American Polarization

With Trump back in power, many Americans feel exhausted, furious, and afraid. But when those Americans aim their contempt and rage at wide swaths of fellow citizens on the "other side," it doesn’t weaken Trumpism — it feeds it. Trump thrives on division; contempt and rage help him (just as those emotions aid other highly us-vs-them leaders and activists). Those who wish to defeat Trump must try to understand the decades-long cycle of us-vs-them animosity that led to his rise — and that continue to lead many Americans, on the left and right, to support high-conflict, us-vs-them ...

Social psychologist Peter T. Coleman explores how conflict resolution and complexity science provide guidance for dealing with seemingly intractable political differences. Deploying the concept of attractors in dynamical systems, he explains why we are stuck in this rut as well as the unexpected ways that deeply rooted oppositions can and do change.

“Should be required reading for anyone interested in preserving our 246-year experiment in self-government.” —The New York Times Book Review * “Well researched and eloquently presented.” —The Atlantic * “Delivers Cormac McCarthy-worthy drama; while the nonfictional asides imbue...

How a notorious far right organization set the Republican Party on a long march toward extremism At the height of the John Birch Society’s activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a paranoid fringe. After all, “Birchers” believed that a vast communist conspiracy existed in...

A Sweeping Histoy of the Great State of Wisconsin Wisconsin has always been a crossroads—a place where northern forests meet prairie grasslands, where European immigrant cultures collided with indigenous peoples, where radical reform movements battled corporate power. This sweeping history traces how a fur trade frontier became America's Dairyland, a Progressive laboratory, and ultimately the nation's most critical political battleground. From the effigy mounds of ancient cultures to the 2020 presidential election decided by fewer than 21,000 votes, Wisconsin's story mirrors America's own...

Increasingly, political parties have adopted not only different policies, but different sets of facts. As E. J. Fagan argues, partisan think tanks have helped create these alternate realities in their capacity as de facto formal party organizations. Through the analyses generated by aligned think tanks, political elites on both the left and right frequently offer radically different assessments of a policy's consequences.

America is facing a reckoning. Trump and the Erosion of Democracy: Why America’s Institutions Are Failing is a gripping, timely examination of how partisan warfare, collapsing trust, and rising populism are shaking the very foundations of the American republic. Through vivid historical storytelling and sharp analysis, this book reveals how political polarization has reached levels not seen since the Civil War, why faith in Congress, the Supreme Court, and the electoral system is plummeting, and how presidents, governors, and even ordinary citizens are testing the limits of the ...

As American politics descends into a battle of anger and hostility between two groups called "left" and "right," people increasingly ask: What is the essential difference between these two ideological groups? In The Myth of Left and Right, Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis provide the surprising answer: nothing. As the authors argue, there is no enduring philosophy, disposition, or essence uniting the various positions associated with the liberal and conservative ideologies of today.

Liberal democracy in America has always contained contradictions—most notably, a noble but abstract commitment to freedom, justice, and equality that, tragically, has seldom been realized in practice. While these contradictions have caused dissent and even violence, there was always an underlying and evolving solidarity drawn from the cultural resources of America’s “hybrid Enlightenment”. James Davison Hunter, who introduced the concept of “culture wars” 30 years ago, tells us in this new book that those historic sources of national solidarity have now largely dissolved.

A bold new history of modern conservatism that finds its origins in the populist right-wing politics of the 1990s Ronald Reagan has long been lionized for building a conservative coalition sustained by an optimistic vision of American exceptionalism, small government, and free markets. But as...

Untitled Memoir - Fukuyama: A Memoir by Francis Fukuyama is a forthcoming title from Farrar, Straus and Giroux...

A rallying cry to fight the commodification of human attention, with the tools we need to reclaim our humanity, by a group of writers, artists, and activists in the vanguard of the movement “A stirring battle cry on behalf of our shared humanity against the forces that seek to diminish and...

How did America become so screwed up? The answer is probably not what you expect. To find the truth, journey through the tumultuous history of a nation that has weathered storms of epic proportions. From the haunting legacy of chattel slavery to the fiery crucible of the Civil War, there has long been a struggle for unity and identity—to shape the American landscape. As brother fought brother on the battlefield, families were torn asunder, and the soil of the nation was stained with the blood of countless fallen soldiers. Yet, even in the aftermath of war, healing remained elusive as ...

American politics today can be defined by the intense and increasingly toxic divide between Democrats and Republicans. Matthew D. Luttig explores why so many Americans have endorsed this level of political conflict.

In Sanctuary Nation, TD Barnes chronicles the explosive rise of sanctuary cities and states, where local officials openly defied federal immigration law. From sanctuary policies shielding criminal aliens to legal battles with Washington, Barnes reveals how the sanctuary movement fractured national unity, endangered public safety, and tested the limits of constitutional authority. This book offers a stark warning: when states and cities ignore the rule of law for political gain, the very fabric of the nation begins to tear. Sanctuary Nation is Book 4 of The Potomac Swamp: Power, Deception, ...

The Great Disorientation The Country Isn't Just Divided. It Was Designed to Be. Do you feel a sense of unease, as if our nation is moving yet somehow paralyzed? Are you surrounded by information but drowning in confusion? The Great Disorientation offers a powerful new way to understand our current crisis. This isn't a book about partisan politics—it's a forensic deconstruction of a system engineered for division. It argues that the chaos we feel isn't a glitch, but the intended outcome of a coordinated campaign to erode civic agency and make a nation pliable. Welcome to a world where our ...

He returned. Not as a politician, but as a myth. When Donald Trump stepped again into the Oval Office in 2025, the world realized something unsettling: his comeback was not merely a political event—it was the sequel to a story that millions believed in with the fervor of a faith. In I, King Trump, Marcelo Ungarit traces the arc of a man who turned democracy into spectacle, diplomacy into negotiation tactics, and public emotion into the raw material of power. From the factories of the Midwest to the halls of NATO, from the echo chambers of social media to the tense corridors of global ...

America is broken. America is divided. 80% of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. And everything you need to know about the Divided States of America can be explained by two relentless forces: hyper-individualism and hyper-capitalism. American Restraint explores how both hyper-individualism and hyper-capitalism are what is fundamentally ripping our country apart. Traditional solutions and status quo politicians can’t help us.

More than three-quarters of Americans today, from all across the political spectrum, fear for their democracy. While most popular attention centers on America’s political institutions–presidents, legislatures, courts, political parties, & elections–historian, entrepreneur, and political philosopher Raphael Chayim Rosen argues this approach is upside down. The foundational strength of American democracy does not lie within institutions beyond the reach of ordinary Americans, but rather inside the quotidian thoughts, words, and deeds of citizens themselves. Merging insights across ...

Donald Trump's presidency fundamentally altered American politics, media, and society. This book examines his enduring impact, analyzing how his unique approach to rhetoric, policy, and leadership continues to influence national discourse. Covering economics, cultural divides, media strategies, and foreign relations, The Trump Effect explores how Trump's unconventional leadership simultaneously energized supporters and polarized opponents, reshaping America's social fabric. For anyone seeking to better understand the lasting consequences of the Trump presidency across politics, business, ...