In Harry Turtledove’s alternate history novel Settling Accounts: Return Engagement, the narrative explores a fragmented North America engulfed in a second Great War during the early 1940s. The story follows a diverse cast of characters, including Congresswoman Flora Blackford and Confederate Intelligence officer Clarence Potter, as they navigate the brutal realities of a conflict between the United States and the Confederate States. Key plot points involve the Confederate invasion of Ohio, the emergence of atomic research, and the systematic massacre of Black citizens in Confederate-run camps. In the North, the Socialist administration struggles with domestic sabotage and the pressures of total war, culminating in the sudden death of President Al Smith during a bombing raid. His successor, Charles La Follette, must then lead a fractured nation against a defiant Freedom Party regime led by dictator Jake Featherston. Ultimately, the sources depict a world of shifting borders, industrial warfare, and the profound personal costs of long-standing national animosities.