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Binding: HardcoverDewey Decimal Number: 305.800973 EAN: 9780618689354 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0618689354 Label: Houghton Mifflin Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 384 Publication Date: May 07, 2008 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Studio: Houghton Mifflin Editorial Review: 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. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Big SortThis 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. Rating: - InterestingIt 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 ... Read More Rating: - One effect of talk radio.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 ... Read More Rating: - Crucial to understanding today's U.S. political environmentI 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 ... Read More Rating: - politically meaningfulI'm concerned with the increasing divisions between left and right America - this book seems at least to be hitting on some of my concerns. |
