Here's the only sure thing we can all agree on: 1 + 1 = 2. Although the 7-minute Babak Anvari film Two & Two suggests a brutal way to deny even that truth, most reasonable, educated (and free) people concur that any data short of equations can be shredded, twisted, and rerouted to suit nearly any subjective viewpoint.
If this inconvenient truth disturbs your sensibilities, you will take more than you can tolerate when reading Stanley Fish's Winning Arguments, whose fundamental claims are that to argue is human and that truth and context are inseparable. Fish cleverly reviews a broad range of arguments from Hollywood to the White House with the discernment of a trial lawyer and the creativity of a poet to show how winning arguments work and how inevitable they are. He describes how the ebbs and flows of changing conditions, participants, and evidence can make virtually any argument winnable.
The winning in the book title is more adjective than verb. If you're searching for tips on how to present your case more persuasively, you might look for other books. But if you're interested in how fabled arguments held sway over huge audiences in the right place and at the right time, you'll get more than your money's worth.
