About the Book

Obsessed with answers, Americans have lost sight of the power and value of questions. Books like The Secret are now mega-sellers, assuring millions of readers that serious debates over health, happiness, and wealth can be "solved" with simple answers. In this time of economic crisis, how we understand our biggest concerns and problems will benefit greatly from a return to inquiry.

In The Death of "Why?" Andrea Batista Schlesinger, a prominent progressive voice in public policy circles who began her career as an outspoken student representative on the New York City Board of Education, offers a passionate defense of the role of questioning. She argues that deliberation fueled by skepticism and curiosity, not the false security of echo chambers, should guide our democracy and educational system today.

"By click or by clique, we avoid questioning ourselves, each other, and our democracy."

"We spend hours online every day, among people with whom we agree," she writes. "We listen to the news station that tells the story just as we want it to be told. We retire to homes near neighbors who will not question us, either. By click or by clique, we avoid questioning ourselves, each other, and our democracy... We have to send the message that this journey of asking questions, of exploration, is as important as where we end up."

In her view, our resilience depends on our ability to struggle with what we don't know—to live and think outside comfortable bubbles of sameness and ideological homogeneity.

Frontline reporting, personal reflection, and informed analysis

Through frontline reporting, personal reflection, and informed analysis, she examines the forces shaping everyday life: the Internet, media, schools, and politics. At the heart of her book is a profound irony: as more and more information is available, we are raising fewer children who can evaluate and engage it—fewer young inquirers who stop to ask why.

She uncovers the limited success of financial literacy classes, and shows how standardized testing comes at the expense of exploration and critical thinking. She brings back into focus the original civic mission of public schools: educating young people to become citizens who can change institutions and improve life for others, participating in the creation of new choices rather than simply navigating the status quo.

Schlesinger profiles several individuals and institutions renewing the practice of inquiry at a time when our political and economic recovery demands such activity from us all.

Endorsements for the book

"From her start in politics as a teenager Andrea Batista Schlesinger has asked the important questions. Now she asks her most important: are we teaching young people to value inquiry, and if not, what hope can we have for the future of democracy?"
—Katrina vanden Heuvel, Publisher, The Nation

"The road to wisdon is asking 'why?' Andrea Batista Schlesinger has been asking 'why?' and supplying her own bright and thoughtful answers for long enough so that some of us suggested she write a book. It is fortunate for all of us that her answer was 'why not!'"
—Governor Mario Cuomo

"The Death of 'Why?' makes the case that we cannot create social change without a culture of questioning. We should pay close attention to this brilliant contribution."
—Deepak Bhargava, Executive Director, Center for Community Change.

"Andrea Batista Schlesinger asks the right questions at a time when we seem more eager for answers that we don't understand or care about."
—Deborah Meier, senior scholar, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, New York University and author of Many Children Left Behind

"She is a passionate supporter of open inquiry, discussion, and debate in our schools on matters of public concern. It is difficult to think of any other goal as important to the preservation and improvement of our free society."
—Charles N. Quigley, Executive Director, Center for Civic Education

"Every era has at least a few serious voices who openly question the new ways, the settled conventional wisdom around innovations in style, technology and social habits that change - at least on the surface - how society operates...Such a counter-programmer is my friend Andrea Batista Schlesinger, the 32-year-old New Yorker and progressive activist whose first book The Death of Why holds up a big, fat stop sign to those who would celebrate under the banner "all that is modern is good."
—Tom Watson, author, CauseWired

Design by Randi Hazan, Hazan and Company
Development by Michael Murphy