Book excerpt: "The thirty essays in this book, drawn from the scholarly literature, represent major traditional and contemporary scholarship on argument. The essays display the evolution and widening scope of the scholarship in recent decades, as well as tensions among traditional and recent views and emphases. They reflect an array of scholarly perspectives on the values, rules, and conceptual structures that people bring to public deliberation-and that affect how they achieve agreement. The essays also examine argument in various contexts and spheres, with a particular focus on it as a vital, productive means for people to negotiate differences through discussion, especially in a diverse, democratic society."--pub. desc.