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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 11, 2008
Contact:
, Austin Public Library, (512) 974-7379
Fax: (512) 974-7379
Meet the Author Bill Bishop
Meet the Author, Bill Bishop at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 9 in the 2nd floor events area at the Faulk Central Library, 800 Guadalupe St. for a discussion of his book The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, the untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided. A book signing will follow the talk. This event is free and open to the public. For more information please call 512-974-7400 or visit www.cityofaustin.org/library.
The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart (Houghton Mifflin, May 7, 2008) is the landmark story of how America came to be a country of swelling cultural division, economic separation, and political polarization. Going far beyond the simplistic red state/blue state divide, journalist Bishop marshals original data and incisive reporting to show how Americans have sorted themselves geographically, economically, and politically into like-minded communities over the last three decades. Homogeneity may be a perk of the unprecedented choice our society offers—but it also breeds economic inequality, cultural misunderstanding, political extremism, and legislative gridlock. This is the story of our times, and its reality poses a profound threat to democracy, but no one before now has seemed to notice, let alone been able to describe, its causes and consequences.
For more information about the Big Sort please visit www.thebigsort.com.
Former President William Jefferson Clinton discusses and recommends The Big Sort in speeches across the nation. "Some of us are going to have to cross the street, folks."
Watch Jon Stewart interview Bill Bishop on The Daily Show.
About the Author
Bill Bishop lives in Austin, Texas. He wrote The Big Sort with retired University of Texas sociologist Robert G. Cushing. Bishop has worked as a reporter at The Mountain Eagle, in Whitesburg (Ky.); a columnist at the Lexington (Ky.) Herald-Leader and on the special projects staff of the Austin (Tx.) American-Statesman. Bishop and his wife, Julie Ardery, owned and operated The Bastrop County Times, a weekly newspaper in Smithville, Texas. They now co-edit The Daily Yonder, a web-based publication (dailyyonder.com) covering rural America.
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