Review by New York Times Review
CONVENTIONAL WISDOM HOLDS that Americans are polarized, divided, tribalized - choose your word - over significant policy issues and that our two political parties abet and fuel this schism. Leaving aside the distinction between polarized political parties and a polarized people for the moment, the nation is surely in a time of political, intellectual and emotional realignment. Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer's "Fault Lines" grafts a geologic metaphor onto three divisive threats to our democracy as suggested by Barack Obama in his January 2017 farewell address - economic, racial and political - while adding a fourth, gender and sexuality. The authors argue that these divisions have allowed the two parties, which are seen through the fractured lens of "the media," to create a situation in which Americans have become more polarized than ever. Their premise is that what they call "fault lines" have always existed but until recently were held in check by a "robust federal government, a thriving middleclass economy and a powerful union movement." They hammer home their "fault line" metaphor with Stakhanovite repetition. Almost every chapter is organized according to the rules familiar to any public speaker: "In the first part I tell 'em what I am going to tell 'em; in the second part I tell 'em; and in the third part I tell 'em what I've told 'em." Kruse and Zelizer, who have based their book on a course they created at Princeton, begin with the story of the unraveling of the "somewhat forced 'consensus' of the postwar era" in the 1960s and '70s, quickly moving through capsule histories of the series of "crisis" events and issues that reordered the outlook of Americans - Watergate, stagflation, racial equality, feminism, gay rights and more. Stepping in to exploit these unleashed fault lines, according to the authors, is "an aggressive new conservative movement... amplified by a fragmented partisan media." But are Americans really divided by fault lines? Interestingly, there is a great deal of research that shows it is the political parties that are polarized but not the American people. Political scientists describe this situation as "party sorting." That is, the Democratic and Republican Parties have devolved into two separate groups that offer ideological and policy conformity with almost no overlap. Remember liberal Republicans like Nelson Rockefeller of New York or conservative Democrats like Zell Miller of Georgia? They almost don't exist anymore (Joe Manchin of West Virginia excepted) because neither party in its current iteration would have them. The actual fault lines, it might be said, are between the parties, not between two groups of the public. For the past 25 years, according to Gallup, over a third of Americans have identified as moderate, and the number of independents reached an all-time high in 2013. Even the famous 2014 Pew Survey on polarization noted that the majority of Americans "do not have uniformly conservative or liberal views." Where fault-linelike division is most pronounced is among the most politically engaged Americans. Examples of these folks abound in "Fault Lines." So if the real story is that the political parties have sorted ideologically and are appealing to the most ideologically engaged voters, who happen to be the most outraged, what is to be done? Kruse and Zelizer argue for Americans to build bridges "that can bring us closer together," although they are also refreshingly frank about the cant of postelection remarks on coming together - noting the ritualistic aspect whose constant repetition is, in fact, an acknowledgment of division. Kruse and Zelizer begin their book with Obama's farewell address. They might have ended it with two points the Obama speech made as well: " Hold fast to the faith written into our founding documents" and "regardless of our party affiliation or particular interest, help restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now." Embracing both of those points might do the trick. Then again, it might not. ? eric WAKIN is a research fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and the Robert H. Malott director of the institution's library and archives.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 31, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
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
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
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.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
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.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
