard offers nothing less than a fresh, lucid, practical operating system for modern democracy. America is drowning—in law, lawsuits, and nearly endless red tape. Before acting or making a decision, we often abandon our best instincts. We pause, we worry, we equivocate, and then we divert our energy into trying to protect ourselves. Filled with one too many examples of bureaucratic overreach, The Death of Common Sense demonstrates how we—and our country—can at last get back on track.

The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America

Random House Publishing Group

In every sector of American society, civility has declined—from vicious political rhetoric to attacks in the blogosphere and lack of personal decency. In 2011, The Dilenschneider Group, a strategic communications firm, sponsored a series of lectures on civility in conjunction with the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Collected in this volume are the thoughts of some of the nation’s most insightful minds as they explore this crisis and offer their opinions as to how we can restore civility in society. Featuring: • HENRY KAUFMAN on Civility in the Financial Sector • CHARLES OSGOOD on Civility in the Media • JOHN BRADEMAS on Civility in Public Life • STEVE FORBES on Civility in Corporate America • PHILIP K. HOWARD on Civility in Society • MICKEY EDWARDS on Civility in Politics With an introduction by Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, CSC

Civility in America: Essays from America’s Thought Leaders

Edwards, Mickey

Forbes, Steve

OSGOOD, Charles

Brademas, John

KAUFMAN, Henry

Group Inc., The Dilenschneider

Dilenschneider, Robert. L.

DGI Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Howard, Philip K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Howard, Philip K.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Howard, Philip K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Collapse of the Common Good: How America's Lawsuit Culture Undermines Our Freedom

The Lost Art of Drawing the Line: How Fairness Went Too Far

Life Without Lawyers: Liberating Americans from Too Much Law

The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government

Life Without Lawyers: Restoring Responsibility in America

The Rule of Nobody: Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Government

Common Sense Government: Works Better and Costs Less

The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America (CLOTH)

The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America

Civility in America: Essays from America’s Thought Leaders