Do you find it plausible that the South would secede over the prohibition of fossil fuels? Why, or why not? Why do you think El Akkad chose this as the dominant issue resulting in the Second Civil War?

Given the centrality of race in the first Civil War—along with the role race plays in contemporary America—why do you think El Akkad sets American War in what often appears to be a post-racial society?

The emergence of the Bouazizi Union as a global superpower is, by many measures, a rousing triumph of democratic governance. However, by the novel's end, Bouazizi is guilty of killing 110 million Americans. What does this say about how superpowers behave once they've reached the top of the global pecking order, and what they're willing to do to retain that position?