It’s been three years since insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As we approach yet another election that could be contested, it’s critical to continue unpacking what happened and what is in fact continuing to happen around Jan. 6. To do so, I spoke with Jeff Sharlet, a professor at Dartmouth College and the author of, most recently, The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War, published by Norton in March. The book draws from his writing as he traveled around America, meeting with, as the Washington Post put it, “furious people in forgotten places.” This book is one of the most stunning pieces of writing I have read in a long time. An excerpt of our conversation, edited and condensed for clarity, follows. Listen to the whole conversation on the most recent episode of Amicus.

Dahlia Lithwick: Jan. 6, 2021, sure looked like the start of what could be a civil war to many of us. This was a moment that we teetered into something and then we came back from the brink, but it was also a moment at which, I think, even the most fervent Trumpists and most Republicans publicly were trying to call off the dogs.

But it feels as though we’ve evolved into something quite different........

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