Barbara F. Walter

How Civil Wars Start by Barbara F Walter is essential reading for anyone who has the uneasy feeling that we might be approaching a civil war but can't put their finger on how or why. Admittedly some readers, those who support the recent coup attempt, will feel their side has been "unjustly" singled out. And for some readers in the US their warped sense of exceptionalism will let them dismiss the entire field as not being applicable here. But for those of us who actually care about trying to show more make the democracy better rather than destroy it, the warning signs are made crystal clear and some prescriptive suggestions are offered for avoiding it.

I'm not sure I can accurately summarize the many aspects of what can make a society or a government ripe for civil war so I won't try. I can say that for every example she cites from other civil wars she boils the essence of what happened down so we can see where the similarities are in our own country. That is, if one is open to trying to stop the civil war and not on the side of overthrowing democracy in the country.

I found most of her prescriptive ideas valuable, especially the ones related to the form of government, namely the electoral college (get rid of it, it has outlasted its purpose) and the Senate. A couple of the social media-based ideas are a little more problematic for me. I don't disagree with all of it but would want to see a detailed concept before getting on board with too much banning of speech, though I have no problem banning things that are demonstrably false being promoted as true.

Highly recommended and a good starting point for both understanding and beginning to take steps to thwart the current attempts to overthrow democracy.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. show less

The first half of this book presents a theory of civil war. Drawing conclusions from diverse examples from around the world, the author argues that the danger of civil war is highest in an "anocratic" zone between well-functioning democracy and dictatorship, where power is in flux. She then explains how evil men promote ethnic factions which appeal especially to men who feel they are losing status. And social media has made their recruitment much easier. This straightforward presentation show more makes intuitive sense and is easy to understand. The various examples substantiate the author's claims nicely.

In the second half the author warns that the United States may be in danger of dropping into the anocracy zone and risks civil war. It has been clear for a long time that US politics is becoming more adversarial, but I'm was not quite convinced about the risk of civil war. The author argues that civil war in the United States could take the form of domestic terrorism perpetrated by white supremacist militias. However, it seems to me that these militias would have to experience massive growth in numbers and strength to challenge the rule of law. I don't see that happening without some kind of economic catastrophe or internal splintering of police and military forces, neither of which is on the horizon.

I think the US chapters are a false alarm, but I would recommend this book just for the civil war framework it presents in the first half. show less

You can probably go look at my tags for this book and if this is your kind of thing, like it is mine, you were hooked at political violence without even getting to genocide or Trump yet. But seriously, this book is really, really good and a few parts of the book have been similar to other books I've read, but I like that because maybe I can remember most of it. And duh, of course certain points have been used in other books I've read, that's basically because I read a lot about the same shit show more and it's being repeated because it's actually fucking true. But there were several times when I really thought to myself, "damn, this is really, really good and this woman is super-cool". 5+Stars show less

This is a critically important topic, but while the book starts fairly strong with some useful concepts and analytical frameworks, it jumps around a lot and seems quite elliptical; it then meanders to a weak sauce conclusion in a very hand wavy fashion. This is, at best, a dilettante’s book, the kind of book that appeals to those who consider themselves ‘intellectuals’ because they read articles in magazines like The Atlantic or National Review. I’d like to see her write another, show more much more rigorous one. Still, if your library has it, it’s probably worth a read as it’s not long. show less