One of the books I borrowed from Grandpa (with permission to not return it) was a book entitled Civil Wars: A History in Ideas. As one might imagine, given the title of the blog post, I started reading it today. I haven’t gotten very far, but I can already tell that it is going to be covering similar concepts as the thesis on Thai nationalism that I’ve been reading for the past few months. (Thankfully, the book has significantly fewer errors.)

Several quotes have already resonated with me:

I question whether any serious civil war ever does end.

T. S. Elliot

[Civil war] is a fraternal war, because it is conducted within a common political unit… and because both warring sides at the same time absolutely affirm and absolutely deny this common unit.

Carl Schmitt

And, the book having been published in 2017, something quite ironic:

…we are lucky [that in the US] our civil wars are fought at the ballot box, not on the battlefields.

Newt Gingrich

I do wonder what the author would say about the recent violence in Washington D.C. that was precipitated by a war at the ballot boxes which spilled over onto the streets?

Despite it being a dense political book, I’m rather enjoying it thus far. The author is suitably serious, without taking himself too seriously. It’s going to start in Rome, which will be interesting, but I’m significantly more interested in hearing his views on the civil wars I can remember myself.