The aim of this book is to explain why the US political climate is so partisan right now, and why so many families and friendships are being ripped apart over political divides. Payne’s main point is that it’s not that people’s ideologies and policy positions separate them (indeed, most people’s ideologies and policy preferences are fairly lightly held and inconsistent), but rather that people are highly partisan and then use motivated reasoning to figure out what to believe based on the group they’re part of. (“If I’m a good, reasonable person and the group I’m part of are good, reasonable people, then what do I need to believe about this situation to make that true?”) He argues – something that I’ve seen backed up by many other studies – that showing someone facts won’t convince them if those facts challenge their own sense of self-identity; they’ll just find a way to reason them away. I admit, I wanted more from this book. For one thing, this book is very US-centric – it does a good job of explaining some of the historical roots of the division in the US South, Northeast and Midwest, but that doesn’t help explain why partisanship is on the rise elsewhere in the world. Further, I was really hoping there would be more discussion about how to bridge the divide, beyond just a few pages in the last chapter that seemed a little perfunctory. Anyway, I found it an interesting read, even if I’d heard most of the ideas in it before in other forms.