Sometimes it seems as if everything has become a culture war. In this sharp, accessible book Tim Dunlop asks why this is so and what that shift - decades in the making - has done to Australian democracy.

Moving beyond the idea that culture wars are a mere distraction from 'real' politics, Dunlop argues that disputes over identity, values and belonging have become a driving force of contemporary political life. He shows how these conflicts are not only intensified by political and media systems, but actively weaponised to fragment the electorate and harden social divisions.

Ranging from Federation to the Howard era and into the present, this compelling and original account situates Australia's culture wars within a longer history, while revealing how they are now energised by market economics, media concentration, social media and global political movements.

This is an unflinching but hopeful account of how culture wars work, how they damage democratic life and how they might yet be defused.