Since the storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021, there have been growing fears about the risk of political violence in the United States. Efforts to cast doubt on the results of the election, combined with the spread of inflammatory rhetoric and increased polarization on social media, represent serious threats, not only to civility, but to democracy itself. In his new book, co-authored with Brigitte Nacos and Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, Bob Shapiro, Columbia Professor of Political Science and Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, analyzes the origins of this polarization, its relationship with the media, and its impact on public life today. The book is called Hate Speech and Political Violence: Far-Right Rhetoric from the Tea Party to the Insurrection and it is published by Columbia University Press. To explore these issues and what they mean in the current electoral cycle, Vis A Vis is honored to welcome Bob Shapiro.
Note: this episode of Vis A Vis is being recorded on August 28th 2024, 68 days before the Presidential Election
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Robert Y. Shapiro is a Professor at Columbia University and specializes in American politics with research and teaching interests in public opinion, policymaking, political leadership, the mass media, and applications of statistical methods. He is co-author of The Rational Public: Fifty Years of Trends in Americans’ Policy Preferences, with Benjamin Page (University of Chicago Press, 1992) and Politicians Don’t Pander: Political Manipulation and the Loss of Democratic Responsiveness, with Lawrence Jacobs (University of Chicago Press, 2000).
His most recent books are The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media, edited with Lawrence R. Jacobs (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Selling Fear: Counterterrorism, the Media, and Public Opinion, with Brigittte L. Nacos and Yaeli Bloch-Elkon (University of Chicago Press, 2011). He is also coauthor or coeditor of several other books and has published numerous articles in major academic journals.
His current research examines partisan polarization and ideological politics in the United States, as well as other topics concerned with public opinion and policymaking.
Credits
Host: Dr. Emmanuel Kattan
Editor and Producer: Monica Beatrice Hunter-Hart
Producer: Georgia O’Neil