When and how did America become so polarized? Beginning with the Watergate crisis, the OPEC oil embargo, desegregation busing riots in Boston, and the wind-down of the Vietnam War, Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer uncover the origins of our current moment. While chronicling the battles over economic inequality, race, gender, and sexual norms, this history also traces how the political establishment has warped and manipulated the role of mass media.

"A brilliant primer for understanding the troubling precedents for today's mass American political dysfunction. Both historians are deeply informed and surefooted thinkers. A must-read foundational work."—Douglas Brinkley