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

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

“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

“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’s 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 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-listen 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.

Definitely has a lean to the left.

I should have looked up the author to find out their background. This was nothing more than leftist propaganda.

10 minutes to ideology

Great idea, no neutrality of thought. Could tell from the “get-go” this was going to be an ideological fanfare of liberal thought and expression. Sure to be praised by liberals, panned by conservatives. Talk about civil war!

Frightening read

Marche explains at the beginning his political leanings and shows to be fair, with a bias only towards facts, not political leanings. His speculation is well researched and thought out and is quite engaging. I think he could write a full fictional novel to finish out his scenarios and I’d buy it.
The reading voice is done well, which is appreciated.
The book overall is scary in the way it reminds me of the speculative stories of what nuclear winter would look like back in the 80’s. I believe the scenarios here are more likely to occur based on our current political situation in the US, which is the frightening part.

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 real disappointment…

I listened to the entire book even though I was utterly appalled by it in the first 5 minutes. The author repeatedly states that he’s “neutral” and “doesn’t have a dog in this fight”. Nothing could be further than the truth. This book is full of extreme leftist “fear porn” and is rife with laugh out loud stereotypes of anybody who holds conservative views. A terribly disappointing attempt at describing an interesting topic.

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.

interesting

A well researched and fairly neutral vision of the divisions facing America making for a compelling fiction on a possible 2nd civil war.

And no, this book isn't "boogaloo" nonsense.

A note: reading through some other reviews ...funny that right wingers can only hear 'He SaId AlL RePubLiCaNs ArE RacIsT," when the author makes clear that it doesn't require racism to become a member of the "hard right," as he calls them, and evens acknowledged the non-race based reasons people might be attracted to the Republican Party, even as it edges closer and closer to outright white nationalism.

...Even my response here is illustrative of the divisions present in America today.

Lets hope that the warnings in this book never come to pass.

Comes across as very biased

I wanted to like this book and was hoping for a balanced view of the current volatile political situation in the United States, but the author's liberal bias was revealed early in it and continued throughout. He lumps all conservatives in with "hard right terrorists" and discounts the threat from the far left - not acknowledging the danger posed by groups like Antifa, and paints Seattle's Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) as a peaceful picnic. Pass ...

First third great, with declining returns. Still..

The first third of the book was really strong, and then as we went further in, it felt like it drifted from the premise, and the last chapter was certainly the weakest of the bunch. I'd still recommend it, because it's well written and engaging.

Makes you think deeply about typical scenarios

An interesting listen that made me think how a likely scenario could escalate into something much bigger.

While not amazing it is informative and worth it

It's not amazing I don't agree with all of its conclusions and the American exceptionalism is extremely annoying, yes the fall of America would suck but the world doesn't need it no country is needed. Anyway that's not the point dispite all of this it was very informative very well presented with good evidence based reasoning and is a very stark and grim warning for the future which is very depressing but its hard to argue against such a warning.

Riveting , Frightening and Excellent

I'm left feeling that I have been involved in an emotional multi-vehicle pile up but unlike other books this one doesn't end when you finish it. It stays with you and you realise that the next chapter is in fact, your reality.

Yes, the book deals with hypothetical situations but the author throws so many facts at you that conjecture gives way to the grim realisation that the book's premise goes from possible to plausible to Very Probable ,very quickly.

Would recommend this to anyone who is brave enough to face some extremely uncomfortable truths.