A Nation of Adversaries: How the Litigation Explosion is Reshaping America

Reviews of A Nation of Adversaries: How the Litigation Explosion is Reshaping America

“Garry’s tableau of the American judicial system is thought provoking and insightful.”
-Bimonthly Review of Law Books

“Garry has written an important and serious book.”
-Indianapolis Star

A Nation of Adversaries is “depressingly accurate.”
-Booklist

“This brisk, dispiriting account offers a convincing portrayal of our country in an age of defiance.”
-Publishers Weekly

“What do independent counsel, special prosecutors, congressional ethics, lawsuit abuse, and “gotcha journalism” all have in common? Patrick Garry will show you how Americans have substituted “the law” for a respect of each other and for our society’s civic and moral values in an outstanding trip through the de-civil-ization of our relations.”
-U.S. Senator David Durenberger

A Nation of Adversaries is an interesting and thought-provoking book – a reminder to all that the litigation culture has undermined our cohesiveness as a nation.”
-Dan Quayle, Former Vice President of the United States

“Litigation has gone from a useful social tool to a system that was part solution/part problem – and is now rapidly becoming a system of excesses which is reshaping America. The cure in most cases is worse than the disease. Read this book and weep for America.”
-Richard Lamm, Former Governor of Colorado; Professor and Co-Director, Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues, University of Denver

“A book on a timely and powerful theme — by setting us constantly to courtroom wrangling, our ‘culture of litigation’ helps tear apart our sense of community. Others have documented the damage litigation does to our economy: Patrick Garry wants to show us its cost to our character as a nation.”
-Walter Olson, Author, The Litigation Explosion

“This book is beautifully written, a tour de force critique of an American legal phenomenon whose profound cultural implications remained largely unexplored before Patrick Garry’s incisive analysis. With this landmark work, he propels himself into the forefront of contemporary social critics.”
-William D. Pederson, Director of American Studies, Louisiana State University in Shreveport

“Everyone concerned with law and politics in America today should read this book and think about how to remedy the deep problems that Garry exposes in our system.”
-Stephen B. Young, Senior Consultant, Personnel Decisions International, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Former Assistant Dean, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cited in Georgia Law of  Torts (2013)

A Nation of Adversaries is listed on PointofLaw.com as a recommended book on the nation’s litigation system.

“Garry argues that the litigation explosion has realigned American society toward an adversarial model and away from the assimilation (or ‘melting pot’) model that prevailed largely up until the late 20th century. He identifies the assimilation model as one in which society was seen as a collection of cooperating individuals who sacrificed their differences for the sake of social cohesion. While he recognizes that this model often denied the inherent diversity of American culture, the alternative, according to Garry, is a multicultural model where there is no meaningful way for individuals to relate to each other. The result, Garry argues, is an adversarial culture bred by the values and lessons of the litigation explosion.”
–Hastings Law Journal