Respect and Loathing in American Democracy: Polarization, Moralization, and the Undermining of Equality, a new book by Elizabeth Theiss-Morse and colleague Jeff Spinner-Haley, will be published by the University of Chicago Press on March 29.
Many Americans believe respecting others is a necessary virtue, yet many struggle to respect opposing partisans. Drawing on evidence from national surveys, focus groups, survey experiments, and the views of political theorists, Jeff Spinner-Halev and Elizabeth Theiss-Morse explain why this is and why respect is vital to—and yet so lacking in—contemporary US politics. The authors propose a challenging, yet possible, path forward.
Theiss-Morse is a Willa Cather Professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research is in American politics and political psychology, and she has previously published several books and received multiple National Science Foundation grants and awards for her work.
A book talk will be held on April 25 at 5:00 p.m. in the Union Auditorium, organized by the Political Science Undergraduate Student Advisory Board.
Spinner-Halev previously taught at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln from 1992 to 2005 and is now at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
