The Anxious State: Stress, Polarization, and Elections in America

by Stephen Neely, Kevin Smith, Savannah Havird

208 pages, Paperback

Published March 10, 2026

Reviews

[Oliver]

A thoroughly researched and well-written piece, The Anxious State takes on the endeavor of analyzing trends of stress and polarization across the span of the 2024 election cycle. In doing so, the authors do a remarkable job highlighting just how fragmented politics has become in the U.S., as a result of factors such as partisan news sources and information saturation through the endless spiral that is social media. I found the results of the completed studies fascinating and came away from this analysis with much to ponder on in my day-to-day life. Highly recommend this for anybody interested in political science, policy, or politics as a whole.