Deschutes Public Library

The big sort, why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart, Bill Bishop ; with Robert G. Cushing

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-353) and index

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index present

non fiction

The big sort

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809669728

Bill Bishop ; with Robert G. Cushing

why the clustering of like-minded America is tearing us apart

From the Publisher: 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

Introduction -- Part 1: Power Of Place -- 1: Age of political segregation -- 2: Politics of migration -- 3: Psychology of the tribe -- Part 2: Silent Revolution -- 4: Culture shift: the 1965 unraveling -- 5: Beginning of division : beauty and salvation in 1974 -- 6: Economics of the big sort: culture and growth in the 1990s -- Part 3: Way We Live Today -- 7: Religion: the missionary and the megachurch -- 8: Advertising: Grace Slick, Tricia Nixon, and you -- 9: Lifestyle: "books, beer, bikes, and Birkenstocks" -- Part 4: Politics Of People Like Us -- 10: Choosing a side -- 11: Big sort campaign -- 12: To marry your enemies -- Afterword -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Selected bibliography -- Index