One of the joys of reading non-fiction is that you can manage your book reading list so that books build on the knowledge, wisdom, and opinion of the previous book as you choose the next book.In my case, several months ago, I read How Civil Wars Start: And How To Stop Them by Princeton Professor Barbara Walter. In her excellent treatise on how and why civil wars begin, Walter makes the case that most civil wars do not begin with military action, but instead with an aggressively authoritarian but democratically elected chief executive who gradually accumulates power and subverts democratic institutions to the point that the nation is a democracy in name only. With not one shot being fired, the voters in a democratic nation wake up one day to discover that the people in power control everything, and they have no way to displace them.In that book, Walter uses numerous examples to detail how the democratic nations with the greatest threat of civil war are those with an ethnically or racially diverse population.After digesting that conclusion, I then came across The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart And How They Can Endure by Yascha Mounk.Here are the liner notes for the book: “Some democracies are highly homogeneous. Others have long maintained a brutal racial or religious hierarchy, with some groups dominating and exploiting others. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal, treating members of many different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet achieving that goal is now central to the democratic project in countries around the world. It is, Yascha Mounk argues, the greatest experiment of our time.“Drawing on history, social psychology, and comparative politics, Mounk examines how diverse societies have long suffered from the ills of domination, fragmentation, or structured anarchy. So it is hardly surprising that most people are now deeply pessimistic that different groups might be able to integrate in harmony, celebrating their differences without essentializing them. But Mounk shows us that the past can offer crucial insights for how to do better in the future. There is real reason for hope.”The author, Yascha Mounk, is an author and academic known for writing about rising populism and liberal democracy. Born in Germany to Polish parents, Mounk has the pedigree to write with clarity, incisiveness, and a self-described inclination to problem-solve chronic sociopolitical crises.Mounk begins the book with a troubling yet accurate statement. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being diverse and achieving equality toward its different ethnic or religious groups.Throughout the book, Mounk presents a compelling view of diverse deomcracries today. However, his diatribe is always sprinkled with a healthy dose of optimism.Early on, Mounk says, “The limitations of today should not become the reality of tomorrow.”And Mounk never surrenders that degree of optimistic solutions-based perspective throughout the book. As Mounk layers example over example of diverse democracies struggling or already succumbed to authoritarianism, the author insists upon unfolding realistic solutions to centuries of oppression in democracies that promote equality in their founding charters.Mounk explains right away that “Outgroup discrimination is extraordinarily easy to trigger.” He describes how diverse societies suffer three shortcomings — anarchy, domination, fragmentation.Mounk’s chapter titles create an easy-to-follow roadmap. For example, early chapters include Why everyone can’t just get along to Three ways diverse societies fail.”Then Mounk transitions smoothly into “What diverse democracies should become.”Here, the author describes the four conditions for intergroup cooperation Equal status Common goals Inter group cooperation Support from authorities and customsHere, Mounk takes on one of the sacred myths of American proto-optimism. The melting pot. In the book, the melting pot implies that individuals should abandon their ancestral values to become “true Americans.”Mounk explains that in the 50s — with the growth of television and restrictive immigration policies — the United States became more homogenized than ever before. Soon, the melting pot was used as a weapon to intimidate immigrants who refused to assimilate into the mainstream.The backlash to this enforced melting pot took several decades, but eventually academics and activists began to speak of a “mosaic” where cultural success would be drawn from each constituent element remaining separate.From there, the salad bowl was born, in which each separate element in a salad is a distinct ingredient but adds to the tastiness of the whole salad.Mounk then details how the public park as a physical metaphor for different groups playing alongside one another. Mounk recounts how a public park is open to all, enables strangers to engage in joint activities, and acts as a vibrant open space for encounter among groups.One key message driven home is that when separate racial, ethnic and religious groups retreat to protected enclaves, the diverse democracy suffers. Study after study shows that as diverse groups interact with each other, the grievance thermostat is turned down drastically. People discover upon daily interaction that they are not that different.At the book’s end, Mounk discusses solutions with a blend of hardy optimism and practical steps.“Constructing diverse democracies that command the enthusiastic consent of the great majority of their citizens is going to be hard. We really have embarked on an unprecedented experiment,” he says.Mounk hopes for “proud and optimistic citizens that emphasize what they have in common rather than what divides us.”Right now in the U.S. that vision seems improbable and wildly at odds with the dirty reality.The Great Experiment does not stake a specific political agenda. There’s something in the book for all ideological camps. The book’s structure makes for enjoyable reading that enables readers to easily organize the author’s arguments and then assess possible solutions.Unlike similar books laden with academic rhetoric and pedantic logic, Mounk opts for breezier, more illuminating prose. Reading his book is simultaneously enjoyable and edifying.