America's current political divisions are backed by vitriolic anger on all sides--anger that is rooted in a long-term change in American character. A nation that once regarded unbridled anger as a personal weakness has become a nation that regards anger as self-empowerment and a tool for positive social change. But anger remains what it was always was: a force that can sweep away judgment and carry us, as individuals or groups, into foolish confrontations. The power that an angry person feels on social media or in the street is a largely an illusion.Anger in politics serves a definite purpose: it turns simmering resentments into collective purpose. But once this kind of anger is ignited, it burns its own path. No one really controls it. Anger in our personal lives often takes a self-destructive path, destroying relationships and isolating the angry man or woman from friends, family, and fellow workers.Peter W. Wood, an anthropologist, explains in this extensively revised and updated edition of his 2007 book, A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America Now, how our "new anger" took shape, how it endangers our civic life, and how it can be turned to better purposes.