Can anyone recommend a good book on the period before the American Civil War? Not the war itself, just the wind up. I'd also be interested in something similar but for the Yugoslav wars.
If you’re looking for a connection between the civil war and modern US politics, I recommend reading about what happened immediately after the war, rather than immediately before. That period is called the Reconstruction, and it failed miserably, in a way that deeply shaped the political landscape, and still does to this day.
The buildup to the war was about slavery. The aftermath of the war was about what we replaced slavery with... and it’s not pretty.
Not the Civil War or Yugoslav war, but you might find the Hardcore History podcast series "Countdown to Armageddon" enlightening. It's about World War I, including the run-up to the war. He has 20+ hours of material, and it's absolutely chilling.
If you're looking for an analogy to American politics as "second civil war", it won't help. But if you're looking for how two sides are willing to destroy themselves trying to destroy each other, it's amazing.
To stick with Dan Carlin, I think another applicable episode is Prophets of Doom, detailing the story of the city of Munster during the German Wars of Religion. Populism, charismatic leaders, conflict of neighbor against neighbor. The current situation has more of the feel of a religious schism to me than something like the Civil War, which was a largely regional division.
Off the top of my head, "Balkan Ghosts" by Robert D Kaplan might fit the latter criteria. If you're willing to stay within the realm of the revolutionary but stray a bit further north, "The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of 1989 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague" by Timothy Garton Ash is good.
/r/AskHistorians' Book List might be cover pretty much anything else:
To me, the interesting period is the end of the Roman Republic. I see parallels between the Gracchi and FDR (ignoring the rules about how long to stay in office) and the Kennedys (two brothers, both holding high office, both on the side of helping the common people, both assassinated). I see similarities between the current day and the civil war between Marius and Sulla. (And the wonderful difference - neither side is killing hundreds of the other side's people in the streets - at least, not yet.)
But from the civil war to Julius Caesar was only 30 years...
If you want a more personal book around slaves and slave-holders, which may be best since it seems one of the large problems of today is a general lack of theory of mind, I'd recommend Genovese's Roll, Jordan, Roll.
