Republic of Wrath: How American Politics Turned Tribal, From George Washington to Donald Trump

by James A. Morone

American politics today is in an uproar: loud, angry, and bitter, bristling with us-versus-them. This is not exactly new. The history of our political life is teeming with nastiness, violence, intolerance, and cheating. Yet we can sense that there is something genuinely different about the current turmoil. Politics has turned tribal in an unprecedented way.

What changed? The answer, according to renowned political scientist James Morone, lies in the way political parties have operated throughout American history. From the beginning, parties sowed division and discord, but the deepest, most contentious issues facing our society -- questions about who we are -- didn't split along partisan lines. So for a time, parties actually assuaged these conflicts. One side defended slavery but welcomed immigrants; the other side called for abolition but harbored deep hostility for Irish, German, and Italian newcomers.

Then, as the United States underwent a series of profound societal transformations -- from reconstruction, to the explosion of populism, to the Great Migration, to the Civil Rights movement -- the alignment slowly shifted. African Americans switched sides to support the Democrats, the party that had fought tooth and nail against expanding their rights, while the Republicans turned whiter and more nativist. In this sweeping, revelatory work of political history, Morone shows how these changes upended the role of parties, creating a single division that would consume every debate. Rich with absorbing vignettes, Republic of Wrath explains our current state of unrest with bracing clarity -- and tells the story of American politics as we've never heard it before.

• ISBN10: 0465002447
• ISBN13: 9780465002443
• Publish Date: 15 October 2020
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Basic Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 432
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Excellent History Lesson. I'm a guy that prides myself in knowing more about American history than most. (Well, let's be honest, my normal line is that I know more about most than most, and that generally holds true - even when people know far more than I do about a given topic.) Anyways... :D This book did a phenomenal job of bringing forth quite a bit of American history that even I wasn't aware of, particularly in my acknowledged weak area between the War of 1812 and the Civil War. For example, despite how heated American political discourse feels at times over the last couple of years in particular, apparently there was a point in the lead-up to the Civil War where *Congressmen* routinely brought knives and guns *onto Capitol Hill*. Indeed, one line Morone quotes from a Congressman of the time is that those that didn't bring a knife and a gun brought two guns! While the ending of the narrative, with Morone's recommendations of how to fix where we find ourselves, is more "your mileage may vary" level, the lead up to that point is a solid look at American history, if hyper focused on the general premise that all conflict came from either race or immigration - which is a bit disingenuous at times, but the analysis here isn't so flawed as to claim absolute exclusivity to the premise. Absolutely a must-read for Americans and really anyone wishing to understand how America has arrived at its current place in time. Very much recommended.