Strangers in their Own Land, by Arlie Russell Hochschild, is unparralled. For a master class in empathy, delivered by a self-professed liberal sociology professor who embeds herself in the lives of disillusioned Tea Party members in Louisiana, read this book.

The Political Classroom, by Paula McAvoy and Diana Hess, contends that classrooms should include dialogue about controversial topics; the book offers advice about how to make that happen.

Books

Wow. The Chaos Machine, by Max Fisher, is required reading for those who want to know how social media has so quickly and so drastically fomented extremism and supercharged polarization.

Jonathan Haidt is a towering figure in moral psychology, and his work has paved the way to better understand the psychological roots of our national divisions. The Righteous Mind explains all.

Uncivil Agreement, by Liliana Mason, helps the reader understand that the intensity of our national, political divide can be explained by the advent of what she calls “mega-identities.” Increasingly, the various aspects of our identity—including political allegiance— are layering on top of each other, reinforcing and amplifying each other, so that political threats cut to the core of our identities; the stakes are raised.

Why We’re Polarized, by Ezra Klein, provides one-stop shopping for those looking for the full story as to why our society is in this predicament.

Although Bill Bishop’s The Big Sort has now been in print for over a dozen years, it remains an authoritative source of information on how we Americans— to our detriment— have increasingly divided and segmented ourselves into like-minded communities.