Divided America Stands—Then, and Now - WSJ

Divided America Stands—Then, and Now - WSJ
"If there’s one thing Americans of all political stripes can agree on, it’s that the country is divided—bitterly, dangerously, perhaps irreconcilably riven.
“It shows up in very cinematic fashion, in things like the Scalise shooting,” says historian Allen Guelzo.
“So we jump to the conclusion: Oh my goodness, does it mean we’re on the brink of civil war?”
No, answers Mr. Guelzo, director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College.
The Civil War was singular and is almost certain to remain so.
But he does see continuities, some of them surprising, between then and now.
And he thinks today’s divisions are worse than those of any time in American history except the 1850s and ’60s.
Today “there are a lot of unhappy personalities, and there are divisions of cultural values,” Mr. Guelzo tells me..."
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