A House Divided
Watching America's Descent into Civil Conflict
- Publisher
- House of Anansi Press Inc
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2013
- Category
- General
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781770894242
- Publish Date
- Jun 2013
- List Price
- $1.99
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Where to buy it
Description
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.
About the author
James Laxer, a professor of political science at York University in Toronto, has a wealth of experience analyzing American society. His best-selling book, Stalking the Elephant: My Discovery of America was described by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the Boston Globe David Shribman as "a book by a Canadian that can change the United States." The book was by published by the New Press in New York under the title Discovering America: Travels in the Land of Guns, God and Corporate Gurus. One of Canada’s leading political thinkers, Laxer is frequently consulted for commentary of current national and global issues by the media. He lives in Toronto.
