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Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol: The Explosive Story of M19, America's First Female Terrorist Group
In a shocking, never-before-told story from the vaults of American history, Tonight We Bombed the US Capitol takes a close look at the explosive hidden history of M19—the first and only domestic terrorist group founded and led by women—and their violent fight against racism, sexism, and what they viewed as Ronald Reagan’s imperialistic vision for America.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced that it was “morning in America.” He declared that the American dream wasn’t over, but the United States needed to lower taxes, shrink government control, and flex its military muscles abroad to herald what some called “the Reagan Revolution.” At the same time, a tiny band of American-born, well-educated extremists were working for a very different kind of revolution.
By the end of the 1970s, many radicals had called it quits, but six veteran women extremists came together to finish the fight. These women had spent their entire adult lives embroiled in political protesting the Vietnam War, fighting for black and Native American liberation, and confronting US imperialism. They created a new organization to wage their The May 19th Communist Organization, or “M19,” a name derived from the birthday shared by Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh, two of their revolutionary idols. Together, these six women carried out some of the most daring operations in the history of domestic terrorism—from prison breakouts and murderous armed robberies, to a bombing campaign that wreaked havoc on the nation’s capital. Three decades later, M19’s actions and shocking tactics still reverberate for many reasons, but one truly sets them unlike any other American terrorist group before or since, M19 was created and led by women.
Tonight We Bombed the US Capitol tells the full story of M19 for the first time, alongside original photos and declassified FBI documents. Through the group’s history, intelligence and counterterrorism expert William Rosenau helps us understand how homegrown extremism—a threat that still looms over us today—is born.
In 1981, President Ronald Reagan announced that it was “morning in America.” He declared that the American dream wasn’t over, but the United States needed to lower taxes, shrink government control, and flex its military muscles abroad to herald what some called “the Reagan Revolution.” At the same time, a tiny band of American-born, well-educated extremists were working for a very different kind of revolution.
By the end of the 1970s, many radicals had called it quits, but six veteran women extremists came together to finish the fight. These women had spent their entire adult lives embroiled in political protesting the Vietnam War, fighting for black and Native American liberation, and confronting US imperialism. They created a new organization to wage their The May 19th Communist Organization, or “M19,” a name derived from the birthday shared by Malcolm X and Ho Chi Minh, two of their revolutionary idols. Together, these six women carried out some of the most daring operations in the history of domestic terrorism—from prison breakouts and murderous armed robberies, to a bombing campaign that wreaked havoc on the nation’s capital. Three decades later, M19’s actions and shocking tactics still reverberate for many reasons, but one truly sets them unlike any other American terrorist group before or since, M19 was created and led by women.
Tonight We Bombed the US Capitol tells the full story of M19 for the first time, alongside original photos and declassified FBI documents. Through the group’s history, intelligence and counterterrorism expert William Rosenau helps us understand how homegrown extremism—a threat that still looms over us today—is born.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 7, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
January 8, 2020
It is simple to pretend that people who perform shocking acts of violence are different than everyone else. It's got to be something in their childhoods, we think, or maybe it's a mental illness. The most disturbing part of this book, and it admittedly has many, was that these women seemed so normal, just like you or me.
William Rosenau has combed through court files, newspaper articles and more to write Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol, a non-fiction account of a radical leftist terrorist group. They planted multiple homemade bombs, robbed and killed people, all in the name of freeing the world from imperialism. The majority of the group were highly educated, white women.
"They'd spent their entire adult lives embroiled in political struggles: protesting against the Vietnam War, fighting for black, Puerto Rican, and Native American liberation, and fighting against what they called U.S. 'imperialism' - that is, U.S. military aggression, political domination, and economic exploitation, particularly in the Third World."
Rosenau paints a careful picture to reveal how, step-by-step, the people involved in the group felt more and more marginalized and victimized to the point where they felt any and all actions were justified.
"Their vision of what this heaven on earth would look like was hazy, but one thing was certain: creating it would require nothing less than violent revolution. This vagueness about ultimate objectives is typical among terrorists."
