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

 Hello my lovely readers! This book was a doozy. Let's get into it.

SYNOPSIS
Timothy McVeigh wanted to start a movement.

Speaking to his lawyers days after the Oklahoma City bombing, the Gulf War veteran expressed no regrets: killing 168 people was his patriotic duty. He cited the Declaration of Independence from memory: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it.” He had obsessively followed the siege of Waco and seethed at the imposition of President Bill Clinton’s assault weapons ban. A self-proclaimed white separatist, he abhorred immigration and wanted women to return to traditional roles. As he watched the industrial decline of his native Buffalo, McVeigh longed for when America was great.

Homegrown reveals how the story of Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing is not only a powerful retelling of one of the great outrages of our time, but a warning for our future.

MY THOUGHTS
This is a great definitive account of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombings and I especially appreciate how Toobin links McVeigh's principles and beliefs to current-day politics. As usual, it shows that there's nothing new under the sun, however it's surprising that the rhetoric from the 1990s that what was seen as underground and abhorrent is now mainstream in the 2020s. I mean, how else would the January 6th riot have happened?

I was too young to remember the actual bombings--I was only five-years-old then--but I do remember the news of McVeigh's execution being aired on CNN. We were on vacation in Texas at the time and I remember watching it on the TV in our hotel room as my Dad ironed his clothes and my mom got dressed for a family outing. I'm glad books like this exists to educate me on news of which I was vaguely aware. 

I do wish there was more inclusion about the victims of the bombings and what their families think of what is happening in today's political climate.