In 2016, when Time magazine named Donald Trump its person of the year, it cheekily labeled him “the president of the Divided States of America.” Four years later, with Trump stoking racist attacks and threatening cities run by Democratic mayors, the country is splitting—sometimes violently—along the lines of geography, class, religion, and race. Nation contributing writer Richard Kreitner, in his ambitious new book Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union, reminds us that the United States has always been a fractious country. He describes the long history of secessionist movements, from Northern separatist campaigns before the Civil War to more modern schemes for an independent Pacific republic, and writes, “Seeing the Union through the eyes of those who seek and have sought to divide…
