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 as we do. This social transformation didn't happed by accident. We've built a country where we can all choose the neighborhood — and religion 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 groundbreaking work.

In 2004, the journalist Bill Bishop, armed with original and startling demographic data, made national news in a series of articles showing how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into alarmingly homogeneous communities — not by region or by red state or blue state, but by city and even 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 Putnam'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.

"Pulitzer Prize — finalist Bishop offers a one-idea grab bag with a thesis more provocative than its elaboration. Bishop contends that 'as Americans have moved over the past three decades, they have clustered in communities of sameness, among people with similar ways of life, beliefs, and in the end, politics.' There are endless variations of this clustering — what Bishop dubs the Big Sort — as like-minded Americans self-segregate in states, cities — even neighborhoods. Consequences of the Big Sort are dire: 'balkanized communities whose inhabitants find other Americans to be culturally incomprehensible; a growing intolerance for political differences that has made national consensus impossible; and politics so polarized that Congress is stymied and elections are no longer just contests over policies, but bitter choices between ways of life.' Bishop's argument is meticulously researched — surveys and polls proliferate — and his reach is broad. He splices statistics with snippets of sociological theory and case studies of specific towns to illustrate that while the Big Sort enervates government, it has been a boon to advertisers and churches, to anyone catering to and targeting taste. Bishop's portrait of our 'post materialistic' society will probably generate chatter; the idea is catchy, but demonstrating that 'like does attract like' becomes an exercise in redundancy." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In the tradition of "The Affluent Society" and "Bowling Alone," this work illustrates that neighborhoods are becoming increasingly crowded with people who live, think, and vote alike. The reason for this situation, and the dire implications for our country, is the subject of this groundbreaking work.