One Nation, Two Realities

Dueling Facts in American Democracy

Morgan Marietta author David C Barker author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:9th May '19

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

One Nation, Two Realities cover

The deep divides that define politics in the United States are not restricted to policy or even cultural differences anymore. Americans no longer agree on basic questions of fact. Is climate change real? Does racism still determine who gets ahead? Is sexual orientation innate? Do immigration and free trade help or hurt the economy? Does gun control reduce violence? Are false convictions common? Employing several years of original survey data and experiments, Marietta and Barker reach a number of enlightening and provocative conclusions: dueling fact perceptions are not so much a product of hyper-partisanship or media propaganda as they are of simple value differences and deepening distrust of authorities. These duels foster social contempt, even in the workplace, and they warp the electorate. The educated -- on both the right and the left -- carry the biggest guns and are the quickest to draw. And finally, fact-checking and other proposed remedies don't seem to holster too many weapons; they can even add bullets to the chamber. Marietta and Barker's pessimistic conclusions will challenge idealistic reformers.

Rarely do they produce a work as carefully thought out as that which Morgan Marietta and David C. Barker present in One Nation, Two Realities...The book clearly contributes to multiple domains of research, including work on misperception, polarization, values, motivated reasoning, epistemology, and more. It is worth reading for students, researchers, and citizens concerned by divisions in American society and can provide much needed depth to public discussions of an ever-increasing problem. * Ethan C. Busby, Congress & the Presidency *
Discussions of alternative facts, fake news, and post-truth abound in American society... Rarely do they produce a work as carefully thought out as that which Morgan Marietta and David C. Barker present in One Nation, Two Realities... The volume provides an impressive discussion on a crucial topic and one that digs deeply into many of the theoretical, philosophical, and empirical foundations of DFPs. The book clearly contributes to multiple domains of research, including work on misperception, polarization, values, motivated reasoning, epistemology, and more. It is worth reading for students, researchers, and citizens concerned by divisions in American society and can provide much needed depth to public discussions of an ever-increasing problem. * Congress & the Presidency *
This rich and fascinating work examines the increasing prevalence of dueling fact perceptions among the American public. Couched in a wide-ranging discussion of epistemology, journalism, and social science, "One Nation, Two Realities" presents vital and sobering insights about the quality of American democracy. * Choice *

ISBN: 9780190677176

Dimensions: 236mm x 163mm x 33mm

Weight: 635g

360 pages