Omar El Akkad’s American War speculates what a second civil in America could look like in the near future in the face of major world changes. The novel presents a world that has been devastated by global warming, with most of the East Coast left underwater or uninhabitable. In response to the ever-rising sea levels, the government passes a law prohibiting the use of unsustainable fossil fuels that will only serve to destroy the environment further. However, the South sees this law as a personal attack because most of their income is from the fossil fuel industry, so they begin a revolt against the government. This is where the civil war truly begins, as the government retaliates by unleashing a deadly virus in South Carolina that kills many people. Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia form the Free Southern State to fight against the federal government.
The premise of American War is extremely fascinating, yet horrifying, because of how plausible it seems right now. Akkad mixes American history with the already widening division between Americans to imagine how tensions could come to a head not even one hundred years in the future. Since the South has already seceded once when enslaved people were freed by the federal government, it is not unfathomable to believe it would happen again when they feel like their traditions in the fossil fuel industry are under attack. This response would only be exacerbated by the effects of global warming and the anxiety that Americans would be feeling. When people feel fear and uncertainty, rash actions are essentially unavoidable, as we have learned intimately in the past year. It would be expected that when we as humans all face the same devastation, we would come together and work together to fix a common problem such a climate change. However, American War explores what would happen when our differences become irreconcilable to the point that we cannot feel camaraderie anymore. This hostility and inability to work together leads to the death of eleven million Americans from the war alone, with one final act of bioterrorism from a radicalized Southern rebel killing over a hundred million more when the country was trying to reunify, destroying their efforts. With the political divide widening and hostilities between political parties seemingly coming to a fever pitch, the notion of another civil war does not seem as impossible as it once was. The novel displays the distinctly stubborn nature of Americans and how this stubbornness could very well ultimately lead to the downfall of our nation – either by our own hands or by the ravages of climate change. For further reading on this topic please visit: Artists & Climate Change "An Interview with Novelist Omar El Akkad" UCAR Center for Science Education "Predictions of Future Global Climate" Pew Research Center "America is exceptional in the nature of its poltical divide"
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AuthorHi, I'm Brooke! In these blog posts, I will be reflecting on content in post-apocalyptic literature. Archives |