There is so much information about a number of different people in this book that it can be overwhelming. But I think, ultimately, it is better to know what has gone on in the past because it affects the future in such a profound way.
"I discovered that during the 1970s and 1980s, the United States had waged an earlier 'war on terror' against violent domestic extremists, and it was during that period that the government created many of the counter-terrorism tools and approaches that continue to be used today."
The privilege of living in a free society is that all manner of ideas can be discussed and embraced or dismissed depending upon their merits. I want equality, freedom from tyranny and opportunities for all people - no matter what you're from, what you look like, or what your background is. However, I won't use violence to try and bring those ideals about. That seems to be the line in the sand for many. The people in this book didn't have that line but they seemed to espouse higher ideals.
And what a tragedy that is. If only their brilliant minds had been directed towards methods of bringing about change that worked within society rather than against a nameless enemy, our country might have been better for all of them.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy of this book. The brief quotations cited in this review may change or be omitted entirely from the final print version.
William Rosenau has combed through court files, newspaper articles and more to write Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol, a non-fiction account of a radical leftist terrorist group. They planted multiple homemade bombs, robbed and killed people, all in the name of freeing the world from imperialism. The majority of the group were highly educated, white women.
"They'd spent their entire adult lives embroiled in political struggles: protesting against the Vietnam War, fighting for black, Puerto Rican, and Native American liberation, and fighting against what they called U.S. 'imperialism' - that is, U.S. military aggression, political domination, and economic exploitation, particularly in the Third World."
Rosenau paints a careful picture to reveal how, step-by-step, the people involved in the group felt more and more marginalized and victimized to the point where they felt any and all actions were justified.
"Their vision of what this heaven on earth would look like was hazy, but one thing was certain: creating it would require nothing less than violent revolution. This vagueness about ultimate objectives is typical among terrorists."
There is so much information about a number of different people in this book that it can be overwhelming. But I think, ultimately, it is better to know what has gone on in the past because it affects the future in such a profound way.
"I discovered that during the 1970s and 1980s, the United States had waged an earlier 'war on terror' against violent domestic extremists, and it was during that period that the government created many of the counter-terrorism tools and approaches that continue to be used today."
The privilege of living in a free society is that all manner of ideas can be discussed and embraced or dismissed depending upon their merits. I want equality, freedom from tyranny and opportunities for all people - no matter what you're from, what you look like, or what your background is. However, I won't use violence to try and bring those ideals about. That seems to be the line in the sand for many. The people in this book didn't have that line but they seemed to espouse higher ideals.
And what a tragedy that is. If only their brilliant minds had been directed towards methods of bringing about change that worked within society rather than against a nameless enemy, our country might have been better for all of them.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free advance reader copy of this book. The brief quotations cited in this review may change or be omitted entirely from the final print version.
August 21, 2020
So, I hoped going in that this would be more feminist. It clearly states terrorist group in the title and it is true to that as a terrorist study of M19. The breakdown of individual members radicalization and the how the group formed out of earlier groups in the 60s and 70s. Well done, lots of footnotes, but to be clear, this is spoken from the side of the establishment and order. Yes, there are highlights of law enforcement mistakes and misjudgments, but this is about how a group of women from primarily middle class, white backgrounds became freedom fighters/terrorists--pick your own side of the coin.
Rosenau is hysterical, the irony and disdain bleeds through in this one: "As one Italian former terrorist put it, "after having already paid such a price, to quit meant to admit that all we had done had been useless." It was a psychological prison; you'd invested too much to quit. In the bloodless language of microeconomics, it was the fallacy of sunk costs."I'm seriously laughing because it's used to describe anti-imperialist guerrilla fighters. Cheeky.
Anyway, loads of terrorism breakdown and how people got pulled into the causes, which isn't uninteresting, but not really what I was looking for. Then again, what I'm looking for may not exist. I guess I find it interesting that feminism can't be a sworn ideology in of itself and always gets sucked into intersectionality.
