[Book Summary] Negotiating the Nonnegotiable—Daniel Shapiro

Rating: ★★★☆☆

The core concept of this book is that your negotiation should base on identity rather than ideas. 

Focusing on ideas will often lead different parties into the downward vortex of the Tribes Effect. Daniel talks about five lures in this book, including Vertigo, Repetition Compulsion, Taboos, Assaults on the Sacred, and Identity Politics. In brief, people with different opinions divide themselves into several groups. And they won't see the middle ground between/among them but concentrate their attention and time on bending others' will. 

Focusing on identities would be different. Abraham Lincoln's The First Inaugural Address is probably the most studied example. Here I quote the last paragraph for your reference.

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

If you're interested in knowing more about Abraham Lincoln, you can stop by my book summary [BOOK SUMMARY] ABRAHAM LINCOLN: IN HIS OWN WORDS—DAVID ZAREFSKY.