First published 2023
Jeffrey Toobin examines Timothy McVeigh and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. The Gulf War veteran told his lawyers the attack was his patriotic duty, quoting the Declaration of Independence to justify overthrowing a government he saw as tyrannical. McVeigh watched the Waco siege obsessively and raged against Clinton's assault weapons ban. This white separatist from declining Buffalo wanted women in traditional roles and opposed immigration. He declared he believed an army was ready to rise up, even though he never found it. Toobin argues that army did exist and traces how McVeigh's ideology spread over decades after his 2001 execution. The author connects McVeigh's tactics to the January 6 Capitol attack, drawing from nearly a million unreleased documents, tapes, and photos, plus interviews with figures like Bill Clinton. The book shows how one man's extremist vision evolved into a lasting movement that threatens American democracy.
Genres: history, 20th-century, crime, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Buffalo, Oklahoma City, United States, Waco
Period: 1995, 2001
426 pages · Kindle Edition · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: death, graphic-violence, murder, violence