Marche argues that America, founded to reject authoritarian rule, now confronts fundamental institutional breakdown. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of experts for his book on potential civil conflict, he explores competing diagnoses for the nation's decline—whether it stems from the 2008 financial crisis, the 1980s surge in inequality, the end of Reconstruction in 1876, or deeper structural contradictions embedded in the founding itself.

The author contends that founding figures including George Washington and Abraham Lincoln explicitly warned against the hyperpartisanship and self-destruction now unfolding. This recognition has fractured how Americans understand their own history, with conservative-led curriculum rewrites in Florida and Texas challenging progressive interpretations of the Revolution, reflecting a broader intellectual discord about national identity and trajectory.