Product Description
The untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided
America may be more diverse than ever coast to coast, but the places where we live are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote as we do. This social transformation didn't happed by accident. We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood -- and religion and news show -- most compatible with our lifestyle and beliefs. And we are living with the consequences of this way-of-life segregation. Our country has become so polarized, so ideologically inbred, that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away. The reason for this situation, and the dire implications for our country, is the subject of this groundbreaking work.
In 2004, the journalist Bill Bishop, armed with original and startling demographic data, made national news in a series of articles showing how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into alarmingly homogeneous communities -- not by region or by red state or blue state, but by city and even neighborhood. In The Big Sort, Bishop deepens his analysis in a brilliantly reported book that makes its case from the ground up, starting with stories about how we live today and then drawing on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.
The Big Sort will draw comparisons to Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone and Richard Florida's The Rise of the Creative Class and will redefine the way Americans think about themselves for decades to come.
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 Big Sort
This is a great book. It is the most objective book that discusses
the differences between Republicans and Democrats and the conclusions
are backed up by a plethora of statistical research.
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 Interesting
It is very interesting to learn from this book how each demographic group in the U.S. has become more and more concentrated in selected suburbs and selected cities, and the reasons for this happening.
Ironically, in the same 30-year period that most cities and suburbs in the U.S. have become more and more homegenious (1970-2000), a large suburb in the eastern part of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, which is called Orleans, has gone from being predominantly French-speaking to about half French and half English. In other words, Orleans has become more hetrogenious (at least as far as ethnic groups and linguistic groups are concerned) during the same time period that most U.S. suburbs have moved in the opposite direction. Between 1970 and 2000, Orleans also grew from a small town to a very large suburb (its total population has grown from only about 3,000 back in 1970 to about 100,000 today). In Ottawa generally, the French have traditionally settled mainly in the eastern part of the city, and the English have traditionally settled mainly in the western part of the city. Ottawa is in the province of Ontario (which, generally speaking, is mainly English), but it is just across the river from the province of Quebec (in other words, Ottawa is on the interprovincial border between Ontario and Quebec), and it has more French than most other places in Ontario (although not more French than English).
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One effect of talk radio. ( publicmind )
People are being polarized by, among other things, the divisive elitist propaganda from PR agents like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity Outright Barbarous: How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy. They lead a sort of cult following of people who learn to ignore and hate people who think differently from themselves. On top of the media manipulators that are dividing people, the way many of our suburban communities are designed also lend themselves to isolation and groupthink The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.
Thankfully, there are areas where progressive people can feel community amid America's fascist threat The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World. There are also progressive talk radio hosts who are more inclusive and tolerant, such as Bob Kincaid, Ed Schultz Straight Talk from the Heartland: Tough Talk, Common Sense, and Hope from a Former Conservative, and Thom Hartmann What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return to Democracy.
Hopefully the corruption of the power elite will bring more of the general public together. As magazines like Yes! have suggested, we're a lot more purple than we are red or blue, and share many more radical left-wing positions (raising the minimum wage, compassion for immigrants, less weapons spending, more spending on sustainability, gay rights) than the ruling class want us to know.
See also:
Escape From Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream Dvd!
Utne
The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community
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Crucial to understanding today's U.S. political environment ( m_guidry )
I found this book to be full of valuable insight and data to help me understand the reasons behind the cultural division within our country that have gradually transpired over the past 30 years. It's not as simple as what many on both sides of the political aisle want us to believe; that the Republicans or conservatives are dogmatic or afraid of change. Or Democrats or liberals are wanting to tax everyone to death and move toward socialism. The reasons for the emerging division are complex and rooted in more than superficial issues. This book helps to explain the multifaceted reasons for the emerging division which will help us all to move beyond it and heal as a nation.
Prior to reading this book I believed for some time that our country is heading for more than just ideological, political and economic division. I believed that our country is heading for geographic division, as in dividing into more than one physical country. I still believe this. But at least I understand why I was feeling this way for so long. I just hope I'm wrong.
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politically meaningful
I'm concerned with the increasing divisions between left and right America - this book seems at least to be hitting on some of my concerns.
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