Content area
Full text
American Gridlock: The Sources, Character, and Impact of Political Polarization. Edited by Thurber James A. and Yoshinaka Antoine . New York, NY : Cambridge University Press , 2015. 404p. $34.99 paper.
Book Reviews: American Politics
In the face of record-high levels of polarization and record-low levels of productivity, this edited volume takes seriously the potentially deleterious impact of partisan polarization, and the sometimes uncomfortable questions about the asymmetry of polarization or the fit between "responsible parties" and our constitutional system (p. xxv). Ultimately, this book does much of what the editors aim to achieve--synthesizing our understanding of polarization across a diverse set of literature, and bringing new data to bear on the contemporary partisan conflicts (p. 4).
As such, this book has much to offer, both for research-oriented scholars and for teachers. Hitting on a range of questions about the causes and consequences of polarization, as well as articles that focus on the mass public, federal and state institutions, and the media, this volume covers a broader range of research than other edited volumes on this topic (e.g., Nathaniel Persily, Solutions to Political Polarization in America, 2015). It also brings new data to bear and addresses more recent developments than earlier volumes (e.g., Pietro S. Nivola and David W. Brady, Red and Blue Nation? Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, 2006, 2008). The range of topics makes this book an excellent resource for researchers wanting a better sense of the state of field and could be successfully incorporated as a teaching resource as well. The topics are broad and the material is easily accessible...