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The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart | |||||||
 
| 80% Recommended by our customers. Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Catalog: Book Release date: 2008-05-07 Media: Hardcover Number of pages: 384 Ean: 9780618689354 Book Isbn: 0618689354  Tip: compare prices with similar booksAuthor:
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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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Written on June 17, 2008 Summary: Fine article, but not a book The central thesis of this book, that this country's population is segregating itself into political and life-style enclaves, is interesting and important, with a variety of consequential social and political implications. Bishop provides convincing statistical documentation to support his contention. His argument would have made a first rate article. Unfortunately, he has turned it into a full length book by padding it with a lot of familiar and often barely relevant material from earlier academic studies and news articles. "The Big Sort" is nonetheless a worthwhile read, even if much of it can be skipped or skimmed without losing the main thrust of its argument.  Written on June 8, 2008 Summary: I've be noticing it for years I remember back in high school, I was talking to a teacher about his growing up in Pittsburgh in the twenties and thirtiesand how, back then, people seemed to live in communities. For example, his father working in the steel industry, as did a few other neighbours. The guy next door, however, was a doctor. Today you don't see that as much... That's because we live in class enclaves. Bishop pinpoints 1965 as the epicenter. Myself, I'd place it at the end of World War II, when housing plans were popping up. Housing plans ensure that the residents living within the confines are, to a degree, very similar. But enough with my ideas. Bishops recognizes that the political division that the country is going through has a physical aspect as well, which is something I've not before considered. This is an important book that describes the further radicalisation of American politics. One must wonder what the ramifications will yeild a decade from now... Written on May 29, 2008 Summary: Author Does Claim To Understand Why As I understand the author, the big sort is a process that feeds on itself: As people surround themselves with people who are like themselves, they are less exposed to people with different opinions with whom they share some common ground. Consequently, they are more likely to judge people who are different from themselves as simply strange or wrong instead of as people like themselves with whom they can reasonably disagree. Written on May 16, 2008 Summary: Deeper than Skin This book is intriguing, convincing, also sad and scary for anybody who hopes to be living in a democracy. After reading it, I look around and see the uniformity (amid the Benetton ethnic mix and DIY style-diversity) of my own social networks in the city. All I did was exercise "free" choice about where to live. I've wound up in this cool 'hood, so cool I have to whisper that I voted for Clinton, not Obama. Bishop and Cushing have done mighty work. They track back the origins of the mega-churches (would you believe in India and Korea?) and pull together decades of bizarre social psychology research. They prove what's happened by following the votes, the money, and the feet of Americans on the move. Stories are good reading -- the comic book "tribe" in Portland, emergent church kids, moderates squeezed out of Congress, the textbook wars of the 1960s in particular blew my mind. Anybody who thinks Karl Rove masterminded the state we're in is going to be stunned. We're living a new segregationist era, and it goes a whole lot deeper than skin.  Written on May 14, 2008 Summary: Interesting, but fails to understand Why Bishop contends that the Big Sort is bad for our nation, leading to political polarization, but disappointingly, he just misses the real reason is it happening. Chapter 4 covers the events of 1965, a year that marked a seismic shift in political opinion and cultural relations. 1965 was also a year of unprecedented government expansion: the escalation of the Vietnam War, the Great Society welfare programs, forced school desegregation, the creation of Medicare and Medicaid, the Head Start program, the NEA. Additionally, Americans perceived that law and order was breaking down in the Watts race riots, the blackouts that stranded 800,000 people in subways, and the anti-war protests. He notes that surveys have shown that people began to distrust government and other institutions starting in that year, but he does not draw the obvious conclusion: that The Big Sort was a response to the expansion of government. When government basically left people alone, it wasn't as important to control how government was run. But when government becomes more powerful, regulating nearly every aspect of our lives (our children's education, our workplaces, how much of our own money we can keep), politics become high-stakes and political polarization occurs. Politics has become a life-and-death struggle between those who want freedom and those who want government to make all our decisions for us. Republicans and rural voters seem to believe that freedom is more important than safety. Democrats and big city voters seem to accept government control in return for perceived safety. But Americans' love of freedom is why we have resorted to trying to control the aspects of our lives that we can: where we live, what we read, whom we associate with. Bishop bemoans this close-mindedness, "the willingness to let other people live in their collectives in the way they want to live", even though many people think that tolerance, respect for diversity and minding your own business are good. He also laments that Moderate politicians are being pushed out of both parties, but his definition of Moderate is agreeing that expanding government and raising taxes every year is fine, as long as it is by just a little. Most outrageously, Bishop actually posits that more voter apathy would be a good thing for democracy. Voter apathy is indeed good for special interests and government officials who want to continue expanding their own kingdoms unchecked, but not so good for citizens, which is why we are a republic, not a democracy. Although Bishop has made an effort to write an unbiased account of this demographic trend, his liberal sympathies are easily discernible by his choice of descriptive words pertaining to liberal and conservative choices (and his reference to mixed martial arts cage matches on television - which anyone who watches either MMA or pro-wrestling knows do not occur in tandem). All that being said, I do recommend reading this book. It is well-written (other than a few typos) and contains a wealth of fascinating demographic, social and economic studies and theories, exposure to which are enough of a reason to read it (although, perhaps not to purchase it - try your local government (public) library, which the author praises liberally). |
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| Catalog | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book | Book |
| Release date | 2008-05-07 | 2008-05-05 | 2008-03-10 | 2008-04-08 | 2008-04-15 | 2008-08-05 |
| Media | Hardcover | Hardcover | Hardcover | Hardcover | Hardcover | Hardcover |
| Number of pages | 384 | 288 | 384 | 304 | 256 | 224 |
| Ean | 9780618689354 | 9780393062359 | 9780465003525 | 9780300122237 | 9780670019076 | 9780805088151 |
| Book Isbn | 0618689354 | 039306235X | 0465003524 | 0300122233 | 0670019070 | 0805088156 |
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