Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published May 2008
384 pages
Genre: History, Current Affairs and Religion
Publication Information
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. 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 groundbreaking work.
In 2004, journalist Bill Bishop made national news in a series of articles when he coined the phrase "the big sort." Armed with original and startling demographic data, he showed how Americans have been sorting themselves over the past three decades into alarmingly homogeneous communities—not at the regional level, or the red-state/bluestate level, but at the micro level of city and neighborhood. In The Big Sort, Bishop takes his analysis to a new level 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.
"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.
"Birds of a feather flock together, and that's not always a good thing, according to journalist and blogger Bishop in this timely, highly readable discussion of American neighborhoods and the implications of who lives in them." - Library Journal.
"Starred Review. We've cleansed our personal spaces of heretics but removed all the grit and tumult that make for debate and democracy, which spells trouble ahead for the republic. Essential reading for activists, poli-sci types, journalists and trend-watchers." - Kirkus Reviews.
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Bill Bishop, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, blogged on Texas politics for the Austin American-Statesman where his posts grew into a series of articles, written in collaboration with sociologist and statistician Robert Cushing, called "'The Great Divide."' The series received a great deal of national attention and was the genesis for "The Big Sort.
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