This roundtable will address how histories of the US Civil War can inform discussions about the current political divisions in the US and vice versa. In recent years, news and political commentators make frequent and often casual references to “civil war” or draw direct analogies between the breakdown of democracy in 1860-61 and contemporary politics. The participants in this roundtable will initiate a conversation with audience members about this important historical problem. Participants will explain the current status of thinking about how to understand the crises of secession and war and how that knowledge can inform our current political conversations. The purpose of the panel will be to explore how we use the past to understand the present and vice versa. Roundtable participants will offer short opening comments and then we will open up to a broader conversation with audience members.