Beck novel depicts America sliding into civil war

Fox News commentator Glenn Beck has indicated that his novel, due out in June, will portray America in the throes of civil war. In a recent appearance before about 8,000 supporters in Orlando, Fla., Beck described the book as "a story of America at a time much like today where the people are confused and they're being lied to," according to Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News, who attended Beck’s American Revival event.

Bunch reported that Beck told the gathering the story depicts the rise of a citizen’s organization called the Founders Keepers, “a group of people that just won’t give up.” What follows, Beck said, is “a battle and a civil war, and life is upside-down planetwide."

On its Amazon page, the book is titled “The Overton Window.” Beck offered insight into his inspiration for the title on a Fox appearance during which he mentioned the book by a slightly different name: “We Are Americans: The Overton Window.” The term Overton Window refers to a theory developed by Joe Overton, a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, in which political ideas move in and out of a window of public acceptability.

The storyline of the novel has prompted some in the blogosphere to worry that Beck is inciting civil insurrection. As he told the crowd in Orlando, "If we don't face the truth right now, we'll be dead in five years -- this country can't survive." He also advised his listeners to stockpile food, saying: "I am incredibly prepared."