The broad topic is communication directed specifically to situations like espionage and to situations like international politics. . . . Goffman deals with the topic descriptively, draws on a wide variety of sources, and uses analogy to demonstrate, clarify, and explain. -Choice Goffman is a great ethnologist. His tribe is mankind, his focus the face-to-face relations of everyday life, ... Read morehis method of observation a combination of naturalistic fieldwork and a wide reading in history, biography, manners, social science, and literature -American Journal of Sociology Goffman is entranced with the subtleties of direct confrontation among people. His is the style of the essayist and of the miniaturist. In this book he selects, among others, the analogy of the game as an integrating device. . . . Goffman's games are verbal and phenomenological, dissecting the point/counterpoirt of, for instance, the doubts that people may have with respect to one another's motives under condition of actual or potential conflict. -Journal of Applied Behavioral Science Show Less