A House Divided

In this Anansi Digital Publication, James Laxer analyzes the descent of the United States into civil conflict. At a time when American society is roiled by deep divisions over immigration, guns, the role of the state, and the economic crisis, Laxer makes the case that serious conflict is likely to be generated from the right of the American political spectrum, from the forces he refers to as "Old America."

Laxer poses the provocative question: Is the United States once again "A House Divided" to use Lincoln’s famous phrase on the eve of the American Civil War. Laxer argues that Old America is increasingly desperate in the face of the demographic and societal changes that are transforming the country.

Laxer shows how old elites, the French aristocracy on the eve of the Revolution, and the Southern Slaveocracy who started the Civil War, can provoke desperate conflicts to salvage their positions. Could this happen in America today?

Laxer wrote A House Divided while in California in the winter of 2013 where he was writing Travels Through the Golden State: A California Diary, also an Anansi Digital Publication.