Speaking of terrorism studies, I think this summary statement gives an interesting view of the facets: "But white supremacists and jihadists draw on some of the same impulses, beliefs, and emotions that motivated their far-left counterparts: a burning hatred of the United States; a yearning for a kind of utopia and a heaven on Earth; a sense that they are"soldiers" engaged in a "war"; the demonization or dehumanization of their perceived enemies; and the conviction that the bomb and the gun are essential instruments for creating new order."
Rosenau is hysterical, the irony and disdain bleeds through in this one: "As one Italian former terrorist put it, "after having already paid such a price, to quit meant to admit that all we had done had been useless." It was a psychological prison; you'd invested too much to quit. In the bloodless language of microeconomics, it was the fallacy of sunk costs."I'm seriously laughing because it's used to describe anti-imperialist guerrilla fighters. Cheeky.
Anyway, loads of terrorism breakdown and how people got pulled into the causes, which isn't uninteresting, but not really what I was looking for. Then again, what I'm looking for may not exist. I guess I find it interesting that feminism can't be a sworn ideology in of itself and always gets sucked into intersectionality.
Speaking of terrorism studies, I think this summary statement gives an interesting view of the facets: "But white supremacists and jihadists draw on some of the same impulses, beliefs, and emotions that motivated their far-left counterparts: a burning hatred of the United States; a yearning for a kind of utopia and a heaven on Earth; a sense that they are"soldiers" engaged in a "war"; the demonization or dehumanization of their perceived enemies; and the conviction that the bomb and the gun are essential instruments for creating new order."
July 22, 2020
The swords of Mid-Twentieth Century liberal activism were foraged in the fires of the civil rights movement and anti-war protests of the 1960s. By the 1980s, most such activists settled down into conventional, middle class lives. But there was a small percentage of protesters who became increasingly radical, eventually evolving into Marxist terrorists.
These oddballs naively thought that their bombings, robberies, kidnappings and killings would, somehow, trigger a proletarian uprising that would overturn Ronald Reagan’s capitalist America.
The story of one of the most unusual of these fringe groups is told in Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol. The May 19th Communist Organization was founded and dominated by women. All were middle class, college educated children of liberal parents.
Fueled by a sincere desire to improve the lot of minorities and to end the war in Vietnam, along with a healthy does of liberal guilt, the May 19th women began associating with violent groups like the Weather Underground and the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.
As those organizations were broken up by the FBI, May 19th (named in honor of Che Guevara's birthday) went solo. Never a large group, May 19th pulled off seven bombings in the early 1980s, including a late-night attack on the U.S. Senate that did over a million dollars in damage. Their most violent action was the 1981 killing of two police officers and a Brinks truck guard during a robbery in coordination with the Black Liberation Army.
Developing new techniques in counterroism, the FBI and AFT eventually tracked down and arrested all the May 19th terrorists except for two who remain at large. The group was defunct by 1985.
The fall of the Soviet Union and the adoption of capitalism by the Chinese Communist Party cut the ground out from under Marxist terrorism. Today, as we all know, it is the far right and Islamic fundamentalism that have emerged as the greatest terroristic threats.
Author William Rosenau, was an antiterroism expert at the RAND Cooperation. Unfortunately, Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol reads like a think tank position paper rather than an exciting work of popular history. Roseenau, keeps interrupting the narrative with detailed biographies of all the players. He often makes lengthy asides into the background of other, mostly European, terrorist outfits which have no connection to May 19th. Group.
None of the surviving members would agree to be interviewed, so we are denied insight into how their views might have changed over the decades. Rosenau suggests that they all remain unrepentant for their actions, though some have abandoned their youthful Communist affiliation.
Rosenau compiled a huge amount of information on this minor band of kooks, and he buries the story in masses of insignificant detail. We don’t really need to know what food the women scarfed down as they plotted their next bombing.
But caveats aside, Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol provides a perceptive look at a forgotten outlier element within conservative 1980s America.
These oddballs naively thought that their bombings, robberies, kidnappings and killings would, somehow, trigger a proletarian uprising that would overturn Ronald Reagan’s capitalist America.
The story of one of the most unusual of these fringe groups is told in Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol. The May 19th Communist Organization was founded and dominated by women. All were middle class, college educated children of liberal parents.
