Richard Kre­it­ner is the author of Break It Up: Seces­sion, Divi­sion, and the Secret His­to­ry of America’s Imper­fect Union and Booked: A Traveler’s Guide to Lit­er­ary Loca­tions Around the World. He has writ­ten for The New York Times, The Wash­ing­ton Post, The Boston Globe, The Nation, Slate, The Baf­fler, Jew­ish Cur­rents, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. He lives in Bea­con, New York.