The Big Sort by Bill Bishop

[syrakusos]

THE BIG SORT:WHY THE CLUSTERING OF LIKE-MINDED AMERICA IS TEARING US APART

BY BILL BISHOP

with Robert G. Cushing

http://www.thebigsort.com/home.php

This is 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 like we do. This social transformation didn't happen by accident. 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 ground-breaking work.

In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop made national news in a series of articles when he first described "the big sort." Armed with original and startling demographic data, he showed how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into homogeneous communities — not at the regional level, or the red-state/blue-state level, but at the micro level of city and 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 Putam'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.

I heard the author interviewed on an NPR show and borrowed the book from my university library. I was impressed with the demographic statistics. Thirty years ago, tallies of precinct-level voting in Presidential elections were closer than they are today. The author considered 40-60 pretty close to 50-50 at the neighborhood level. Today, we don't find that.

Socially, we tend to be with those who agree with us politically -- and this is stronger with education level. Among high school graduates people who socialize will have more disagreements than among those with graduate-level educations or beyond.