My Otago colleague Mike Atkinson recommended this book which he remembered from his youth. Written in 1930 by Robert Thouless, a psychologist at Cambridge, it is a superb exposition of errors of thought, dishonest rhetorical tricks, and how to combat them (the reviewers on Amazon.com seem to agree with me). Thouless believed in the existence of parapsychological phenomena (ESP) but was severe on purported experimental proofs of this existence. The examples in the book show his frustration with politics. It isn’t often that I find a kindred spirit from the past. Our lifespans overlapped considerably – I wish I had met him.

The book is out of print and hard to find (I found it in our university library). If anyone knows how to get such books reissued, please let me know.