Publishers Weekly
03/06/2023
Toobin (True Crimes and Misdemeanors) delivers an eye-opening study of Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Drawing on the defense team’s internal records, interviews with McVeigh’s family members, and other primary sources, Toobin recounts how McVeigh became obsessed with guns when he was young; grew fixated on the white supremacist novel The Turner Diaries, whose protagonist bombs an FBI building; and joined the Army in 1988, meeting his future coconspirator Terry Nichols on the first day of basic training. After serving in the First Gulf War, McVeigh was largely aimless upon his return stateside. Angered by the federal government’s handling of the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff, the 1993 raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Tex., and Bill Clinton’s signing of the 1994 assault weapons ban, McVeigh and Nichols believed the government had declared war on gun owners and planned to strike back, assembling the materials to make a bomb that killed more than 160 lives, including 15 children. Toobin also delves into McVeigh’s anti-tax convictions, veneration of the Declaration of Independence, and conspiracy thinking, building a persuasive case that the bombing was motivated by beliefs that have come to dominate right-wing politics. It’s a tragic and edifying account of the road to domestic terrorism. (May)
From the Publisher
"Toobin provides the most authoritative and compelling history of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing to date. But what makes it such a gripping read is how Toobin puts the attack in context of an extremist, anti-government movement that has accelerated in the Internet age and eventually led to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol....His account of the bombing serves as a warning sign as much as it does a history of that legacy."
— The Associated Press
“Homegrown repeatedly draws a 'direct line'.. between the Oklahoma City bombing and the insurrection on Jan. 6... Intriguing."
— The New York Times
“Probing."
— The New Yorker
"The definitive book on McVeigh’s continuing legacy. This book serves as a wake-up call to the ongoing extremist threat...Though McVeigh was executed in 2001, Homegrown shows that his story is very much a story for today....Toobin carefully maps the road that leads from McVeigh to MAGA, January 6, and the right-wing extremism and violence we see today."
— The Texas Observer
"Extraordinary....A terrific reporter with legal expertise and a knack for vivid storytelling....Much of Homegrown reads like a Jack Kerouac novel..."
—The Chicago Sun-Times
"Brilliantly researched and argued....Toobin’s journalistic assessment of McVeigh and his paranoid style of politics generates an inescapable conclusion: The problem is getting worse....The bad news from Toobin’s remarkable work is that as long as the right wing fails to get its way, violence and threats against democracy and the people it is intended to represent will continue at the hand of Timothy McVeigh’s ideological heirs."
—Washington Monthly
"The definitive account of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the enduring legacy of Timothy McVeigh, leading to the January 6 insurrection."
— Next Big Idea Club
"In this gripping and harrowing work of history, Toobin has rendered a searing portrait of Timothy McVeigh. Toobin also illuminates the way extremism continues to infect our present. If you want to understand the threats to our democracy today, read this powerful book."
—David Grann, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager
“With groundbreaking reporting and sober analysis, Toobin offers an illuminating exploration of the unfolding story of right-wing extremism in the United States. The threat remains with us; useful and engaging, Toobin's account should brace us for the ongoing struggle against the worst of us.”
— Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winner and #1 New York Times bestselling author of And There Was Light
"Anyone trying to understand the violent extremism that led to the assault on America's Capitol on January 6th, and anyone who thinks that day marked the end of the story, must read Homegrown. Toobin shows that today's domestic terrorists are neither new, nor an isolated phenomenon. McVeigh's story is a nonfiction thriller, both eye-opening, and an urgently needed warning.
— Jane Mayer, bestselling author of Dark Money
"It’s tempting to believe that the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol took the Far Right to a deadly new level of violent fanaticism. Toobin’s fast-paced, expertly crafted book reminds us that it was all there a quarter of a century earlier, in a horrific mass murder that too many of us dismissed as the work of an unhinged loner.”
— Adam Hochschild, author of eleven books, including American Midnight
"Toobin’s finest work. The writing is propulsive, driven by huge moment-to-moment suspense. As always, Toobin’s research is impeccable. Most important, Toobin draws a straight line from McVeigh, whose crime has been understood sometimes as an isolated act of lunatic savagery, to the right-wing extremists who imperil us today."
— Scott Turow, #1 New York Times author of Presumed Innocent and Suspect
"A riveting account of the man behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the legacy of his actions, which reverberate today....an exhaustive but fascinating chronicle....Toobin delivers an equally gripping account of the prosecution, defense, trial, media coverage, and five years of appeals before his execution....An authoritative, disheartening, depressingly relevant page-turner."
— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"An eye-opening study of Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995....a persuasive case that the bombing was motivated by beliefs that have come to dominate right-wing politics. It’s a tragic and edifying account of the road to domestic terrorism."
— Publishers Weekly
"McVeigh was radicalized by many of the same ideas that radicalize extremists today....Toobin gathered insider facts from a trove of documents donated by the defense lawyers to weave together this hard-hitting narrative. Given the continued threats of violence and other actions against officials and democracy itself, Homegrown is a must read."
— Booklist
FEBRUARY 2024 - AudioFile
Jeffrey Toobin gives a thorough, detailed, yet quickly moving account of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh's life, beliefs, actions, and death--and how his credo lives on in current right-wing extremism. Like his text, Toobin's narration is brisk, clear, and free of adornment. His guy-next-door manner keeps the material approachable and the focus on the story. No emotional reaction would be adequate in response to the horror of McVeigh's crime, and Toobin doesn't try to provide one. He is more likely to register incredulity or scorn at McVeigh's beliefs and at his bloviating enablers in the media and politics, or alarm at the threat of McVeigh's now normalized worldview among the right. Toobin's straightforward account and performance help keep this long, informative program lively and interesting. W.M. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2023-02-25
A riveting account of the man behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and the legacy of his actions, which reverberate today.
Bestselling author Toobin describes Timothy McVeigh (1968-2001) as “the most thoroughly scrutinized criminal in American history.” Taking advantage of interviews, tapes, and correspondence that run to more than 1 million pages, the author scours his subject’s early life to create a portrait of a somewhat troubled but hardly extraordinary upbringing. He showed interest in firearms from an early age. He joined the National Rifle Association as a teenager and faithfully read its official magazine along with many right-wing publications that shared his disdain for the federal government. After several long-forgotten mass shootings, in 1994 the Senate passed a bill outlawing assault weapons, enraging gun supporters, including McVeigh. Toobin concludes that this launched him “on a full-time mission to go on the offensive against the Federal government,” and he provides an exhaustive but fascinating chronicle of a year when McVeigh—assisted by several like-minded but undependable friends—scrabbled for money, chose his target, and, following instructions in right-wing literature, assembled his bomb. Having neglected to plan his escape, he was quickly arrested, and Toobin delivers an equally gripping account of the prosecution, defense, trial, media coverage, and five years of appeals before his execution. McVeigh freely admitted planting the bomb, never expressed remorse for 168 deaths (including the children at the building’s day care center), and never stopped proclaiming that he was striking a blow for freedom. Few readers will doubt that he was a fanatic but, sadly, not a loner. During his lifetime, he moved among a dangerous fringe of gun lovers, government haters, and White supremacists. Since then, these groups have grown steadily more popular and entered the mainstream. Many serve in Congress and state legislatures; one, Toobin adds, became president. Consequently, McVeigh’s story is “not just a glimpse of the past but also a warning about the future.”
An authoritative, disheartening, depressingly relevant page-turner.
