A review by hudikatz
Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury

3.0

This book definitely would have hit different... If I read it in 1991 when it was published. I mean, take the story of Van Dyke hostage situation in 1982, one of the most famous. The "professional shmeshional negotiator was able to give him a better prison location and time to talk to the media in turn no hostages being killed. The dude was rational and just wanted to spread his message that the PRISON SYSTEM IS TERRIBLE FOR PRISONERS AND DOES NOT MAKE THEM BETTER CITIZENS (whatever that is even defined as). They were just happy the new field of conflict studies is proving to work, but LOL the underlying factor of the hostage situation wasn't even addressed. The one time Israel-Palestine (otherwise known by Ury as the "Intractable" conflict—OOF) was brought up, the Camp David AccordsSadat going to Jerusalem and recognizing Israel's right to exist was historic and led to good; sinai being given up for peace. Some of this stuff is still staple in conflict management: saying "yes, and" having a "Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement" are cool, but wow this book is old.