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A review by bookwormmichelle
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop
3.0
I'm not even sure what to do with this. I was pretty disappointed.
It's badly disorganized. There are some good points in here, and there are some good studies cited, but there are also a few that haven't held up to time (this was written even longer ago than I realized, and needs to be reassessed and updated.)
It almost feels like the author just threw studies and stats and polls up at a wall and hoped some would stick. And some of them didn't even strengthen his argument very well--a few kind of hurt it, actually.
And the big, big elephant in the room which was only barely alluded to a time or two--RACE. No, we were not all agreeing with each other in the 1950s. Maybe white people were, maybe white people's politics were less divided, but that is only because both parties were really pretending Black people didn't exist. Gee, I wonder why things suddenly began to change after 1965. What could possibly have changed in the 1960s? Hmmmm. It must be our patterns of moving. (insert puzzled look here).
And to not even mention the influence of racial factors on where people chose to live in the 40s and 50s and where they choose to move now is to deliberately wear a blindfold. There is sooo much, good strong social science, that the author could have used about the effects of housing discrimination and segregation and how it influenced where people live and who they choose to associate with.
I can't shake the feeling that if I had tried to turn this in as a dissertation my committee would have made me start over.
Yes, we are diverging from each other. Yes, choosing to associate with people who don't hate us may not be helping. But . . . what exactly are we supposed to do? As a serious outlier in a very conservative area, I understand. I live in the middle of people who think I'm a communist immoral traitor, even though I suspect in a lot of places I'd be seen as pretty moderate. (Apparently my failings include not wanting children to go hungry and not being offended at the existence of LGBTQIA+ community) And Bishop seems to think I don't, actually, exist (married, family centered church-going mom who is NOT conservative) Also I see both sides of many issues yet am still politically active (another thing he doesn't think exist together.) I . . . suspect he is missing a lot more than just my annoying existence.
It's badly disorganized. There are some good points in here, and there are some good studies cited, but there are also a few that haven't held up to time (this was written even longer ago than I realized, and needs to be reassessed and updated.)
It almost feels like the author just threw studies and stats and polls up at a wall and hoped some would stick. And some of them didn't even strengthen his argument very well--a few kind of hurt it, actually.
And the big, big elephant in the room which was only barely alluded to a time or two--RACE. No, we were not all agreeing with each other in the 1950s. Maybe white people were, maybe white people's politics were less divided, but that is only because both parties were really pretending Black people didn't exist. Gee, I wonder why things suddenly began to change after 1965. What could possibly have changed in the 1960s? Hmmmm. It must be our patterns of moving. (insert puzzled look here).
And to not even mention the influence of racial factors on where people chose to live in the 40s and 50s and where they choose to move now is to deliberately wear a blindfold. There is sooo much, good strong social science, that the author could have used about the effects of housing discrimination and segregation and how it influenced where people live and who they choose to associate with.
I can't shake the feeling that if I had tried to turn this in as a dissertation my committee would have made me start over.
Yes, we are diverging from each other. Yes, choosing to associate with people who don't hate us may not be helping. But . . . what exactly are we supposed to do? As a serious outlier in a very conservative area, I understand. I live in the middle of people who think I'm a communist immoral traitor, even though I suspect in a lot of places I'd be seen as pretty moderate. (Apparently my failings include not wanting children to go hungry and not being offended at the existence of LGBTQIA+ community) And Bishop seems to think I don't, actually, exist (married, family centered church-going mom who is NOT conservative) Also I see both sides of many issues yet am still politically active (another thing he doesn't think exist together.) I . . . suspect he is missing a lot more than just my annoying existence.