Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage

by Heather Ann Thompson

In this masterful, groundbreaking work, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Heather Ann Thompson reveals how the infamous New York subway shooting of 1984 divided a nation, unveiling the potent cocktail of rage and resentment that ushered in a new era of white vigilante violence.

On December 22, 1984, white New Yorker Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teenagers at point-blank in a New York City subway car. Goetz slipped into the subway tunnels undetected, fleeing the city to evade capture. From the moment Goetz turned himself in, the narrative surrounding the shooting became a matter of extraordinary debate, igniting public outcry and capturing the attention of the nation.

While Goetz's guilt was never in question, media outlets sensationalized the event, redirecting public ire toward the victims themselves. In the end, it would take two grand juries and a civil suit to achieve justice on behalf of the four Black teenagers. For some, Goetz would go on to become a national hero, inciting a disturbing new chapter in American history. This brutal act revealed a white rage and resentment much deeper, larger, and more insidious than the actions of Bernie Goetz himself. Intensified by politicians and tabloid media, it would lead a stunning number of white Americans to celebrate vigilantism as a fully legitimate means for addressing racial fear, fracturing American race relations.

Drawing from never-before-seen and archival interviews, newspaper accounts, legal files, and more, Heather Ann Thompson sheds new light on the social and political conditions which set the stage for these events, delving into the lives of Goetz and his four victims—Darrell Cabey, Barry Allen, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur. Fear and Fury is the remarkable account and searing indictment of a crucial turning point in American history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Crime

560 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication January 27, 2026

About the author

HEATHER ANN THOMPSON is an award-winning historian at the University of Michigan. She has written on the history of mass incarceration, as well as its current impact, for The New York Times, Time, The Atlantic, Salon, Dissent, New Labor Forum, and The Huffington Post. She served on a National Academy of Sciences blue-ribbon panel that studied the causes and consequences of mass incarcerations in the United States and has given Congressional briefings on this subject. Thompson is also the author of Whose Detroit?: Politics, Labor, and Race in a Modern American City and editor of Speaking Out: Activism and Protest in the 1960s and 1970s.

Reviews

[Chrystal Mahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

ear and Fury by Heather Ann Thompson is an intense and meticulously researched account of the 1984 subway shooting that shaped conversations about race, fear, and violence for decades. Thompson does an excellent job placing readers right in the middle of the sociopolitical climate of the Reagan 80s and showing how that climate fueled public reaction to the case.

The most impressive element is her focus on the lives of the four teens who were shot. Their voices and experiences are brought forward with respect and nuance. This alone makes the book feel groundbreaking, since so much of the original coverage erased their humanity.

Thompson also breaks down how media narratives elevated Bernhard Goetz to folk hero status while vilifying the boys. Her analysis of how coverage from outlets like the New York Post and later Fox News helped shape modern racial tension is sharp and eye opening. It is sobering to recognize how much of that narrative still echoes in current conversations.

This is not a light or quick read. It is dense, thorough, and emotionally heavy. But it is also essential reading for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how the United States arrived at the political and racial climate we see today.

Highly recommended for readers of true crime, history, sociology, and political analysis.

ARC reader review.

[Steven Conger · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1984 I was a student in the Divinity School at Duke University. I remember the terrible tragedy that took place on a subway in NYC on December 22, 1984 (41 years ago today). What I remember, and the story that Heather Ann Thompson painstakingly puts together and presents in Fear and Fury have very little to do with each other.

What I really appreciated is the way that Thompson has told the story of the four teens who were shot by Goetz on that Subway in December. How decisions made in Washington and NYC shaped their lives in ways that they had no control over. She made them real by giving the four of them life. I was able to see them in a way that was never presented in the media at the time.

What I do remember is how Goetz became a folk hero by the media and the teenagers became thugs at best. The work that Thompson has done brings the media coverage into a whole new light. And she reminds us how much the media can shape a story and our perception of what happened.

So much of Thompson's deep narrative is applicable to today. I appreciate the care and depth that she researched this case and brought to light how pervasive racism is in our society.

I highly recommend this study of a tragic time in American history.

Thank you Netgalley and Pantheon for an ARC for my opinion.