Seventh Flag / Sid Balman Jr.

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Author:

Sid Balman Jr.

Date:

SparkPress
October 2019

Author:

Additional Info

SEVENTH FLAG

Rights Holder: April Eberhardt Literary
Original Language: English

A sweeping work of historical fiction, Seventh Flag traces the arc of radicalization in modern Western Civilization, exposing the malignancy that has grown in the heart of the United States and reaffirming what it means to be an American in a dangerously divided nation.

The US and Europe have unraveled since World War II and radicalism has metastasized into every community, including the small West Texas town of Dell City, where four generations of both an iconic American family and a Syrian Muslim family have carved out a farming empire in the unforgiving high desert. These families’ partnership is as unlikely as the idea of a United States, and their powerful friendship can be traced back to 1948 during a bloody knife fight in a Juarez cantina. Each generation comes of age and adapts to shifting paradigms of gender, commerce, patriotism, loyalty, religion, and sexuality as they face real and perceived enemies—from the beaches of the Western Pacific to the battlefields of the Middle East, from Friday nights under the lights on rural football fields to Saturday afternoons in Michie Stadium at West Point, from the darkest corners of the Internet to the hippie playgrounds of Asia, and from the honky-tonks of Austin to the political backrooms of Texas, where fortunes are gained or lost over the rights to Western water. Underlying their experiences is the basic question of what constitutes identity and citizenship in America.

A Pulitzer-nominated national security correspondent, Sid Balman has covered wars in the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Kosovo, and has traveled extensively with two American presidents and four secretaries of state on overseas diplomatic missions. With the emergence of the web and the commoditizing of content, Balman moved into the business side of communications. In that role, over two decades, he helped found a news syndicate focused on the interests of women and girls, served as communications chief for the largest consortium of US international development organizations, led two successful progressive campaigning companies, and launched a new division centered on security issues at a large international development firm. A fourth-generation Texan, as well as a climber, surfer, paddler, and benefactor to Smith College, Balman lives in Washington DC with his wife, three kids, and two dogs.

“At precisely the moment when our diverse and multi-ethnic nation needs a spiritual lift, Sid Balman gives us a portrait of the complex racial and generational relations that define who we really are as Americans. You can smell the creosote of the desert and taste the huevos rancheros in this tale of West Texas . . . a splendid account of what being American is all about, a rich portrait useful to us all. . . . The book Donald Trump doesn’t want you to read.”
―Mike McCurry, former White House Press Secretary (1995–1998) and Director/Professor, Center for Public Theology, Welsey Theological Seminary, Washington DC

“Sid Balman’s story comes alive through sympathetic characters and descriptions of places so nuanced I imagined I could almost feel again the scratchy grey wool of the West Point uniform. Anyone paying attention to the global struggle with radicalism will come away with a much keener understanding of the humans who fall prey, the context that claims them, and the necessity to tackle this challenge with more finesse than we currently muster.”
―Kimberly C. Field, Brigadier General USA (ret) and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Conflict and Stabilization

“Seventh Flag’s rapid paced narrative takes readers from the football fields of West Texas to the battlefields of the Middle East, from Mexican shootouts to an ashram in India. A former war correspondent, Balman’s lively prose has his audience inside a tank’s turret and with the media cluster in the rear of the Secretary of State’s aircraft. The book entertains and enlightens!”
―US Ambassador James Bishop (Ret.)

“A must read! Seventh Flag views the world through the eyes of two very different families as they move through the trials and tribulations that we are currently experiencing across different societies and religions. Their journey together helps them appreciate the different challenges and choices individuals must make, the importance of family and their common humanity.”
―Shaykh Siddiqi, Founder Hijaz College; and The Blessed Guide of the Naqshbandi Hijazi Sufi Order

“Think you know what shapes Texas? Sid Balman’s tale of a Seventh Flag over Texas will rattle what you think. This saga of a generational partnership “as unlikely as the idea of a United States” is rooted in a true event from before the Civil War that led to Texas, of all places, being home to more Muslim Americans than any other state.”
―Mark Stein, New York Times bestselling author of How the States Got Their Shapes

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