Why We're Polarized
A Barack Obama summer reading pick 2022
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- USD 8.99
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- USD 8.99
Descripción editorial
A BARACK OBAMA AND A BILL GATES SUMMER READING PICK 2022
A NEW YORK TIMES AND WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
'This book helped me understand modern politics better' - Bill Gates, Summer Reading Pick 2022
'Superbly researched and written' - Francis Fukuyama, The Washington Post
'It's been a long time since I learned so much from one book.' - Rutger Bregman author of Utopia for Realists
'Powerful [and] intelligent.' - Fareed Zakaria, CNN
America's political system isn't broken. The truth is scarier: it's working exactly as designed.
In Why We're Polarized, Ezra Klein reveals the structural and psychological forces behind America's deep political divisions, revealing how a system filled with rational, functional parts can combine into a dysfunctional whole. Neither a polemic nor a lament, this book offers a clear framework for understanding everything from Trump's rise to the Democratic Party's leftward shift to the politicisation of everyday culture.
Klein shows how and why American politics polarised in the twentieth century, what that polarisation did to Americans' views of the world and one another, and how feedback loops between polarised political identities and polarised political institutions drive the system toward crisis. This revelatory book will change how you look at politics, and perhaps at yourself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Vox Media cofounder Klein explores political polarization in the U.S., from its psychological underpinnings to its impact on congressional lawmaking, in this timely, thought-provoking debut. Klein's multifaceted approach draws on the work of political scientists, media critics, and social psychologists to address why individuals choose allegiance to party over policy, the pros and cons of identity politics, and the inherent instability of a presidential republic, among other topics. His pithy assessments ("The smarter the person is, the dumber politics can make them") hit the mark more often than not, and political junkies as well as general readers will learn from his analysis of the U.S. media landscape. Klein provides unique insight into how journalists decide what stories to cover, and how that process contributes to a closed feedback loop in which efforts to persuade are less appealing to audiences than content that stokes partisan feelings. Klein's modest set of principles for how the electoral system might "function amid polarization" may disappoint readers looking for more comprehensive solutions, but his thoughtful, evenhanded outlook fits the seriousness of the subject. This precise and persuasive guide helps to make sense of the current state of American politics.