Fueled by a sincere desire to improve the lot of minorities and to end the war in Vietnam, along with a healthy does of liberal guilt, the May 19th women began associating with violent groups like the Weather Underground and the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.
As those organizations were broken up by the FBI, May 19th (named in honor of Che Guevara's birthday) went solo. Never a large group, May 19th pulled off seven bombings in the early 1980s, including a late-night attack on the U.S. Senate that did over a million dollars in damage. Their most violent action was the 1981 killing of two police officers and a Brinks truck guard during a robbery in coordination with the Black Liberation Army.
Developing new techniques in counterroism, the FBI and AFT eventually tracked down and arrested all the May 19th terrorists except for two who remain at large. The group was defunct by 1985.
The fall of the Soviet Union and the adoption of capitalism by the Chinese Communist Party cut the ground out from under Marxist terrorism. Today, as we all know, it is the far right and Islamic fundamentalism that have emerged as the greatest terroristic threats.
Author William Rosenau, was an antiterroism expert at the RAND Cooperation. Unfortunately, Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol reads like a think tank position paper rather than an exciting work of popular history. Roseenau, keeps interrupting the narrative with detailed biographies of all the players. He often makes lengthy asides into the background of other, mostly European, terrorist outfits which have no connection to May 19th. Group.
None of the surviving members would agree to be interviewed, so we are denied insight into how their views might have changed over the decades. Rosenau suggests that they all remain unrepentant for their actions, though some have abandoned their youthful Communist affiliation.
Rosenau compiled a huge amount of information on this minor band of kooks, and he buries the story in masses of insignificant detail. We don’t really need to know what food the women scarfed down as they plotted their next bombing.
But caveats aside, Tonight We Bombed the U.S. Capitol provides a perceptive look at a forgotten outlier element within conservative 1980s America.
September 9, 2020
I enjoyed this a lot actually. I was worried that it was just going to be full of anti-left rhetoric (terrorist group...) but it wasn't really. I wish it were longer! though I understand M19 kept very tight-lipped... I will also say that it touches on the fact that it was all/mostly women in the group but that felt secondary to their politics and action as far as the book is concerned.. not a TON of analysis around that outside of some comments around lesbianism.
we need more John Browns...
we need more John Browns...
September 13, 2023
Impeccably researched, compellingly written. I knew nothing about May 19th as an organization before reading this, but it ended up connecting pockets of things things/groups/events that I *had* known about.
July 21, 2020
There's a joke in here early on about the author trying to set up an interview with one of the members of the group he's writing about and getting a response back that basically just says I've read your bio and can't believe you'd expect me to ever talk to someone like you. That's sort of how I felt about reading this book. If the guy is an analyst for Rand and other government think tanks, how could he possibly have a respectable opinion on activism or resistance movements? Isn't it his job to help governments figure out the best way of controlling people? Surprisingly though, it's really not too bad. He is very careful to always use phrases like "according to them" when describing their opinions on U.S. foreign policy and police violence and things but he does allow the extremists to explain their views, even seeming sympathetic to a lot of their concerns. It's actually one of those rare books that a wide range of the political spectrum could appreciate. Ostensibly it's about understanding far Left extremism so that it can be prevented but even the most radical Leftists who might consider using violence will appreciate things like the details on how these people got themselves caught. As a result, I don't think too many readers will hate this book. There's just not much reason for anyone to love it either.
The only time the author really gives his own opinion on anything is in the concluding paragraphs where he says that the Right's fear about anarchists and Antifa seems excessive. To him, it's white supremacists, Neo-Nazis and religious fundamentalists that are most concerning, and I definitely agree with that general idea. They're certainly committing the most violence, and their goals are obviously way worse than even the most confused of Left-wingers. However, I do think he's missing the bigger picture. With climate apocalypse looming, wealth inequality continuing to get more and more obscene, surveillance getting unbearably invasive and the economic growth that capitalism depends on reaching its limits, the actions we've considered "extremist" in the past will start to seem a lot more reasonable as the Right loses its last bit of credibility but refuses to ever admit defeat. Frankly, I HOPE we see more Left-wing extremism soon! The planet isn't likely to survive without it. It'd be nice if radicals were smarter about their actions than these hippie groups that robbed banks to support their drug habits and who thought state Communism was the ideal. Unfortunately it wouldn't surprise me too much if modern resistance movements kept the tradition of using counter-productive tactics for misguided ideals going though. We'll see, I guess.
