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The Architects Of Our Polarized Era

University of Chicago Press

It may be hard to remember, but there was a time when politics in America weren’t so polarized. Political scholar Sam Rosenfeld says that if we can understand how our dysfunctional politics were deliberately created, maybe we can deliberately change them.

RadioWest divider.

It may be hard to remember, but there was a time when politics in America weren’t just crazy polarized. But in the years after World War II, polarization wasn’t the problem: it was actually the solution. Political scientist Sam Rosenfeld has studied how Democrats and Republicans worked to match ideologies with party labels for the good of democracy. Rosenfeld says that if we can understand how we deliberately created today’s dysfunctional politics, maybe we can deliberately change them.

Sam Rosenfeld is an assistant professor of political science at Colgate University. His first book is called The Polarizers: Postwar Architects of Our Partisan Era. [Indie bookstores|Amazon].

Doug Fabrizio has been reporting for KUER News since 1987, and became News Director in 1993. In 2001, he became host and executive producer of KUER's RadioWest, a one hour conversation/call-in show on KUER 90.1 in Salt Lake City. He has gained a reputation for his thoughtful style. He has interviewed everyone from Isabel Allende to the Dalai Lama, and from Madeleine Albright to Desmond Tutu. His interview skills landed him a spot as a guest host of the national NPR program, "Talk of the Nation." He has won numerous awards for his reporting and for his work with RadioWest and KUED's Utah NOW from such organizations as the Society of Professional Journalists, the Utah Broadcasters Association, the Public Radio News Directors Association and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
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