Think Again: Contrarian Reflections on Life, Culture, Politics, Religion, Law, and Education

From 1995 to 2013, Stanley Fishs provocative New York Times columns consistently generated passionate discussion and debate.

In Think Again, he has assembled almost one hundred of his best columns into a thematically arranged collection with a substantial new introduction that explains his intention in writing these pieces and offers an analysis of why they provoked so much reaction.Some readers reported being frustrated when they couldnt figure out where Fish, one of Americas most influential thinkers, stood on the controversies he addressed in the essaysfrom atheism and affirmative action to plagiarism and postmodernism.

But, as Fish says, that is the point. Opinions are cheap; you can get them anywhere. Instead of offering just another set of them, Fish analyzes and dissects the arguments put forth by different sidesin debates over free speech, identity politics, the gun lobby, and other hot-button topicsin order to explain how their arguments work or dont work.

In short, these are essays that teach you not what to think but how to think more clearly.Brief and accessible yet challenging, these essays provide all the hard-edged intellectual, cultural, and political analysis one expects from Fish.

At the same time, the collection includes a number of revealing and even poignant autobiographical essays in which, as Fish says, readers will learn about my anxieties, my aspirations, my eccentricities, my foibles, my father, and my obsessionsFrank Sinatra, Ted Williams, basketball, and Jews.

Reflecting the wide-ranging interests of one of today's leading critics, this is Fishs broadest and most engaging book to date.