Uncivil Agreement
Lilliana Mason, a political scientist, makes the case that party has turned into a social identity in America, layered on top of race, religion, and culture. When all of those identities line up behind one side, she argues, politics stops being a debate about issues and becomes a contest between teams, where the goal is for your group to win rather than for the country to solve a problem. Drawing on decades of survey data, she shows how this sorting drives anger, distrust, and a willingness to view the other side as an enemy. The book has become a standard reference for explaining why American politics feels so heated even when people agree on more than they think.
What you might want to know about Uncivil Agreement
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A political scientist argues that American partisanship has become less about policy and more about identity, which is why politics now feels so personal and so bitter.
Mason argues that party affiliation has become a powerful social identity that lines up with race, religion, and culture, so politics now feels like a contest between teams rather than a debate over policy.
Yes. Ezra Klein has called it a touchstone for understanding politics in this era and one of the works that most shaped his own thinking.
Uncivil Agreement was written by Lilliana Mason, published in 2018 by University of Chicago Press.
Uncivil Agreement is 192 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Uncivil Agreement takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
Uncivil Agreement is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
