A History of Polarization

I found myself intrigued and fascinated by Ezra Klein’s book Why We’re Polarized (2020). And now, I find myself practically dumb when I try to summarize all the information and ideas he presents. Klein does offer the following sentence at the end of the introduction. It is, for the most part, what the book is about.

Over the past fifty years, our partisan identities have merged with our racial, religious, geographic, ideological, and cultural identities. Those merged identities have attained a weight that is breaking our institutions and tearing at the bonds that hold this country together.

Klein goes on to explain how this extreme polarization evolved, how it helps us, and how it creates a “broken system.” His final chapter offers suggestions for “managing” the split though he is not hopeful. Yet, to me, this book does provide a useful analysis, and I found that, in itself, to be hopeful.

To read a real review of this book, here's one from the The New York Times. To read the first ten pages of chapter 1 click here.