The Next Civil War

Dispatches from the American Future

By: Stephen Marche

Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross

Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

“Should be required reading for anyone interested in preserving our 246-year experiment in self-government.” —The New York Times Book Review * “Well researched and eloquently presented.” —The Atlantic * “Delivers Cormac McCarthy-worthy drama; while the nonfictional asides imbue that drama with the authority of documentary.” —The New York Times Book Review

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.

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

On a small two-lane bridge in a rural county that loathes the federal government, the US Army uses lethal force to end a standoff with hard-right 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 financial crash and years of catastrophic droughts—and tips America over the edge into ruin.

These nightmarish scenarios are just three of the five possibilities most likely to spark devastating chaos in the United States that are brought to life in The Next Civil War, a chilling and deeply researched work of speculative nonfiction. Drawing upon sophisticated predictive models and nearly two hundred interviews with experts—civil war scholars, military leaders, law enforcement officials, secret service agents, agricultural specialists, environmentalists, war historians, and political scientists—journalist Stephen Marche predicts the terrifying future collapse that so many of us do not want to see unfolding in front of our eyes. Marche has spoken with soldiers and counterinsurgency experts about what it would take to control the population of the United States, and the battle plans for the next civil war have already been drawn up. Not by novelists, but by colonels.

No matter your political leaning, most of us can sense that America is barreling toward catastrophe—of one kind or another. Relevant and revelatory, The Next Civil War plainly breaks down the looming threats to America and is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of its people, its land, and its government.

©2022 Stephen Marche. All rights reserved. (P)2022 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Promising, But Ultimately Falls Short

I enjoyed the "dispatch" approach, but the author hedged his bets. Too much lackluster content takes away from some genuinely good nuggets and scenarios. The author's political bias gets in the way of painting a truly objective set of outcomes.

First half was better

The first half was much more interesting than the second half. Didn’t care for the segment on climate change.

If the shoe fits…

It has become abundantly clear that there is a growing, armed, and loosely ideological right-wing movement that not only disagrees vehemently with the ideals and goals of liberal — small “l” — government, but also has given up on using the tools and levers of elected office to bring that government more in line with their preferred idea of what America should be. Democracy, to them, is illegitimate, in that it allows for a majority to enact laws that may infringe upon what they perceive to be their God-given rights. In this book, Marche carefully and in we’ll-supported detail lays out the path that such self-appointed, highly motivated, thrill-seeking, anti-democratic true believers see as their noble goal: the dissolution of the rule and role of democratic government and the rule and role of democratic law.

Alarmist but worth listening to

Stephen Marche gives us a prophetic word through the 5 dispatches in this book about how American Democracy could come undone. These cases are drastic and include some of the most extraordinary possibilities for; political violence, environmental destruction, and secession. Even so it is fair to say that these current problems will not fade away on their own. We would do well to take it seriously.

seriuos food for thought

I'd be hard pressed to believe any American would not see themselves or learn something from the story, our story, in this book. Hauntingly true, so very true. oh how desperately we need statesmen and how desperately absent they are.

Lost Interest

Just because you’re from Canada doesn’t mean you’re non-bias. There are liberals and conservatives in Canada as well. 3/4 the way through the book, I lost interest - left leaning bias writings.

Makes sense when you put aside your political biases

Reading some of the reviews only reinforces what the author is trying to say. The irony is breathtaking. Those that say he’s just a liberal and discount what he’s trying to tell you only proves his point more. Also keep in mind that he is Canadian whose politics are completely different than American politics since a Canadian conservative would be considered relatively moderate here. In any case if you just put all of that aside and can look at it from a neutral standpoint you will see that we are very messed up as a nation at the moment. But about half of the American readers that listen to this won’t have any true neutral standpoint, and so here we are.

Fun but little obnoxious

Fun read, the hypothetical dispatches were interesting. But as a non-North American reader, American exceptionalism the author seems to hold is little obnoxious and silly. You realize that there are other free and democratic countries with rich history of democracy too right?

Interesting point of view from an outsider.

The author is extremely left leaning it seems. He implies Most the problems in the country come from the right and that all republicans are racist our constitution is rubbish. I enjoyed the perspective and outlook from and outsider with different political views as me. And I can also agree with a lot of his options. The book wasn’t bad. I was just hoping for something a little less bias.

A must-read: WAKE UP, AMERICA

Everything is laid out here in unsparing detail: our outdated founding documents, increasingly serving none, our paralyzed government incapable of responsive leadership, and our bitter divisions along every fault line possible. If Americans don't take radical, considered action ASAP we are headed for divorce at best, civil war at worst. And civil war won't be good for anyone; the notion that we can fight and then retreat to our corners and go on living as before is delusion. The author makes his various cases with excellently-sourced data and interviews. From the vile Richard Spencer to fraught climate scientists, the folks interviewed here describe a country we all recognize as damaged yet pretend is "fine". It isn't. Disengage from whatever flavor of partisan corporate media you're into and go talk to someone who doesn't share your politics, economic status, characteristics, or worldview. I'd we don't stop demonizing one another & start working together, we are going to lose our country.