Jeffrey Toobin

I have wanted to read a thorough account of McVeigh and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and this one may be the definitive book on this horrific event. It was the worst terrorist attack on US soil, until 9/11, killing 168 people, many of them children. Jeffrey Toobin has quickly become one of my favorite narrative nonfiction authors. His book on Patty Hearst is also fantastic. What he effectively does, in Homegrown, is that he links this bombing with Trump and the January 6 Capital attacks, show more mapping out the rise of nationalism and right-wing media, which has led to many violent incidents and mass shootings over the past two decades. It is a meticulous and terrifying read. I am not a proponent of the death penalty, but I have no problem making an exception for McVeigh. show less

In the last days of the Nixon administration, the winter when my parents pulled me out of private university so that they could spend money on their divorce instead, one that had me working in an injection molding factory, the kidnapping of Patty Hearst occurred.

It was bizarre, of course. At one point, I speculated that the SLA was actually a covert FBI plot to discredit the left. If you were around in those days, you might remember all of the movements: black power, feminism, the Vietnam show more war protests, to name a few. It was all a bit scary for the the established power structures. Everyone I knew were afraid of the LAPD, and we were law-abiding folks (well, except for the cannabis use).

This book filled in a lot of blanks. The day-to-day coverage of this saga certainly left a lot to be desired. Since I wasn’t around my college friends, I really didn’t discuss the central question with anyone: did Patty really believe in the SLA’s goals, or was she just trying to survive?

Having lived through the Manson family thing when I was in high school, I was a bit surprised at some of the parallels with those people. For instance, how many of the people in both groups were women. And the willingness of the women to kill someone.

I did watch the assault on the house in L.A. live on television. It had finally dawned on me that they didn’t care at that point whether they might kill Patty. A truly bizarre piece of American history. Anyway, Toobin’s book is thorough and well-written and probably the only full account of the saga. show less

This is an incredible book! Meticulously researched and chock full of information. I wish it had been written long ago, before the current "popularity" of white supremacy! Maybe it would have helped prevent some of it from happening today.
Toobin dives into the world of Timothy McVeigh. Where he came from, who/what influenced him, how he became the terrorist that he did. The level of detail is so amazing, at times you feel like you are with McVeigh, looking over his shoulder.
I also show more particularly liked the second half of the book covering the legal machinations in McVeigh's defense. The oversized egos of the defense, the cautiousness of Merritt Garland and the prosecution, and the input of McVeigh himself. How in the world do you defend someone who wants to admit his culpability and start a race war?
I worked in Federal Prisons for 21 years. I remember when this all happened, and the effects it had on the white supremacist inmates. I remember finding a copy of the Turner Diary (a white supremacist book advocating a race war that deeply influenced McVeigh). I read it, and was left appalled, shocked, and disgusted by it's contents. I am not a left wing radical. I have been a centrist conservative (probably not by today's standards) for most of my life. Please believe me when I tell you that Toobin's book is a necessary addition to your reading list!
While I really enjoyed reading the story of McVeigh, where the book could really help society today is in it's telling of how right wing media heavily influenced McVeigh. And continues today to promote the propaganda. I wish people would read this and see for themselves that the so called journalists don't really believe what they are saying, but are just after ratings and adding to their own personas.
I have read close to 30 books so far this year, and this one goes down as my favorite so far. I could not put it down! Please, take some time and read it!
This is an important book. Very important for today's times! show less

I was 13 years old, nearly 14, when Timothy McVeigh detonated his bomb at the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I remember the reporting regarding the event from the news and the Chicago Tribune well. Much was made of McVeigh’s reasoning as reacting to Ruby Ridge and Waco. And that was about all of it.

Jeffrey Toobin is older than I am, and was actually reporting on McVeigh and the bombing after it happened. He, also, seemed to follow that same line of thinking about the show more case. But events which have transpired ever since led him to return to the case; after obtaining access to all the voluminous files from the defense, he was in a position to publish Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism (affiliate link).

The author tells the story of Timothy McVeigh: his origins, difficulties, army career, disillusionment, and deep descent into the world of reactionary militant ideology. Decisions regarding the bombing are described in detail, as well as its planning and execution. Much is made of McVeigh’s overall purpose: to start off the war of the “patriots” against the despotic regime.

As the author notes, McVeigh was at least a decade, if not two, too early: he might have found more success later on the Internet. The Internet was not nearly developed enough by 1995 to facilitate such a thing.

The author then tells the story of the criminal case: the prosecution, the defense, and the defendant. He does so in order to reinforce a few important matters which redound to this day: Merrick Garland’s decision to keep the focus on the two men and what they did, and not on what might have motivated them; McVeigh’s need to have credit for the event yet not wanting to be found guilty of it; and the defense’s strategy to insist other possible conspirators existed, thereby allowing plenty of conspiracy minded people to imagine whoever they might want to imagine as assisting with the OKC bombing.

The author does well at rehearsing all of what took place with a view to our present condition in the 2020s. Even though President Clinton himself was well aware of the reactionary swamps of which McVeigh was a part, the overall narrative regarding McVeigh and the OKC bombing was that of a “lone wolf,” and not representative of much of anything. Now we can see more vividly how whereas McVeigh’s actions were those of essentially a “lone wolf,” the fountains from which he drank encouraged him in doing so, and likewise encouraged a lot of other people to do something similarly. For the author, the comparison/contrast point is always January 6, 2021. It’s an understandable point of reference; it’s not like we all don’t know what McVeigh would have thought of it all had he still been alive to see it.

The overall purpose of the book is understandable and, ultimately, quite defensible: we do well to re-assess how we perceive McVeigh and his heinous act of domestic terrorism as part and parcel of reactionary ideology and rhetoric which not only continues to exist in America, but is thriving and more active than ever. It’s a sobering and distressing thought, but a major part of the challenge has been the unwillingness to see these patterns which manifest themselves.

Domestic reactionary right-wing terrorism is a very real thing in the United States of America, and in terms of number of attacks and victims, by far the most preponderant of forms of terrorism suffered in America today. This may be politically disadvantageous to many, and uncomfortable and embarrassing to others, but it’s the truth. Far too many people have never really wanted to believe a good ol’ American boy, an Army soldier no less, could have been made so reactionary as to be willing to blow up a federal building and kill hundreds of people to catalyze an insurrection against government forces; from then to now, people have wanted to believe foreign agents or left-wingers or someone else had to be involved. And so it goes to this day, with what happened on January 6 as well as many other events. Until we humbly confess how domestic reactionary right-wing terrorism is a major threat to the health and welfare of the United States and its citizens, and then seek to do something about it, it’s only going to get worse. show less