The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-minded America is Tearing Us Apart

In the tradition of The Affluent Society and Bowling Alone, a book that will redefine the way Americans think about themselves for decades to come. 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.We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood--and church 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, journalist Bill Bishop made national news in a series of articles when he coined the phrase the big sort. Armed with original and startling demographic data, he showed how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into alarmingly homogeneous communities--not at the regional level, or the red-state/bluestate level, but at the micro level of city and neighborhood. In The Big Sort, Bishop takes his analysis to a new level 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.