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The Next Civil War

Dispatches from the American Future

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The Next Civil War

By: Stephen Marche
Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
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About this listen

 “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. Politics & Government Sociology United States World Emotionally Gripping Social justice
All stars
Most relevant
I would recommend other sources of information on possible civil war in USA, for example Coming War podcast,

Started reasonable but started to drag

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This would be more useful if it dealt evenly with the risks rather than just blaming everything on the right wing. It’s an interesting book but would benefit if it considered the impact of the left wing violence such as the BLM riots. Also dirty bulbs are not nuclear weapons.

All the problems in American society come from the republicans

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Great read the 5 scenarios are really interesting with solid research and disturbing levels of “this could happen next week!”
Highly recommended

Very engaging, but a bit of a worry

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pretends to be neutral as he's Canadian. I'm an Aussie and he's not neutral. wish I knew before I bought it.

left wing drivel

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Posting this review 6 months into DJT's presidency only makes the premise of this book even more poignant. America's devolution into a country that has differences will never be reconciled is already here. The die is cast.
Very thought provoking listen.

Honest & Earnest

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