Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism

I am from the UK.I am a unashamedly left-wing liberal. Just to tell you that to give you the context for what I say.This is the second book I have read about Timothy McVeigh. It will probably be the definitive account of his story because of the authors access to all of the legal papers. I found it gave me a very good, balance, detailed story of Timothy McVeigh.It explained why he did what he did, and puts him in the context of his culture and society.As a left-wing liberal, who takes an interest in far right politics, and has recently read seven books on Donald Trump, I totally understand the authors attempt to identify Timothy McVeigh as part of an ongoing development of right-wing extremism in American politics. I think on the whole he makes his case, but I would prefer a little less continuous references and linkage to what happened on the 6th of January 2021 one.For me, the argument and evidence is clear – I don’t know why he needed to keep referring to it.Then again, some of the readers of this book may not be as au fait with American right-wing extremism as I am.So on balance, it deserves a five. It should be read by anybody who wants to understand The very very serious problems American culture has.How I hope this country does not go the same way! I know there are right-wing conservatives in this country, who want the same culture wars – to quotethe vice chairman of the Tory party. “if they don’t like the liberal multicultural society we have, they can always leave!

I had heard about this book some time ago but had not purchased it until recently. Its not the kind of book you can love but it is the kind everyone should read."In the nearly thirty years since the Oklahoma City bombing, the country took an extraordinary journeyed from nearly universal horror at the action of a right-wing extremist to wide embrace of a former president (also possibly future president) who reflected the bomber's values."I would encourage anyone to read this book

The analogy behind the reasoning in the mind of the Oklahoma City bomber with the Capitol rioters nearly thirty years later is quite frightening.

On April 19,1995, Timothy McVeigh exploded a truck bomb next to the Oklahoma City Federal building killing 168 people including many children from the day care center in the building. McVeigh's lawyer recently provided all of his files from the case including all of the files the FBI provided to the defense. The lawyer's files also included the extensive discussions between McVeigh and his legal team about his background and his motivations.Jeffrey Toobin has utilized all of these files to create a detailed page-turner about the case. The first half of the book details McVeigh's background and his motivations for the bombing. He had been heavily influenced by the book The Turner Diaries and took his idea for the truck bomb directly from this book. Also, he was a heavy consumer of Rush Limbaugh and other right-wing radio which fed his anger at the actions of the Federal Government in Waco. The second half of the book discusses the FBI investigation and the strategies of the legal teams involved.The book is very unsettling because it is clear that there are many other potential McVeigh's in America at the moment. Toobin demonstrates this with his lists of subsequent right-wing extremists actions since 1995 that parallel the McVeigh case in some way. Toobin also shows the parallels to the people who assaulted the US Capitol on January 6th.

This is a good explanation of how the right-wingers start getting their beliefs. Seems they are able to keep their plans a secret and even their friends that know about it are willing to aid and abet. This was surprising that noone who suspected some activity would not report it.

"Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism" is an in depth historical case study of the thinking of a "typical" extremist. It is based on conventional information resources (news, court records, etc.), plus all the information collected by McVeigh's formidable legal team (personal notes, communications, notes on interviews with numerous individuals, recordings, and much more). This latter material, which usually remains confidential, recently became accessible when it was donated to a University's holdings and made publicly available. The totality of the material available and an experienced author resulted in an excellent fact-based analysis of the extremist as well as the event. Even readers who have read widely on this topic should read this book.We see clearly how Timothy McVeigh came about (so to speak), and how a couple of individuals could conceive and execute a plan for so much carnage (worst terrorist attack ever till 9/11), and also how anti-government extremism was....... and continues to this day.This is a well written book.Authoritative.Very highly recommended.