Publishers Weekly
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Coauthors Kruse (One Nation Under God) and Zelizer (The Fierce Urgency of Now), both Princeton history professors, examine American politics starting in 1974, a watershed year marked by Nixon's resignation, through to the present. The bedrock of the text is a readable, well-paced history that depicts in chronological order major events of the four decades, including the AIDS epidemic, the Iran-Contra affair, the rise of the Tea Party, and the passage of the Affordable Care Act. This provides fodder for an analysis of tactics used, primarily by Republicans, to foment partisanship and division, exploiting preexisting social divides surrounding racial relations, gender roles, income inequality, and immigration that were stoked by political sideshows such as the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the impeachment of President Clinton, and the Supreme Court's 5A--4 decision in Bush v. Gore. Kruse and Zelizer also identify other factors accelerating the country's polarization, particularly the transformation in communications brought on by the internet and the growth of ultrapartisan media. They also argue that the tactics employed in win-at-all-costs politics have played an instrumental role in dividing the country. Their analysis is thoughtful and credible, but political partisans who have benefited from the divisive atmosphere will be unconvinced that much of what is covered is actually a problem. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Two Princeton professors add to the burgeoning literature about a fractured America, based largely on their university lectures on the subject.Kruse (One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America, 2015, etc.) and Zelizer (The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society, 2015, etc.) organize their history around four principal fault lines: growing economic inequality, racial division, partisan polarization, and conflicts regarding gender and sexuality. In a clear, lively style, Kruse and Zelizer show how developments in these areas have divided the nation and made compromises for the common good more difficult. In coverage of the earlier years, the authors evenly distribute responsibility for the worsening conflicts. However, beginning with the genesis of the Obama administration, the narrative takes on an increasingly leftist slant as the authors minimize or omit the left's contributions to the widening divide, creating the impression that it was largely conservatives who were perpetuating an atmosphere of obstructionism and division. Conspicuously absent, for example, is any mention of intolerance and violence directed at conservative speakers on college campuses or of antifa thuggery generally. Alongside political and social divisions, the authors chronicle the fragmentation of American media, with three major TV networks and relatively sober newspapers of national stature replaced by cable TV, talk radio, and an infinite number of commentators on internet blogs and social media. As is well-known, this multiplicity of sources has led not to a better informed public but to the creation of partisan echo chambers that disagree even about fundamental facts, let alone their interpretation. The authors posit no overarching theories of how all this came about, nor do they offer a path forward to a better place. In discouraging detail, they lay out how short-sighted decisions and inflexible partisanship have placed a consensus on national identity and goals so far out of reach.A left-leaning but readable, comprehensive history of the political and cultural trends that continue to erode any sense of American national unity. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

This is a book for those who wonder, to quote new wave pioneers, the Talking Heads, "Well, how did I get here?" Kruse (One Nation Under God, 2015) and Zelizer (The Fierce Urgency of Now, 2015) trace the path from Watergate to MAGA, mix together big-picture political history, socioeconomic shifts, and technological transformations, with a leavening of pop culture. They emphasize the cycle of increasing fragmentation that, beginning with the upheavals of the late 1960s and early 1970s, has reinforced America's underlying political, economic, and sociocultural divisions. Politics became ever more polarized, attempts to rebuild national consensus were thwarted (if this book has a villain it's the Supreme Court, which usually pops up to declare such innovations unconstitutional), and increasing economic insecurity and media fragmentation fueled the fire. Their survey constitutes a valuable road map for readers seeking to understand why the U.S. is the way it is and ends with the hopeful message that the wear-and-tear inflicted on the country has inspired new institutions before and may do so again.--Sara Jorgensen Copyright 2019 Booklist