Author Description

Following decades of deindustrialization, economic decline, income inequality, and political polarization, parts of America are a tinderbox. In Detroit, the match is lit when the local power company routinely shuts off the electricity of households behind in their monthly payments even in the midst of an unusually brutal winter. Thousands of households resort to space and kerosene heaters, causing a spike in house fires and fire-related deaths. Following the death of a popular retired school teacher and her family, massive protests erupt. An underfunded and undermanned police department is quickly overwhelmed, and the U.S. Army is deployed. Welcomed at first by exasperated residents, the Army soon finds itself navigating internecine conflicts, an international refugee crisis, and failing infrastructure.