polarization 
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3/7/2021
When Did America Stop Being Great?
by Nick Bryant
Nick Bryant began observing America as a 16 year old at the patriotic spectacle of the 1984 Olympics. His book traces the path from "Morning in America" to "American Carnage," fixing some blame but also seeking a way through.
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SOURCE: Crain's Chicago Business
2/21/2021
America's Churches are Now Polarized, Too
The Trump era has concentrated longstanding differences about the role of faith in American life and the obligations of the faithful to act in the world. During the McCarthy era, the Republican establishment pushed back against attacks on clergy by the far right. Will something similar happen today?
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SOURCE: FiveThirtyEight
2/8/2021
In America’s ‘Uncivil War,’ Republicans Are The Aggressors
Thomas Zimmer and Joanne Freeman represent historians among the scholars commenting on the asymetric polarization of American politics.
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SOURCE: New York Daily News
2/5/2021
What Lincoln Understood About Unity
by Harold Holzer
"The fact is, even the most eloquent calls for harmony seldom repair a house divided — not without the accompaniment of painful but unavoidable choices about national policy and purpose."
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SOURCE: New York Times
1/29/2021
When the Threat of Political Violence Is Real
by Joanne B. Freeman
Republican calls for unity refuse to claim responsibility and in some cases level the threat of further violence to bully colleagues out of holding Trump and his allies accountable for the Capitol riots of January 6. This is reminiscent of the climate of threat and violence in Congress in the 19th century ahead of the Civil War.
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SOURCE: New York Review of Books
1/19/2021
Why It’s Time to Take Secessionist Talk Seriously
by Richard Kreitner
"The Confederate flags the insurgents carried through the Capitol weren’t about the past, but the future." (note: Subscription required to read source article.)
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SOURCE: Keeping Democracy Alive
1/19/2021
One Nation, Indivisible: Really? Forever?
Richard Kreitner, author of "Break It Up" joins Burt Cohen's podcast to discuss the history and future of calls to break up the United States.
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12/20/2020
Can Biden Broaden Our American Dream?
by Walter G. Moss
Can a program of national service create pathways to individual opportunity while also building the social cohesion America needs to recover?
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SOURCE: Politico
12/16/2020
How Secession Became America’s Favorite Idle Threat
With one notable exception, secession has been an idle threat in American political discourse. Richard Kreitner's book on secession movements anchors columnist Jack Shafer's analysis.
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12/13/2020
Review of Robert Putnam’s "The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again"
by Walter G. Moss
Robert Putnam's book on the "Great Divergence" toward economic inequality, political polarization and social fragmentation contains ample historical generalization, but asks big questions that it will be worth historians' time to engage.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
11/16/2020
Just Forget About Donald Trump
by Peter Wehner
It may be difficult for many Americans to let go of deep anger at Donald Trump and the political movement he represents, but it will be necessary.
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SOURCE: The Atlantic
11/11/2020
A Battle Between the Two Souls of America
by Ibram X. Kendi
We the people of the United States do not have a single national soul, but rather two souls, warring with each other. The battle for the soul of America is actually the battle between the souls of America.
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10/18/2020
Lessons from the 18th Century Dutch Republic
by Matthijs Tieleman
The history of the Dutch Republic demonstrates that polarization can gradually destroy a country from within and can easily be exploited by foreign actors. The embrace of political pluralism by every citizen is the key antidote to the rot of polarization.
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SOURCE: New York Times
9/8/2020
Are We More Divided Now Than Ever Before? (Review)
A political scientist argues that today's polarization is enabled by the collapse of political diversity within the major parties, not by an especially ideological electorate.
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9/6/2020
Americans Have Feared Another Civil War Since the End of the Last One
by Richard Kreitner
The ink was hardly dry on Lee's surrender at Appomattox before Andrew Johnson's conciliation toward the former Confederacy clashed with the unfulfilled goals of freed slaves and radical Republicans to threaten further violence. These fault lines have been hidden but never healed in the restored American union.
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SOURCE: The Nation
5/4/2020
Kent State: 50 Years After the Shootings
by Thomas M. Grace
Myth has obscured the conflict that led to the killings at Kent State: a long-building clash between a broad set of youth-led protest movements and established authority. That clash continued after May 4, 1970.
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SOURCE: New York Times
5/4/2020
Four Students Were Killed in Ohio. America Was Never the Same.
by Richard M. Perloff
Fifty years after May 4, public expression of unpopular views remains endemic to democracy.
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SOURCE: The Conversation
2/14/20
Think the US is more polarized than ever? You don’t know history
by Gary W. Gallagher
To compare anything that has transpired in the past few years to this cataclysmic upheaval represents a spectacular lack of understanding about American history.
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SOURCE: Facebook
6-4-18
How business broke the post-war consensus and gave us Movement Conservatism
by Heather Cox Richardson
Coming out of the Depression and World War II, there was not a lot of daylight in America between conservatives and liberals.
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SOURCE: The Washington Post
3-28-18 (accessed)
Niall Ferguson says we should be alarmed by the polarization associated with social media
In a fascinating interview he sees dangerous parallels between the birth of the printing press and the establishment off social media.
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