NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A leading political scientist examines the dramatic rise in violent
extremism around the globe and sounds the alarm on the increasing likelihood of a second civil
war in the United States Required reading for anyone invested in preserving our 246-year
experiment in self-government.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) WINNER OF THE
GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE AWARD • THE SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF
THE YEAR: Financial Times The Times (UK) Esquire Prospect (UK) Political violence rips apart
several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan
and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the
U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara
F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq Ukraine and Sri
Lanka but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country. Perhaps surprisingly
both autocracies and healthy democracies are largely immune from civil war it’s the countries
in the middle ground that are most vulnerable. And this is where more and more countries
including the United States are finding themselves today. Over the last two decades the
number of active civil wars around the world has almost doubled. Walter reveals the warning
signs—where wars tend to start who initiates them what triggers them—and why some countries
tip over into conflict while others remain stable. Drawing on the latest international research
and lessons from over twenty countries Walter identifies the crucial risk factors from
democratic backsliding to factionalization and the politics of resentment. A civil war today
won’t look like America in the 1860s Russia in the 1920s or Spain in the 1930s. It will begin
with sporadic acts of violence and terror accelerated by social media. It will sneak up on us
and leave us wondering how we could have been so blind. In this urgent and insightful book
Walter redefines civil war for a new age providing the framework we need to confront the
danger we now face—and the knowledge to stop it before it’s too late.
