
Break It Up
Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union
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Narrated by:
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Adam Verner
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By:
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Richard Kreitner
From journalist and historian Richard Kreitner, a "powerful revisionist account"of the most persistent idea in American history: these supposedly United States should be broken up (Eric Foner).
The novel and fiery thesis of Break It Up is simple: the United States has never lived up to its name - and never will. The disunionist impulse may have found its greatest expression in the Civil War, but as Break It Up shows, the seduction of secession wasn't limited to the South or the 19th century.
With a scholar's command and a journalist's curiosity, Kreitner takes readers on a revolutionary journey through American history, revealing the power and persistence of disunion movements in every era and region. Each New England town after Plymouth was a secession from another; the 13 colonies viewed their Union as a means to the end of securing independence, not an end in itself; George Washington feared separatism west of the Alleghenies; Aaron Burr schemed to set up a new empire; John Quincy Adams brought a Massachusetts town's petition for dissolving the United States to the floor of Congress; and abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison denounced the Constitution as a pro-slavery pact with the devil.
From the "cold civil war" that pits partisans against one another to the modern secession movements in California and Texas, the divisions that threaten to tear America apart today have centuries-old roots in the earliest days of our Republic. Richly researched and persuasively argued, Break It Up will help readers make fresh sense of our fractured age.
"Kreitner effectively cleans the window that stands between us and our history - or what we believed about our history...richly researched, revelatory, disturbing, and essential to those wandering in the mists of American myth." (Kirkus, starred)
©2020 Richard Kreitner (P)2020 Little, Brown & CompanyListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"Generations of Americans have been taught that our political system is an ideal balance that works wonderfully well. Today it's becoming increasingly difficult to believe that. In this climate, Break It Up is perfectly timed. It tells us where our national experiment went wrong - and proposes a boldly appealing alternative."—Stephen Kinzer, Boston Globe columnist and author of Poisoner in Chief
"If you think the United States only recently became fractious, fractured, and fragmented, Break It Up will shake you up. Richard Kreitner tells us a fresh, unsettling, and persistently entertaining story of disunity and secession as the great American way. From the colonial period through the Revolutionary War, familiar landmarks of founding history are seen a new light. The secessionism of the Confederacy takes on unexpected qualities, as do 20th century black separatism, the 1960's counterculture, and feminism, among other things. This book will change what you thought you knew." —William Hogeland, author of Autumn of the Black Snake
"An eye-opening chronicle of separatist movements within the US.... makes a strong case that the impulse to dissolve the union will always resonate." —Publishers Weekly
Great message and a little long and drawn out at times
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It was excellent until
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Crystallized many thoughts I had over decades
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Incredible book on secession's inevitability
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At the same time, in the final chapters, the author rails against one side in our current political divisions, blaming one party for the deep divisions in our nation over race, trade policy, the reality and proposed cures for environmental damage, and a host of other issues. He veiled this bias earlier in the book, although any attempt to label his political persuasion then would be more speculative than provable in a court of law. But in the final chapter or two, he breaks the dam, and his political views become the focus of his narrative.
II would prefer his book to be a history of friction in the country, and his personal views to be published in an editorial or other political commentary.
The narrator was easy to listen to. My only issue is his in correct pronunciation of several words. The name of Concord, Mass., is pronounced con' curd, not con' corde. And the term for creating illogically shaped congressional districts is pronounced with a hard G (as in Garymandering), not a soft G (as in the spelling, gerrymandering). Common issue, given phonetics, but the signer of the Declaration of Independence, former Massachusetts legislator and governor, and former vice president Elbridge Gerry pronounced his name with a hard G. But kudos for pronouncing Worcester correctly (Woos' ter, not Wor' chester). The pronunciation of the name of New England's second largest city trips up many who live outside the region.
Excellent History, But Tainted by Partisan Bias
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Breathtakingly Topical
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Report of a continuous 250 year dumpster fire
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Timely
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Completely Partisan
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What a downer
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