A thorough, engaging work that reminds us of the humanity behind tragedy.
A fresh, powerful account of one of the bloodiest events in the 1990s—and its relevance to current times.
In 1993, a 51-day standoff at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, ended in a devastating fire and dozens of deaths. In the aftermath, certain elements of the story were distorted and misrepresented, and this controversial attention caused the true humanity behind the narrative to get lost. In this engrossing resurrection, prolific journalist and author Cook digs deep to uncover the forgotten human side of these terrible events, and he offers a painstaking reconstruction of leader David Koresh’s life and ascent to leader. At times, Koresh didn’t appear to be the madman portrayed in the media, but the author makes it clear that he did not practice what he preached. “Koresh alone decided who could break the rules and when,” writes Cook, and he maintained his power with psychological manipulation and mind control. The author is equally incisive about the Branch Davidians who followed Koresh and agreed to live frugally and communally. Together, they reinforced their leader’s often apocalyptic teachings and separatist ways. As Cook notes, “they used a biblical term to describe the ATF, FBI, and National Guard forces surrounding them: Babylon.” With government forces closing in and the media circus growing in intensity, further nefarious actions—including sex with underage girls and stockpiling of illegal firearms—led to the fight and ensuing massive fire that ended in “the deadliest day in FBI history.” In describing the standoff with exquisite detail and care, Cook masterfully portrays the scope of the violence and heartbreak on all sides. The author’s meticulous history and character portraits also serve as timely reminders of the danger of homegrown militias and the cultlike figures who often lead them. Unfortunately, this material is still fertile ground in America.
A thorough, engaging work that reminds us of the humanity behind tragedy.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9781250840523
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
PERSPECTIVES
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorker staff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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