Fractured: How We Learn to Live Together

‘An urgent manifesto for collective healing.’ David Lammy MP

This landmark book tackles a deceptively simple idea: the more we spend time with people unlike ourselves, doing things together, the more understanding, tolerant, and even friendly we become.

Combining fresh analysis with a wealth of fascinating examples, Jon Yates demonstrates the ways in which our societies have become disconnected, so that most of us spend less and less time with people who are different ― as defined by age, race, or class, earning power or education.

By answering a series of surprising questions, Yates reveals a set of truths that will change the way you think about yourself and those around you. What unites the England football team, the iPod and Singapore? How did a city that funded its schools the least become the best place to grow up poor? How did Silicon Valley come from nowhere to dominate the tech industry? How did a village of Italian-Americans become incredibly healthy while smoking cigars, drinking red wine and never exercising? And why is talking to our friends about politics the worst thing we can do for our democracy?

Fractured is ultimately an optimistic book, showing convincingly how great people are when they're united in diversity. It argues that the pandemic has created an unprecedented opportunity for us to come together. So we must forge a new ‘Common Life’ – a set of shared practises and institutions ― that can strengthen the glue that bonds our societies, in all their diversity.

For the health of our democracy, our society, and our economy, the time to act is now.

Jon Yates is Executive Director of the Youth Endowment Fund, a charitable organisation focused on supporting young people. He has co-founded a series of charities designed to bring people together, and served as a government adviser. He tweets as @jonpayates and blogs at jonyates.org.