Book: End of Days: Ruby Ridge - The Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America
Author: Chris Jennings
Pages: 385
This is my 213th read for the year
What Amazon Says:
On August 21, 1992, shots rang out while federal agents were surveilling a cabin in Boundary County, Idaho as part of an operation to arrest Randy Weaver - a reclusive, mountain-dwelling survivalist - for failrue to appear in court on a gun charge. When Weaver finally surrendered to the authorities 11 days later, his wife, son and dog lay dead, as did the US Marshal. Ever since, America has been trying to make sense of what happened on Ruby Ridge. Today, the question could not be more urgent, as the shock waves from Ruby Ridge have amplified and compounded, cracking the very foundations of our democracy. In this book, Chris Jennigns explains the significances of this historic siege by setting the story of the Weaver family within the long history of apocalyptic Christianity in the US, illuminating the ways in which that faither has gradually transformed the nation. The strain of doomsday Christianity that gripped the Weavers, he shows, was grounded in a particular reading of biblical prophecy that can be traced back to the 1870s and up through the 20th century rise of Christian fundamentalism to the right-wing conspiracism that now defines American society and politics. The events at Ruby Ridge acted as an accelerant for this spreading worldview, and are essential to understanding the crisis that our national confronts today.
This was an interesting book. I didn't know much about this story since I was high school age when it happened. I also didn't realize that this attact snowballed into David Karesh in Waco, which then lead to Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing. The book also goes into a deeper dive into Christian Fundamentalism and how it is affrecting our society and politics today. Good read.
Stars: 4
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