The Next Civil War

The United States is coming to an end. The only question is how.

“Well researched and eloquently presented.” (The Atlantic)

“It’s not a matter of if but when: A civil war is on the way…. In a time of torment, this is a book well worth reading.” (Kirkus Reviews)

In this deeply researched work of speculative nonfiction that reads like Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized crossed with David Wallace-Wells’ The Uninhabitable Earth, a celebrated journalist takes a fiercely divided America and imagines five chilling scenarios that lead to its collapse, based on in-depth interviews with experts of all kinds.  

On a small two-lane bridge in a rural county that loathes the federal government, the US Army uses lethal force to end a stand-off with hard-right militias, or anti-government patriots. Inside an ordinary diner, a disaffected young man with a handgun takes aim at the American president stepping in for an impromptu photo-op, and a bullet splits the hyper-partisan country into violently opposed mourners and revelers. In New York City, a category 2 hurricane plunges entire neighborhoods underwater and creates millions of refugees overnight – a blow that comes on the heels of a devastating financial crash and years of catastrophic droughts, and tips America over the edge into ruin.