Alex T.

Not a read for a conservative

Revisado: 12-03-17

The book is an account of a personal journey to understand the people and their views on the other side of the political divide. The conclusion is not surprising at all. Keep revising your views, use credible sources of information, talk to people with dramatically different views and life experiences, and you'll find out that your views are much closer to each other than you'd think.

I liked the personal angle and that the author took time to immerse himself into conservative political environment. I imagine it took a lot of effort and time spent out of the comfort zone. The tagline is, of course, a bit misleading. It is not like the author abandons his views in the end, but he gets a better and deeper understanding of the problems. Not that much for the solutions.

In any case, this is not a book for a conservative because the author assumes that his reader is a liberal. He hardly spends any time on conveying the liberal points of view and goes straight for the incomplete, wrong, or ideological parts of them.

A few times while listening to the book I had to stop and google up some statistics or information about people and places to get some more context. Actually there is quite a bit of statistical in the book, which is relevant and interesting. If you are into that kind of thing, I would recommend "One Nation Undecided" by Peter H. Schuck, which is all about data-driven and non-partisan approach to divisive problems.

All in all I liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who feels like he is a victim of the confirmation bias and wants a push to break out. Unfortunately the author is not the best performer. The reading is monotonous and is just that, reading. You don't get a feeling of a narrative coming from his own experience, which is a pity. I personally don't mind that as long as the content is good, but it definitely may be a poor experience for many.

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