ThoughtGallery.org > Ricky Kreitner with Rick Perlstein: Break It Up

Ricky Kreitner with Rick Perlstein: Break It Up

Join author Ricky Kreitner for a discussion of his book Break It Up. Ricky will be in conversation with Rick Perlstein. The event will take place on Crowdcast and be live-streamed on The Strand’s Facebook Page.

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 nineteenth century. It was there at our founding and has never gone away.

With a scholar’s command and a journalist’s curiosity, Richard 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 thirteen 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.

Born in Queens, Richard Kreitner grew up in Wayne, New Jersey, and studied philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, he drove around the country with his now-wife for four months. Since 2012, he has been affiliated with The Nation as an intern, editor, and writer. he has also published essays, reviews, and articles in Slate, Raritan, The Baffler, The Boston Globe, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times. His books are BREAK IT UP: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union (2020) and BOOKED: A Traveler’s Guide to Literary Locations Around the World (2019). He also writes “Only United in Name,” an occasional newsletter about politics and history. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, daughter, and son.

Rick Perlstein is the author of Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980. Before that, he published The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan (2014), Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008), a New York Times bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of the year by over a dozen publications, and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history. Former chief national correspondent for the Village Voice, and a former online columnist for the New Republic and Rolling Stone, his journalism and essays have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, and many other publications. Politico called him the “chronicler extraordinaire of American conservatism,” who “offers a hint of how interesting the political and intellectual dialogue might be if he could attract some mimics.” The Nation called him the “hypercaffeinated Herodotus of the American century.” Born in 1969 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he lives in Chicago, where he serves on the board of In These Times magazine.

This virtual event is free to attend. To participate, please REGISTER HERE.

To support the author and The Strand, purchase a copy of Break It Up HERE.

Already have a copy of the book? You can continue to support our programming by purchasing a Strand gift card HERE.











When: Fri., Aug. 28, 2020 at 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: The Strand
828 Broadway
212-473-1452
Price: Free
Buy tickets/get more info now
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Join author Ricky Kreitner for a discussion of his book Break It Up. Ricky will be in conversation with Rick Perlstein. The event will take place on Crowdcast and be live-streamed on The Strand’s Facebook Page.

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 nineteenth century. It was there at our founding and has never gone away.

With a scholar’s command and a journalist’s curiosity, Richard 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 thirteen 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.

Born in Queens, Richard Kreitner grew up in Wayne, New Jersey, and studied philosophy at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, he drove around the country with his now-wife for four months. Since 2012, he has been affiliated with The Nation as an intern, editor, and writer. he has also published essays, reviews, and articles in Slate, Raritan, The Baffler, The Boston Globe, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times. His books are BREAK IT UP: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union (2020) and BOOKED: A Traveler’s Guide to Literary Locations Around the World (2019). He also writes “Only United in Name,” an occasional newsletter about politics and history. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, daughter, and son.

Rick Perlstein is the author of Reaganland: America’s Right Turn, 1976-1980. Before that, he published The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan (2014), Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America (2008), a New York Times bestseller picked as one of the best nonfiction books of the year by over a dozen publications, and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, winner of the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Award for history. Former chief national correspondent for the Village Voice, and a former online columnist for the New Republic and Rolling Stone, his journalism and essays have appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, and many other publications. Politico called him the “chronicler extraordinaire of American conservatism,” who “offers a hint of how interesting the political and intellectual dialogue might be if he could attract some mimics.” The Nation called him the “hypercaffeinated Herodotus of the American century.” Born in 1969 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he lives in Chicago, where he serves on the board of In These Times magazine.

This virtual event is free to attend. To participate, please REGISTER HERE.

To support the author and The Strand, purchase a copy of Break It Up HERE.

Already have a copy of the book? You can continue to support our programming by purchasing a Strand gift card HERE.

Buy tickets/get more info now