Measuring America’s Divide: ‘It’s Gotten Worse’

At a time of sporadic-but-disturbing episodes of political violence in America, of intense disputes over state and federal power and even of loose talk about the possibility of another civil war, is there any way to calculate how divided we are? Or do we just need to trust our gut?

Two scholars at Vanderbilt University are trying for a more precise estimate. Their new measure, called the

, uses a variety of indicators to…