The Origins of America’s Ugly Politics

Historian Jon Grinspan, a curator at the Smithsonian Institution, has studied how intense partisanship in the 19th century was driven by people feeling isolated, their lives unstable, feeding an aggressive, even violent political discourse – sound familiar? He talks with CBS News’ John Dickerson about his new book, “The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915,” and how our nation’s ugly trends in politics have returned, from partisan media to the white supremacists’ march in Charlottesville and the January 6 insurrection.