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The Lost Art of Drawing the Line: How Fairness Went Too Far
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.”
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.”
272 pages, Hardcover
First published June 12, 2001
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About the author
Philip K. Howard
20 books46 followersPhilip K. Howard, a lawyer, advises leaders of both parties on legal and regulatory reform. He is chair of Common Good and a contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. His new book, The Rule of Nobody (W. W. Norton & Company, April 2014), has been praised by Fareed Zakaria as “an utterly compelling and persuasive book that, if followed, could change the way America works.” His TED Talk has has been viewed by almost 500,000 people.
Philip is also the author of the best-seller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002) and Life Without Lawyers (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).
In 2002, Philip formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America. Philip writes periodically for The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The New York Times, and has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, PBS NewsHour, Today, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, and numerous other programs.
The son of a minister, Philip got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner and has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He is a prominent civic leader in New York City and has advised national political leaders on legal and regulatory reform for fifteen years, including Vice President Al Gore and numerous governors. He is a Partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, and lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children.
Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. His new book, The Rule of Nobody (W. W. Norton & Company, April 2014), has been praised by Fareed Zakaria as “an utterly compelling and persuasive book that, if followed, could change the way America works.” His TED Talk has has been viewed by almost 500,000 people.
Philip is also the author of the best-seller The Death of Common Sense (Random House, 1995), The Collapse of the Common Good (Ballantine Books, 2002) and Life Without Lawyers (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009).
In 2002, Philip formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America. Philip writes periodically for The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and The New York Times, and has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, PBS NewsHour, Today, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, and numerous other programs.
The son of a minister, Philip got his start working summers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner and has been active in public affairs his entire adult life. He is a prominent civic leader in New York City and has advised national political leaders on legal and regulatory reform for fifteen years, including Vice President Al Gore and numerous governors. He is a Partner at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP. He is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Virginia Law School, and lives in Manhattan with his wife Alexandra. They have four children.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 10, 2010
This book is about how law (and lawsuits), intended to be neutral and impartial, have become a weapon for self interest, and how legal anxiety permeates our society. The author makes some VERY good points about how out of control things are in our society. The problem (and the reason I gave it 2 stars) is that he seriously belabors the points he is making. I couldn't even finish it, because I found myself getting upset, and couldn't wade through the infuriating examples to get to any solution he may have presented. I am going to read "The Death of Common Sense" and I hope that he makes his points more clearly in that book.
May 4, 2018
Philip K. Howard appears to be basically a legal philosopher. That is, at least in this book, he deals primarily with the philosophy of the law.
His concern is how the right of anybody to sue anybody over anything has brought much of American life, business, and especially government almost to a standstill. He starts with people who sue over safety issues, like slides, seesaws, and merry-go-rounds in playgrounds. While he agrees that it is possible for there to be accidents associated with these pieces of equipment, he feels for the majority of people who might like to have them in their playgrounds anyway. But more and more they don’t because the schools, parks, or whatever can’t afford to keep them and risk being sued every time somebody gets hurt. So playground equipment becomes safe but boring – or non-existent.
He moves on to examine the civil service and government bureaucracy, and how a good idea – removing the spoils system from the day-to-day work of the government – morphed into a nightmare. No one is able to make the decision to remove incompetent people from their jobs, or even to decide what should be done in any given government department without fear of being sued by somebody who thought their rights were being interfered with. This explains why it is so hard to get anything done when dealing with the government.
A similar phenomenon has occurred with regard to civil rights, he says. True, in areas like affirmative action blacks, women, and other minorities are being hired somewhat more often, but they are being shunted into safe-but-boring jobs that don’t necessarily allow them to display their full capabilities because of the danger that they might fail in a real job.
His arguments and the incidents illustrating the problem are clear and entertaining. But the solution appears to be much murkier. More rules won’t help. Much of the problem is that there are too many rules already and they just add to the deadlock that prevents anything from being done. It seems that the only solution is for all individual people to refrain from instigating frivolous lawsuits and for judges to reclaim the ability to decide when things are too trivial to sue over.
His concern is how the right of anybody to sue anybody over anything has brought much of American life, business, and especially government almost to a standstill. He starts with people who sue over safety issues, like slides, seesaws, and merry-go-rounds in playgrounds. While he agrees that it is possible for there to be accidents associated with these pieces of equipment, he feels for the majority of people who might like to have them in their playgrounds anyway. But more and more they don’t because the schools, parks, or whatever can’t afford to keep them and risk being sued every time somebody gets hurt. So playground equipment becomes safe but boring – or non-existent.
