"This practical, politically neutral book offers concrete skills for holding meaningful conversations that cut across today's intense political divide, showing readers how to connect to the people in their lives. Political polarization is at an all-time high, and the consequences for our personal relationships are significant. Many people have friends and family members with whom they feel they can no longer communicate because of their extreme political...

In this age of intense political conflict, we sense objective fact is growing less important. Experts are attacked as partisan, statistics and scientific findings are decried as propaganda, and public debate devolves into personal assaults. How did we get here, and what can we do about it? In this sweeping and provocative work, political economist William Davies draws on a four-hundred-year history of ideas to reframe our understanding of the contemporary...

Behind most major political stories there is an agenda: To destroy an idea or the people advancing it. Maybe you watched someone on the news report that Donald Trump is a racist misogynist, read that Hillary Clinton used a body double, or heard that Bernie Sanders cheated in the primary. Regardless of accuracy, the themes get repeated until they become accepted by many as the truth. It's called "the smear." Sophisticated operatives work behind the...

"In a democracy that prides itself on free and fair elections, it is vital that American citizens not lose faith in the integrity of the election. Experts say federal and state governments must approach the threat of election interference with more urgency. Better communication is needed to warn campaigns and election officials when hacking is detected. Social media companies must take steps to eliminate fake news and deceptive ads. More money must...

"The most powerful political tool of the modern presidency is control of the message and the image. The Greeks called it 'rhetoric,' Gilded Age politicians called it 'publicity,' and some today might call it 'lying,' but spin is a built-in feature of American democracy. Presidents deploy it to engage, persuade, and mobilize the people--in whom power ultimately resides. Presidential historian David Greenberg recounts the development of the White House...

"Taking joy in suffering is more human than we'd like to admit. The cruelty of the Trump administration's policies and the ritual rhetorical flaying of his targets are intimately connected. Shared cruelty and the delight it brings are critical moments of connection for white supremacists, a fact that is not new. Adam Serwer has been chronicling our political landscape for the last decade. He is one of the most resonant voices of our time, relentless...

"The story of how Newt Gingrich and his allies tainted American politics, launching an enduring era of brutal partisan warfare. When Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, President Obama observed that Trump "is not an outlier; he is a culmination, a logical conclusion of the rhetoric and tactics of the Republican Party for the past ten, fifteen, twenty years." In Burning Down the House, historian Julian Zelizer pinpoints the moment when our...