Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the rise of Right-Wing Extremism, Toobin - B+

                     "The insurrection of January 6, and much else in the contemporary conservative movement, show how McVeigh's values, views, and tactics have endured and even flourished in the decades since his death. That makes the story of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing not just a glimpse of the past but also a warning about the future."

                     McVeigh grew up in Lockport, near Buffalo, where "he had a troubled, but hardly extraordinary upbringing." In high school, he began his life-long consuming interest in guns. He obsessively collected them as he meandered through a broken home life, and the economic disenfranchisement of the Lockport region.  He began to read right-wing extremist tracts. In a famous white supremacist novel, the principal character drives a fertilizer based truck bomb into FBI headquarters. He was a racist who opposed immigration when he joined the army in 1988 at the age of 20. On his first day at Ft. Benning, he met Terry Nichols. Nichols had come of age in the midst of a farm crisis in Michigan and, like McVeigh "lost what they regarded as their birthright - opportunity, economic security, and cultural status."  McVeigh excelled as a soldier and loved the army. His action in Desert Storm was brief, but he did so well that he received a Bronze Star and was promoted to sergeant. His dreams shattered upon his return when he had to drop out of Special Forces training. Simply put, months in the desert eating C-rations and waiting in the heat had taken the edge off  his conditioning. He resigned six months later. He returned to Lockport and went to work for Burns Security as a supervisor. He spent a lot of time in his car and became further radicalized listening to Rush Limbaugh. After the election of Bill Clinton, he walked away from his middle class life. He gathered his guns and shortwave radio and drove off.

               He drove aimlessly around the country from gun show to gun show while sleeping in his car. He closely followed the siege of the Branch Davidian's compound and was quite shaken by the outcome in Waco. Indeed, it became his obsession. He was convinced the Clinton's were coming for his guns. He and Nichols decided they needed to do something, to take the offensive. They began to plan their bomb in the summer of 1993.  Their goal was to set it off on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the Waco siege. They assembled the materials through a combination of purchase and theft. They selected the Murrah building in Oklahoma City because of its proximity to the street.  They mixed the bomb in Kansas and Nichols drove away - McVeigh was on his own. On the night of the 18th, he slept in the rented Ryder truck in a MacDonald's parking lot about 40 miles north of OKC. He parked the truck in front of the Murrah building, lit the fuse, and walked away.  

             The bomb exploded at 9:02 AM. The front third of the six story building collapsed, killing 163. Ninety minutes after the bombing, McVeigh was pulled over by an Oklahoma trooper for driving a car without a plate, and was arrested after the officer noticed a firearm. Two days later, he was in FBI custody. Nichols was arrested the following day. McVeigh happily told anyone who listened that he was responsible for the bombing. The prosecution by the DOJ was narrow, i.e. focused on McVeigh and Nichols. Bill Clinton would have preferred a tie in to "the poisonous rhetoric of Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and the right-wing zealotry machine." The two men were indicted in August. A major part of the case came from Mike and Lori Fortier, stoner friends who knew about the plot and turned state's evidence. Because of concern about objectivity in Oklahoma, the case was moved to Denver and overseen by Judge Richard Matsch. He opted for separate trials for the two men. McVeigh's trial began in April, 1997. The government presented an open and shut case proving McVeigh committed the crime. The defense presented a weak case of reasonable doubt. After a few days of deliberations, the jury convicted McVeigh. In the penalty phase, the government presented three days of heart-wrenching testimony from the victim's families. To no avail, the defense tried to paint McVeigh as the ideal soldier. He was sentenced to be executed. Nichols was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.  McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001.

            McVeigh had wished to start a rebellion and to an extent he did. He inspired militias around the country to act. After 9/11, the right tried to deflect the focus away from themselves and onto foreigners. There was an explosive growth in fanatical rhetoric when Obama became president, much of it fanned by Fox News and the Republican establishment. There were constant acts of white supremacist and anti-government violence throughout Obama's eight years. And matters severely deteriorated under Trump, who touted many of the extreme violent tropes of the far right. The Biden administration is working to label those who deem themselves to be patriots as the traitors they are.

          In so many ways, this is a brilliant book. The first half is as fine as anything I've ever read. I believe the author stumbles with his attempt to connect McVeigh to January 6th. It is my observation that in the long road from the John Birch Society to the MAGA movement, McVeigh was a bit player, not a leader.