Credit and Blame

by Tilly, Charles

• ISBN13: 9781400829644
• ISBN10: 140082964X
• Copyright: 2009-03-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

In his eye-opening bookWhy?, world-renowned social scientist Charles Tilly exposed some startling truths about the excuses people make and the reasons they give. Now he's back with further explorations into the complexities of human relationships, this time examining what's really going on when we assign credit or cast blame.Everybody does it, but few understand the hidden motivations behind it. With his customary wit and dazzling insight, Tilly takes a lively and thought-provoking look at the ways people fault and applaud each other and themselves. The stories he gathers inCredit and Blamerange from the everyday to the altogether unexpected, from the revealingly personal to the insightfully humorous--whether it's the gushing acceptance speech of an Academy Award winner or testimony before a congressional panel, accusations hurled in a lover's quarrel or those traded by nations in a post-9/11 crisis, or a job promotion or the Nobel Prize. Drawing examples from literature, history, pop culture, and much more, Tilly argues that people seek not only understanding through credit and blame, but also justice. The punishment must fit the crime, accomplishments should be rewarded, and the guilty parties must always get their just deserts.Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written,Credit and Blameis a book that revolutionizes our understanding of the compliments we pay and the accusations we make.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Credit, Blame, and Social Life	p. 1
Justice	p. 31
Credit	p. 61
Blame	p. 91
Memories of Victory, Loss, and Blame 120 Notes	p. 153
References	p. 161
Index	p. 173
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.