The Opposition…

The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart

Bill Bishop

Discussion: 2008-Jul-Aug-Sep

Why we're reading this: July 29, 2008
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2008-Jul-Aug-Sep

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* September 2008
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 6 views

last updated Jan 07, 2011 01:30PM

* August 2008
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 5 views

last updated Jan 07, 2011 01:16PM

What Members Thought

Feb 18, 2023 Dea rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I kept putting this book off thinking I have already read enough books on the topic and there is little more yet another book could offer me. Boy was I wrong!

This book is not just about redlining neighborhoods, although I think a good portion of the issue the book addresses does come from the original segregationist practices. This book is about us sorting ourselves into tiny like minded bubbles in every conceivable way. From the places we live to the media we consume to clothing we buy to pets ...more

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Jun 16, 2017 Nicholas rated it really liked it

Shelves: ap-government

Absolutely essential reading. Bishop really nails the predicament we find ourselves in and his explanations go a long way to helping me make sense of the current mood and state of the country. The big downside: I don't know that there's any way to unravel what demographic and economic forces have wrought, and Bishop's concluding chapters don't really make the case for any positive steps that can be taken to break down the walls we've constructed around our physical and internet communities.

Bisho Absolutely essential reading. Bishop really nails the predicament we find ourselves in and his explanations go a long way to helping me make sense of the current mood and state of the country. The big downside: I don't know that there's any way to unravel what demographic and economic forces have wrought, and Bishop's concluding chapters don't really make the case for any positive steps that can be taken to break down the walls we've constructed around our physical and internet communities.

Bishop's main thesis is that economic prosperity following the Second World War allowed for Americans to move about the country to find communities that seemed like "best fits." Prior migrations tended by driven by economic necessity, i.e. the search for jobs. What's unique about the Big Sort is that Americans chose to move based on cultural reasons. They naturally gravitated to communities that tended to feel like "home"- places that shared values, lifestyles, religious beliefs, and even brands and businesses. This sorting of Americans was compounded by marketing, political, and religious changes in the country that tended to segment society further by offering people more options; church services built around ways of life and proselytizing a certain kind of congregant, market segmentation that involved strategies aimed at developing and reinforcing an individual's sense of identity rather than the value or practicality of the product, and political campaigns designed to target bases rather than sway a diminishing number of independents.

The net effect is the cultural and political isolation we see in our political landscape today. Gerrymandered safe districts, political rhetoric that verges on incitement to violence or appealing to identity politics, and the ossification of a system that was designed by the Founders to emphasize and force compromise between groups of people with vast economic and cultural differences.

Bishop's read is often a depressing one because of how accurate his descriptions fit our present reality and we have no way to force the mingling of different cultures and peoples to force our way out of this. Moreover, as the two sides in the culture war become more and more militant, more and more self-reinforcing, it's going to force more moderate people who'd rather not pick a side to ultimately choose a place that they feel more comfortable and safe. The middle is falling out of America in many ways and it's not really any group's fault. No right-wing or left-wing conspiracies to divide the nation; they both do it, and they do it because more and more the bases of the country demand it. My only criticism of Bishop's work is that it's overly repetitive. This book could have easily been around 200 pages and presented its case more clearly. ...more

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Jan 11, 2010 Angel rated it did not like it

Shelves: business-and-economics, politics-and-political-science

The book's basic premise of how people sort themselves out by their politics, or to better put it, seeking out others who share their same views, is an interesting idea. It is also an idea that can help explain what we see in the United States as a red and blue divide. Bishop's books is well-researched, so it has that going for it looking over things like Census records and Pew studies, two examples of reputable sources. However, this book is extremely dry to read. The first three chapters are p ...more

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