He moves on to examine the civil service and government bureaucracy, and how a good idea – removing the spoils system from the day-to-day work of the government – morphed into a nightmare. No one is able to make the decision to remove incompetent people from their jobs, or even to decide what should be done in any given government department without fear of being sued by somebody who thought their rights were being interfered with. This explains why it is so hard to get anything done when dealing with the government.
A similar phenomenon has occurred with regard to civil rights, he says. True, in areas like affirmative action blacks, women, and other minorities are being hired somewhat more often, but they are being shunted into safe-but-boring jobs that don’t necessarily allow them to display their full capabilities because of the danger that they might fail in a real job.
His arguments and the incidents illustrating the problem are clear and entertaining. But the solution appears to be much murkier. More rules won’t help. Much of the problem is that there are too many rules already and they just add to the deadlock that prevents anything from being done. It seems that the only solution is for all individual people to refrain from instigating frivolous lawsuits and for judges to reclaim the ability to decide when things are too trivial to sue over.
May 25, 2023
An amazing book! Well written, personal, and complete. Not many books have been written that are this well thought out or put together. Setting forth the issue, addressing the issue and ideologies that hold those issues in place, and lastly offering a guidepost out of the issue holding all the other issues in place.
Although I disagree with some of what the author wrote with respect to giving judges more discretion (without any form of accountability in place), I wholeheartedly agree with a return to the common law, common judgments, and common decisions for the common good. But I don’t believe that can be done with our current legal system as it is.
Unfortunately, our legal system has mutated and become the monster that drives the daily decisions of ordinary people (which the author highlights in great deal). Giving judged more discretion, and offering them more pay, won’t yield the desired results, for judges (who are attorneys) have been trained to mind bend the law into decisions that don’t make sense; they lack common sense, which has needed drained from them by the law schools they attend, to make quality common sense decisions.
Other than that, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
Although I disagree with some of what the author wrote with respect to giving judges more discretion (without any form of accountability in place), I wholeheartedly agree with a return to the common law, common judgments, and common decisions for the common good. But I don’t believe that can be done with our current legal system as it is.
Unfortunately, our legal system has mutated and become the monster that drives the daily decisions of ordinary people (which the author highlights in great deal). Giving judged more discretion, and offering them more pay, won’t yield the desired results, for judges (who are attorneys) have been trained to mind bend the law into decisions that don’t make sense; they lack common sense, which has needed drained from them by the law schools they attend, to make quality common sense decisions.
Other than that, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
April 19, 2022
What a thoughtful and spot-on assessment of how our society has lost our collective common sense. I deal with many of the premises discussed in the book on a daily basis, and I am constantly frustrated by the entitlement, lack of resilience, and general malaise so accurately defined and discussed in this book.
October 28, 2018
I've always known that bureaucracy is hell. Now I understand why! While I might not agree with everything PHK lays out, I can certainly see the inherent problems is certain existing systems.
July 26, 2011
Good book; pretty much confirmed my previously-held bias but overall a worthwhile read. Howard uses examples from the public sector that are easy to understand and reveal the obvious drawbacks of a society that places more value on the individual than on the community. People who cannot be fired or reprimanded because their superiors are afraid of the grievance that will be filed, teachers who are allowed to peddle mediocrity (at best) because of the strength of their union and the belief that tenure is an unalienable right: these are just some of the compelling examples that Howard uses to support his theory.
All in all, it's an easy read although his style is, at times, a tad dreary. However, he does shed some light on the epidemic that seems to be pervading our society that tells us that we all have the right to be happy and that our happiness is the ultimate aim, regardless of the consequences to the community as a whole. You don't need a book to tell you that it's true, but there is something gratifying about seeing it in print.
All in all, it's an easy read although his style is, at times, a tad dreary. However, he does shed some light on the epidemic that seems to be pervading our society that tells us that we all have the right to be happy and that our happiness is the ultimate aim, regardless of the consequences to the community as a whole. You don't need a book to tell you that it's true, but there is something gratifying about seeing it in print.
March 12, 2010
I loved his argument. I will be reading his other two books as well. I would also like to read a counter argument in order to check my own analysis however, I have no idea where to find one. This book does not read like a work of fiction but it is quite fascinating all the same.
February 1, 2008
Great book. Points how the ridiculously vague and over-used expression of "fair" has been exploited and inflated beyond any real working definition or practical application.
September 3, 2013
I didn't like this nearly as much as The Death of Common Sense. This one is a bit too whiny in tone.
May 18, 2013
Another great work by Howard - this time he shows how we've replaced judgment with rules and that, ironically, most of the structures designed to protect us merely weaken us further.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews