The Great Alignment, Alan I. Abramowitz
The Great Alignment, Alan I. Abramowitz
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The Great Alignment
Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump

Author: Alan I. Abramowitz

Narrator: Paul Heitsch

Unabridged: 5 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/18/2018

Synopsis

Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today's party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic.

Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of "negative partisanship"; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.

About Alan I. Abramowitz

Alan I. Abramowitz is Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University and a regular blogger on Sabato's Crystal Ball, which describes him as "one of the nation's top experts on election modeling." His most recent books include The Disappearing Center, Voice of the People, and The Polarized Public, and he is frequently quoted on political and election matters in the New York Times, Washington Post, and other media outlets.

Reviews

Goodreads review by 8stitches 9lives on June 01, 2018

After finishing this book this morning, I had a long think about how I felt about Alan I. Abramowitz's interpretation of America and recent events that have happened there, and although some of the commentary is still very much relevant today, some is not. This makes me believe that this book was wr......more

Goodreads review by Karel on March 22, 2019

A strong data focused antidote to living in our bubble, in a very readable short format. Nothing here is rocket science, or even advanced data science, but Abramowitz still presents a historically significant conclusion: our national divide is persistent and meaningful. This alignment may become as......more

Goodreads review by Joseph on December 23, 2022

Had to read this for a class a few years ago and recently revisited it. There is good information here on overall trends but Abramowitz is too preoccupied with a few central liberal narratives to provide a fully satisfying analysis. The basic story is: the New Deal coalition collapsed largely becaus......more

Goodreads review by Brock on February 13, 2025

Well, this read wasn't I thought it was gonna be but I still extracted a lot of value from it. Abramowitz does an incredible job providing and explaining data. Using data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), they perform statistical analyses from which they draw conclusions about how......more

Goodreads review by Charlotte on January 09, 2020

This was an unusual read for me. I am fascinated by American politics and particular how it has gotten to the point it is at now. This seemed like the perfect read to learn more about how the political parties have changed over time. I think that Alan Abramowitz had a brilliant concept and, mostly, i......more

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