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“If you thought disunion was an invention of the slave South and is long dead and buried, think again. In Break It Up, Richard Kreitner offers a powerful revisionist account of the troubled history of the American nation, showing how secessionist movements have made their appearance at numerous times, and in numerous parts of the country. They are again proliferating today - a reflection of our polarized politics and culture and our failure to make the existing Union benefit all Americans.”
— Eric Foner, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
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“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 Reviews (starred review)
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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
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An eye-opening chronicle of separatist movements within the
U.S.... makes a strong case that the impulse to dissolve the union will always
resonate.
— Publishers Weekly
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If you thought disunion was an invention of the slave South and is long dead and buried, think again. In Break It Up, Richard Kreitner offers a powerful revisionist account of the troubled history of the American nation, showing how secessionist movements have made their appearance at numerous times, and in numerous parts of the country. They are again proliferating today - a reflection of our polarized politics and culture and our failure to make the existing Union benefit all Americans.
— Eric Foner, Columbia University,author of The Fiery Trial
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Break It Up is a paradigm-transforming accomplishment. It finds an entire new story to tell about the sweep of American history, one that happens to be far more truer to the actuality of that history than the story it replaces. I don't know if I've ever been more excited to endorse a new book.
— Rick Perlstein, author of Reaganland and Nixonland
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The United States have seldom been wholeheartedly
united, as Richard Kreitner shows in this often surprising history of
disunity, from Northern secession plans before the Civil War to plots for
California's independence and a Singapore-style free New York City. The book is
engaging and historically rich, and adds up to a new story of the country, one
that opens questions about whether we belong together at all.
— Jedediah Purdy, Columbia University and author of This Land is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth
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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
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As politicians and pundits lament polarization and partisanship, this fiery and fresh exploration of the idea of disunion across four centuries helps us understand how today's fractured landscape is not a new development, but a return, as Kreitner writes, to the 'ever-present battle over the past and for the future'-and for the soul of America.
— —Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editorial Director and Publisher of The Nation
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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, BostonGlobe columnist and author of Poisoner in Chief
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"Break It Up is at once extremely well written, deeply incisive about the prevalence of disunionist thought and movements throughout American history, and a passionate call for us today to reflect and reconsider some of our basic political commitments. Everyone interested in the past, present, and future of the United States would profit from closely reading and then discussing Richard Kreitner's truly provocative and challenging book.
— Sanford Levinson, co-author of Fault Lines in the Constitution