TEHRAN – American scholar Francis Herbert Buckley’s book “American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup” has recently been published in Persian.

The Tehran-based company Dideman is the publisher of the book translated into Persian by Ruhollah Abdolmaleki.  The author, Francis "Frank" Herbert Buckley, is a Foundation Professor at George Mason University School of Law.

Americans have never been more divided, and they’re ripe for a breakup. The bitter partisan animosities, the legislative gridlock, the growing acceptance of violence in the name of political virtue — it all invites readers to think that Americans would be happier were they two different countries. In all the ways that matter, save for the naked force of law, Americans are already two nations. 

There’s another reason why secession beckons, says F.H. Buckley, “We’re too big.”

In population and area, the United States is one of the biggest countries in the world, and “American Secession” provides data showing that smaller countries are happier and less corrupt. They’re less inclined to throw their weight around militarily, and they’re freer too. There are advantages to bigness, certainly, but the costs exceed the benefits. On many counts, bigness is badness.

Across the world, large countries are staring down secession movements. Many have already split apart. Do Americans imagine that they, almost alone in the world, are immune? They had a civil war to prevent secession, and they’re tempted to see that terrible precedent as proof against another effort. This book explores that comforting belief, and shows just how easy it would be for a state to exit the union if that’s what its voters wanted.

But if that isn’t what they really want, Buckley proposes another option—a kind of Secession Lite—that could heal their divisions while allowing them to keep their identity as Americans.

The original book was published by Encounter Books in January 2020.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of American scholar Francis Herbert Buckley’s book “American Secession: The Looming Threat of a National Breakup”.

MMS/YAW