Moss leaps into the breach in this examination of the prospect, increasingly common in political rhetoric, of the United States breaking up into smaller independent nation states. Citing polling showing key constituencies on the left and right more amenable to the idea, and taking into account the depth and bitterness of U.S. political divisions, Moss plays what-if with the scenario, arguing that dissolution could be an alternative to civil war—but noting that his thought experiment is a “bit of science-fiction.” But, like all good SF, A More Perfect Union is attentive to both the causes of change of over time and their everyday impacts.

Rather than call for the nation’s crackup, Moss examines the fault lines that could lead to the breaking point, the constitutional and political steps it would take to bring it about, considerations that would ensure it’s done equitably, and—this is the fun part—a proposal of possible new nations, broken down in terms of population, GDP, and other factors. Pacifica runs from San Diego to British Columbia, represented by six senators and 68 congressional reps; the “fiercely independent” territories that make up Independence constitute Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas.

Gwyneth Paltrow once faced comic scorn for referring to her divorce as a “conscious uncoupling.” That’s essentially what Moss presents, a road map to making a painful measure as painless as possible. He addresses and attempts to counterbalance his biases, and considers issues like minority rights, the impact on commerce, the fate of the nuclear arsenal, and the necessity of a “Ten Year Cooling Off Period,” during which the new nations would pledge to cooperate as the existing federal government would wind down. This brief volume outlines basic steps it would take to achieve this, but not in great detail; a concluding chapter calling upon interested parties to organize to achieve change belies the insistence that this is all a bit of play.

Takeaway: A dispassionate consideration of what it would take to break up the United States into independent nations.

Great for fans of: F.H. Buckley’s America Secession, Richard Kreitner’s Break it Up.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: A-
Marketing copy: A