Exceptional Times

Abstract: This essay begins as a reflection on the question of whether the US Civil War is truly over, a question appearing with more frequency than usual in the early months of the second administration of President Donald Trump. Rejecting the proposition that that Trump administration represents a continuation of the Civil War waged by the Abraham Lincoln administration in the 1860s, the essay posits that the connection between the 1860s and the current moment might be better made through the concept of a "state of exception," also known as a "state of emergency." National leaders in both periods invoked states of emergency. The more accurate description of governance in these moments, the article contends, is "constitutional dictatorship."