How do good people lose their minds in soul-crushing conflicts with co-workers, neighbors, grown siblings or even national politicians they’ve never met? Through the stories of half a dozen conflict survivors in three countries, journalist Amanda Ripley reveals how humans can help one another break out of destructive feuds–and generate healthy, useful conflict instead.

High Conflict

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Winner of the Christopher Award

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Winner of the Christopher Award -

Dive Deeper with Interviews & More​

Explore our additional materials— a discussion guide and author interviews. Perfect for book clubs or anyone looking to get more out of the book!

  • “High Conflict should be required reading for everyone in politics and the media—and for anyone who’s had a squabble with a colleague or a blowup at a family gathering.”

    — Adam Grant, Organizational psychologist at Wharton, #1 NYT bestselling author of THINK AGAIN, and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

  • “Amanda Ripley has combined skilled reporting, deep research, and riveting storytelling into a stellar work about an urgent topic. At a moment when too many Americans are at each other’s throats, this is the book our country needs.”

    — Daniel H. Pink, Author of When, Drive, and To Sell Is Human

  • “Rarely have I read a book as downright clairvoyant as High Conflict. While most of us were raging at the rage in our culture, Amanda Ripley composed a lucid, compulsively readable road map to a world in which we can live with one another again. Honestly, I’ll never argue the same way again.”

    — Evan Osnos, National Book Award-Winning Author of Joe Biden

  • “Ripley brilliantly illuminates the forces driving us to build impenetrable walls between ourselves and differing others, as well as the forces empowering us to build bridges over those walls. The lessons couldn’t be more captivating or timely.”

    — Robert Cialdini, Author of Influence And Pre-Suasian

  • “This is one of the most important books that will be published in 2021. The Covid vaccine will soon free humanity from a biological pandemic, and this book, if widely read, could free humanity from an equally deadly scourge—high conflict.”

    — Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, NYU Stern School of Business, and author of the Righteous Mind, and coauthor of the Coddling of the American Mind

  • “The unforgettable stories in this book show how even people who disagree profoundly can still connect with one another and make progress. A book to give you confidence in the future.”

    — Omar Epps

  • “A brilliant book that reveals how poisonous showdowns work. But more than just highlighting the problems, Ripley’s book also provides solutions. Equally valuable in our personal lives as in navigating the polarized time we’re living in.”

    — Jonah Berger, New York Times bestselling author of the Catalyst and Contagious

  • “Amanda Ripley shows that the same minds that get us into bitter tribal battles can get us out of them. Via riveting stories in diverse settings—urban gangland, a war-torn central American nation, fractious municipal politics—Ripley proves that happy endings can happen in real life.”

    — Robert Wright, New York Times Bestselling author of Why Buddhism Is True