A patriotic duty ?

In April 1995, Timothy McVeigh exploded a bomb hidden in a hired truck next to the Oklahoma City Federal building killing 168 people, including many children from the day care centre in the building. Homegrown by Jeffery Toobin is the story of that event and what led the bomber to do what he did. It is also a warning about the rise of right wing extremism and the author specifically links the Oklahoma City bombing to the events on 6 January 2020 when the Capitol building in Washington was stormed.

McVeigh was heavily influenced by books and radio programmes which emphasised right wing views and which highlighted what they saw as the decline of America. He was a racist and a misogynist who had served in the army but then lived adrift from society. The events at Waco (see my review of a book about the siege here which is also well worth reading) were seen by him as the federal government’s attack on citizens and he wanted to hurt the government the way that he thought that it had hurt the people. He felt that it was his patriotic duty and he never showed any remorse for his actions. The book shows his motivations and explains how he went about arranging the attack and carrying it out successfully.

The second half of the book discusses the FBI investigation and the strategies of the legal teams involved. The author considers that the decision to treat the bombing as a criminal act by one individual hid the fact that McVeigh was part of a much larger movement and shared ideas with many people. When better communication via the Internet became available these people became a greater threat – had McVeigh been able to rally greater support and to share his plans more widely then this bombing could have been even more devastating.

This is a fascinating book and it’s very well told. The author has also written an excellent book about the trial of OJ Simpson which I have read and found very interesting.