If you are feeling psychologically overwhelmed by the news and near the breaking point, don't read How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them by Barbara F. Walter (@bfwalter) or my summary until you have the space for it.

However, if you would like a primer on the political science about civil war and the implications in the United States aimed at an audience of lay-people, you found your book.

Most of Walter's arguments are couched in the scales that political scientists use to analyze states. The polity index scale measures a society's place between dictatorship (-10), anocracy (-5 to +5 | "an" = not, ocracy = government), and democracy (10+). After January 6th, the US fell from a +7 to a +5. After the transfer of power from Trump to Biden, the US is at a +8. The US has not been at a +5 since the 1800s.

Much like the study of fascism, Walter places the blame for a democracy's fall to an anocracy on a lack of services provided by the government in question. Encourages ethnic entrepreneurs to turn political parties into ethnic factions based on race and not policy or ideology.

At the end of the book, Walter fulfills her promise and gives a prescription to America to stop a civil war.

1) Improve the quality of governance
2) Improve voter turnout
3) Reduce Gerrymandering that encourages extreme candidates
4) Create a system that equally values the votes of citizens
5) Increase Civic Education
6) Reduce the money in politics to increase belief in democracy
7) Reform social media influence on elections

Also, her short story about what an American civil war would look like is very similar to Robert Evans (@iwriteok) description in the It Could Happen Here Podcast (@HappenHerePod). Walter's description centers a larger picture while Evan's description centers an individual. You can read Walter's description of an American civil war here: pdfhost.io/v/s5DYVGDnp_What_a_Civil_War_Would_Look_Like