Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence

I had forgotten most of the incidents recounted in this book. I was present for some of them. It seems like I should have learned more from them at the time. Well, never too late to learn.

I loved this book. It's a great discussion of the crazy period of the late 60s and 70s. Not only is it an amazingly interesting time politically and culturally, but it is, to me, informative about the current times we live in. Well written and full of unforgettable characters. Do it, brothers and sisters.

DAYS OF RAGE is a very good, enjoyable popular history.It's subject is that element of the post 60's American New Left that opted for violence.Specifically it concerns itself with the Weatherman,the Black Liberation Army(BLA), The Symbionese Liberation Army(SLA) and the FALN, as well as some lesser known groups.One of the books great strengths is Burrough seems to have no personal or political axes to grind.I'm not even clear on his politics, which is to the good.This is definitely a reporters book. I think he worked hard on this book and wants to share what he learned .Burrough tries to be as objective as he can.I think that will bother some of the books likely readers who will be looking for a romanticized view.Very few will be bothered by the portrait of the SLA, most famous for kidnapping Patty Hearst.They seemed like crazies at the time and in retrospect , nothing has changed.(The SLA is the source of the books comic moments). The BLA and FALN may have their nostalgiacs but one wonders why.It's with the Weathermen that I suspect Burrough steps on some toes .Burrough's Weathermen are upper middle class largely Ivy League radicals who imagined they were a Leninist vanguard.Burrough all but comes out and says this self perception was utterly ridiculous.After accomplishing next to nothing over a course of years, the Weather Underground, as it became known, concentrated on bombing rest rooms in public buildings.When that began to seem utterly pointless , they surrendered and generally landed fairly good jobs .Burrough is pretty skeptical of these people.At one point he makes it clear that he believes William Ayers is lying about the past in an attempt to prettify it.In this portrait,the Weatherman wind up looking pretty bad;Mediocre people with an inflated sense of their importance.It's also striking how not "new" much of this segment of the New Lefts ideology was .Burrough talks about people who read Stalin(one can only imagine the shear torture of that).All these groups seem to have been fixated on Marxist-Leninism.Burrough goes into considerable detail on how people operating underground were able to do what they did.I generally found this detail interesting.As I noted before, this is a reporters book.You'll learn lots about how people obtained false id , techniques for evading police and even a bit about bomb making.Burrough would definitely make a good crime story writer.

If you came of age in "the 60's" as I did, you'll be interested in this book for a few reasons. It will bring back memories, certainly, but it will also tell you what you missed. While we were living our lives, going to school, thinking about the war in Vietnam, forming relationships, being political or apolitical, having kids or not having kids, finding a job, and trying to figure out who we were, there were buildings being bombed, people going underground, banks being robbed and innocents being killed, all in the name of a revolution coming to America.Ultimately this book is very thought-provoking. When seen through the lens of 9/11, the current terrorist attacks and the struggles/injustices that people-of-color still have with the police, all that went on during the period covered in this book looks both more horrible and ineffective. It's depressing to realize how little progress we've made.It's also disturbing that when white radicals felt that their goals justified violence there was so little media attention paid...I'm sure that it doesn't escape the notice of the white members of the Weather Underground that they were able to go on to lead fairly normal lives while the blacks got stiffer sentences. I’m sure that they realize that had they had brown skin or foreign-sounding names, they wouldn’t be professionals leading normal lives today. So they’ve benefited greatly from the very conditions they were opposed to.This book also causes one to wonder about exactly what the differences are between those radicals in this book and the radicals today who have passionate political beliefs and feel that violence is the way to promote or address their cause. Be they Muslim extremists, right-to-lifers, religious cults or others who are so convinced that they are right and their cause justifies any and all actions, how are they any different?I wish that at the end of “Days of Rage” the author had addressed these questions. But that aside, this is an important documentation of a period of history when the Vietnam war and other news took attention away from what ultimately is a very important question: is it possible for us as human beings to move forward without violence? Is it possible to coexist peacefully with others of different religions, colors, and political opinions?

I know that some people have mentioned that this book lacks flair, and adhered too much to facts at the expense of critical analysis. I think, this might be slightly true, but I don't think that it detracts from the book. Rather, Days of Rage avoids many of the weaknesses that have plagued other works about this particular period.Burrough doesn't romanticize these people like many an ex-hippie pushing a radical agenda. He is clear-sighted about the nature of the radical underground, which seems to be created by equal parts narcissism, violence, idealism, self-indulgence and legitimate grievances. He clearly distinguishes the radical underground from mainstream Sixties counterculture. And while underground groups depended on support from above ground supporters, this support dried up after a few years, leaving groups to rely largely on robbery and fraud to support their campaigns of small scale bombings and occasional shootings.A fascinating portrayal of a movement that has largely become a historical footnote. Burrough brings his account of domestic terrorism and life on the run to life by interviewing G-men, ex-radicals, cops, radical lawyers, family members to give a gloriously detailed account of a time not unlike our own.

It is a very good review of the underground in the USA but i found it overly detailed. I really did not need a full description of every item of clothing worn every time by every one involved on every mission. By skimming I learned a lot and enjoyed learning about much of the time I had forgotten. As a Canadian I was not so up on all this anyway as it went on.

Very well written, detailed, and covers some important history that I knew nothing about prior to reading this.

Loved it really but perhaps a little too long and a little lacking in analysis. I wanted to know more about the motivations of the key players (ideological and emotional), how they sustained themselves, what they read (or more likely didn't), what connections and solidarity they had with similar groups elsewhere in the world. The readability and general tone was good but the author, like the subjects of book, seems unaware there is/was a wider world outside of the USA

Fantastic service. Highly recommended. Big thanks for a great book.