'Is the US Headed Towards Civil War?'

The Global Studies Seminar presents “Is the US Headed Towards Civil War?” by Denison University’s Professor Chris Crews. 

Since 2015 the US has faced a surge in political polarization driven by far-right extremists, white nationalists, conspiracy theories, religious nationalists, and conservative parental rights groups who have waged a sustained attack on voting rights, public science, and the major social justice gains of the past half century, often with the backing of secretive dark money political actors. These dynamics have led to a steady decline in the US as a democracy, dropping to a historic low of 83 out of 100 in the latest “Freedom in the World” report from Freedom House, a trend driven by ongoing racial inequity, special interests in politics, and partisan polarization. These worrying trends have prompted growing concerns about the commitment to democracy and representative government in the US. This talk will explore some of these major trends, situate these trends in a larger global context, and examine the latest scholarship on global civil conflicts and what these lessons can teach us about the likelihood of a civil war here in the US. 

Crews teaches in the International Studies and Writing Program at Denison. Prior to joining Denison, he taught in the Comparative Religion and Humanities program at CSU, Chico in California, and the Area and Global Studies Department at GVSU in Michigan. His areas of research include social movements, Indigenous rights, environmental justice, religious nationalism, and extremist politics. He earned a Doctors of Philosophy in Politics from the New School for Social Research in New York City. Online at www.chriscrews.com.