American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup
F. H. Buckley
(Author)
Description
Americans have never been more divided, and we're ripe for a breakup. The bitter partisan animosities, the legislative gridlock, the growing acceptance of violence in the name of political virtue--it all invites us to think that we'd be happier were we two different countries. In all the ways that matter, save for the naked force of law, we are already two nations. There's another reason why secession beckons, says F.H. Buckley: we're too big. In population and area, the United States is one of the biggest countries in the world, and American Secession provides data showing that smaller countries are happier and less corrupt. They're less inclined to throw their weight around militarily, and they're freer too. There are advantages to bigness, certainly, but the costs exceed the benefits. On many counts, bigness is badness. Across the world, large countries are staring down secession movements. Many have already split apart. Do we imagine that we, almost alone in the world, are immune? We had a civil war to prevent a secession, and we're tempted to see that terrible precedent as proof against another effort. This book explodes that comforting belief and shows just how easy it would be for a state to exit the Union if that's what its voters wanted. But if that isn't what we really want, Buckley proposes another option, a kind of Secession Lite, that could heal our divisions while allowing us to keep our identity as Americans.
Product Details
Price
$23.99
$22.31
Publisher
Encounter Books
Publish Date
January 14, 2020
Pages
184
Dimensions
9.0 X 1.1 X 6.3 inches | 0.95 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781641770804
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
F.H. Buckley is a Foundation Professor at George Mason University's Scalia School of Law. He is a frequent media guest and has appeared on Morning Joe, CNN, The Rush Limbaugh Show, C-SPAN, NPR and numerous other outlets. He is a senior editor at the American Spectator, a columnist for the New York Post, and has written for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and many other newspapers. His most recent books are The Republican Workers Party (2018); The Republic of Virtue (2017); The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America (2016); and The Once and Future King (2015). His current project is a book on curiosity.
Reviews
"Frank Buckley, Trump supporter, law professor and former Canadian, dares in his new book to assess the pros and cons of what has been in the United States since 1865 the never-to-be-spoken S-word: secession. As always, he is original, provocative and subversive of long-accepted clichés." --Michael Barone, senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner and founding co-author of The Almanac of American Politics "F.H. Buckley is a national treasure. In an era of deep division and distrust, he has offered a comprehensive and wise plan for national reconciliation and progress. This shimmering little volume is a how-to manual for preserving American Greatness and what Buckley calls 'home rule.' Only someone as learned and cosmopolitan as Buckley and only someone as gifted with wit, insight, and depth could display such breathtaking common sense. This is a Tocquevillian tour-de-force, of profound and vital interest to both progressives and conservatives, and it just might save the Republic." --Stephen B. Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History Emeritus at Northwestern University School of Law and author of Law Professors: Three Centuries of Shaping American Law "Buckley is the first to face the reality that, our diversity having morphed into mutual disdain, America can no longer remain a unitary nation. Americans should ponder the alternatives to mounting strife and civil war that he outlines. A must-read book." --Angelo Codevilla, senior fellow of the Claremont Institute and professor emeritus of International Relations at Boston University "Francis Buckley, though often regarded as a conservative, is in fact truly radical. He goes to the heart of the issues he raises, and provides both provocation and genuine insight to readers of all political persuasions. Here he boldly suggests that a country of 330 million people is just too large--not to mention polarized--to be effectively governable. The United States was born in secession from the British Empire, and we should think about secessionist possibilities again today. Buckley's arguments deserve to be taken seriously, not dismissed because they cut against the grain of a sometimes thoughtless devotion to Union." --Sanford Levinson, author of An Argument Open to All: ReadingThe Federalist in the 21st Century "We can't go on like this forever. If the Left continues to amp up its mouth-frothing rage at half the country, eventually that half will react. Something's got to give. Frank Buckley explores one possibility for what that 'something' might be. Whether you're for secession or dead-set against it, the time to start thinking through its implications is now--before it takes on a momentum all its own." --Michael Anton, lecturer and research fellow at Hillsdale College
