PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewHow did it come to this? James A. Morone’s Republic of Wrath offers a fresh theory to an already sizable pile of explanations for the dismal state of our politics ... [It\'s] an intriguing idea, but it struggles to maintain its heft through the brisk survey of American political history that follows, starting with the country’s founding. The only thread holding it all together appears to be Morone pausing from time to time to remind us that Americans have frequently sparred over issues of race, immigration and gender ... Morone’s narrative gains some steam the closer it gets to the present, when the contours of our current political climate become clearer. He offers a useful reminder that the switch of Black Americans from the party of Lincoln to the Democrats was a shocking development — one he credits to Franklin Roosevelt’s expansive social policies, even if they were not always designed to be equitable ... This history, he suggests, means that we should not try to predict how political alliances may look in the future. And it also means that we should be wary of declaring that American politics are uglier now than they have ever been. For as Morone acknowledges at the end, partisanship is \'not a fever. It is what democracies do.\'
