Publishers Weekly
03/29/2021
Columbia University psychology professor Coleman (Making Conflict Work) offers a science-based guide to “escap the grip of partisan contempt” in the U.S. Contending that 50 years of escalating political tensions have led to a “mass national psychotic break” in which those on the right and those on the left “experience fundamentally different realities,” Coleman explores the cognitive reasons why people adopt rigid, overly simplistic ideologies when faced with the most complex and difficult challenges. He draws on case studies in conflict resolution, including the de-escalation of tensions between activists for and against abortion rights in 1990s Boston, to explain how turning off the news when it becomes agitating, seeking out diverse perspectives, and placing divisive issues in a broader context can help create the “contradictory complexity” needed to disrupt hyperpolarization. The story of a group of diplomats who came up with novel solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after taking a bumpy bus ride together leads to a discussion of neuroplasticity and how physical movement can help people to find their way out of “entrenched patterns.” Drawing from physics, psychology, and neuroscience, Coleman’s multidisciplinary approach yields fresh insights and reasons for hope. Policymakers and community activists will want to take note. (June)
John Paul Lederach
The Way Out offers the most comprehensive and succinct understanding of how polarization leads to harm and dysfunction in our current American landscape. With the clarity of empirical evidence and open imagination, these pages explore the opportunities available to engage and transform these dynamics toward far healthier and responsive interactions that reinvigorate our social contract and democracy. A treasure trove of insight and instruction, this is the best scientific and practical guide I have read about toxic polarization. Peter T. Coleman’s gift of a book could not be better timed or more laser focused.
Behavioral Scientist
A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2021
Padraig O' Tuama
Conflict is a complex thing: you ask it one question and it gives you one kind of answer; you ask it another and it gives you another. In Peter Coleman's safe hands, you learn about ways to ask new questions and ways to listen to the answers. For conflicts that divide families, countries, communities, Peter Coleman's words are filled with insight and wisdom. This isn't just analysis, though, this is a way out.
Process North
The great value of Coleman’s book consists in setting out positive approaches that can be pursued where disputes on political issues relate to people’s differing values and priorities, and where our emotional impulses prevent effective engagement with other people: for this reason, the book should be widely read and used by conflict resolution practitioners.
Los Angeles Review of Books
Coleman’s strategies for navigating polarization are insightful and unquestionably timely.
Abigail Disney
Peter T. Coleman has done some of the deepest reading, research, and inquiry into the nature of conflicts around the world. In The Way Out, he trains his highly sophisticated eye on the polarized environment that has arisen in the United States. The result is a primer on how to think about addressing polarization that is academic but relatable, creative but deeply researched, and ambitious but grounded in the real-life experience of everyday Americans. This book should be required reading for anyone who cares about the future of this country.
Jonathan Haidt
I read this remarkable book the week after the Capitol riot, when so many Americans were asking: How did we get here, and what do we do now? Coleman is among the world’s top experts on conflict resolution, and this book really does show us ‘the way out.’ It is essential reading for the divisive 2020s. The book will be of great help to anyone who wants to reduce or resolve conflicts, not just over politics but over everything that divides our communities, organizations, and families.
Van Jones
Peter T. Coleman’s The Way Out offers us hope in trying times. Based on decades of original research on how people and communities escape deeply divisive conflicts, Coleman weaves together insights from empirical science on peacebuilding with anecdotes from troubled lives to offer us a guiding star—and a set of new rules—for finding our way out of our current state of American psychosis
Negotiation Journal
Does an excellent job of describing the problem we in the U.S. are facing with respect to political polarization. It also has a lot of good ideas for improving interactions and relationships at the interpersonal level.
Shamil Idriss
Coleman’s latest is a tour de force: eminently readable, with compelling stories from the streets of Watertown, MA, and the negotiating tables of Northern Ireland yet replete with frameworks and insights that help Americans understand—and chart a way out of—our polarized national condition. The Way Out is a road map to a more perfect union.
Dave Isay
The Way Out is essential reading for our times. Peter Coleman is our sharpest and most prolific thinker on toxic polarization today, and now more than ever his words must be heeded. This work sounds the alarm on the existential threat of affective polarization infecting our country—and also shows us tangible, realistic and scientifically validated ways out. Peter Coleman is a national treasure. His book should be required reading for anyone touched by the pandemic of toxic polarization wreaking havoc on our country today—which means every one of us.
Daniel M. Shea
In The Way Out, Peter T. Coleman tackles a critically important issue, a topic on everyone’s mind: the emergence of a unique brand of polarization, centered less on policy disputes than on tribal instincts. Not only do we disagree with the other side, but we are convinced that their views are dangerous and that they are the true threat to the nation. Coleman lays out a new perspective regarding the roots of this hyperpolarization in a lively, accessible way and, most importantly, offers a detailed map out of the quagmire.
Timothy Shriver
Here’s what everyone’s looking for: a way out of this mess. Peter Coleman tells us how to find it. Read this book to make it happen.
Adam Grant
Polarization is one of the biggest problems of our time, and I can’t think of a better place to find solutions than Coleman’s brilliant research. Whether you’re trying to navigate a disagreement at your dinner table or build a bridge between divided communities, these pages won’t just change how you think about the causes of conflict—they’ll also open your eyes to new cures. This book is a remarkable combination of scientific insight, practical guidance, and grounded hope.
