| Abstract |
"Every day brings new evidence of the incivility of American politics. Animosity across party lines has risen to levels higher than any in modern memory and seems to reflect the conditions of the nation's early years. A distinctive feature of the current partisanship is the shift from issues-based polarization to one rooted in affect and emotion. People increasingly view the opposing party as close-minded, immoral, dishonest, and unintelligent. The new normal of what Stacy Ulbig calls partisan hatred in contemporary political discourse raises questions about who or what is driving this polarization and whether there are any prospects for depolarizing American society. Angry Politics explores these questions by examining the political incivility among the youngest segment of the electorate. The college years are the period when political attitudes are most likely to be mutable, and campuses have become increasingly combative in recent years. College students offer a chance to see where partisan hatred breeds, but also where partisan hatred might be stopped before attitudes harden in later years. While college students express much the same inter-partisan animus as the general American public, Ulbig concludes on a hopeful note by considering the important responsibility that colleges and universities hold for the development of citizens capable of engaging more productively in contentious debates about important issues"-- Provided by publisher. |