The only time the author really gives his own opinion on anything is in the concluding paragraphs where he says that the Right's fear about anarchists and Antifa seems excessive. To him, it's white supremacists, Neo-Nazis and religious fundamentalists that are most concerning, and I definitely agree with that general idea. They're certainly committing the most violence, and their goals are obviously way worse than even the most confused of Left-wingers. However, I do think he's missing the bigger picture. With climate apocalypse looming, wealth inequality continuing to get more and more obscene, surveillance getting unbearably invasive and the economic growth that capitalism depends on reaching its limits, the actions we've considered "extremist" in the past will start to seem a lot more reasonable as the Right loses its last bit of credibility but refuses to ever admit defeat. Frankly, I HOPE we see more Left-wing extremism soon! The planet isn't likely to survive without it. It'd be nice if radicals were smarter about their actions than these hippie groups that robbed banks to support their drug habits and who thought state Communism was the ideal. Unfortunately it wouldn't surprise me too much if modern resistance movements kept the tradition of using counter-productive tactics for misguided ideals going though. We'll see, I guess.
August 21, 2020
This book was very interesting, though not necessarily for the reasons I expected. Given the overly specific title, I assumed I had some idea of what I was about to read. I don’t think I’m alone in this confusion, and I saw another reviewer mention that this book was not as feminist as anticipated, which I whole-heartedly agree with. The first half of the book, for example, was actually about a male-dominated radical group, which was confusing and unexpected.
The latter half of the book did discuss the movements of the women involved, but not in the detail I had hoped for. Instead of discussing motivations, or going into detail about each M19 member, we instead get a detail-lacking timeline of their activities. The author provides a snapshot of the actions of the group, as well as a brief run-down of what happened to each member, but with no real discussion of the group or relationships, etc.
All of that said, I did enjoy this book. The scope of the text was impressive, and I enjoyed reading about everything from Vietnam-era protest movements, to the FBI’s hunt for communists, to a brief history of law enforcement’s view of terrorism. I think this book did have a lot to offer in its historical discussions of protests, and reading about how law enforcement responded to these protests felt very timely.
If you’re looking for a specific book about the M19 group, oddly I don’t know that this is what I would recommend. If you’re interested in a history of terrorism and protests in America, then this is actually fantastic. The book covers history from the late 1960s to the 1980s, and gives some interesting perspectives on the various radical counter-culture movements. Reading this book in the context of 2020 was also very poignant, and the parallels were that much more noteworthy.
The latter half of the book did discuss the movements of the women involved, but not in the detail I had hoped for. Instead of discussing motivations, or going into detail about each M19 member, we instead get a detail-lacking timeline of their activities. The author provides a snapshot of the actions of the group, as well as a brief run-down of what happened to each member, but with no real discussion of the group or relationships, etc.
All of that said, I did enjoy this book. The scope of the text was impressive, and I enjoyed reading about everything from Vietnam-era protest movements, to the FBI’s hunt for communists, to a brief history of law enforcement’s view of terrorism. I think this book did have a lot to offer in its historical discussions of protests, and reading about how law enforcement responded to these protests felt very timely.
If you’re looking for a specific book about the M19 group, oddly I don’t know that this is what I would recommend. If you’re interested in a history of terrorism and protests in America, then this is actually fantastic. The book covers history from the late 1960s to the 1980s, and gives some interesting perspectives on the various radical counter-culture movements. Reading this book in the context of 2020 was also very poignant, and the parallels were that much more noteworthy.
July 8, 2021
I appreciate the author saying in the begining that he worked for decades at the RAND foundation and in the pentagon and saying that while he knows his vision is skewed, he tries his best to not be biased. It's also the reason why he uses just government documents as his references. He tried to talk to one of the may 19th memeber who is currently still in jail and they responded "I read your bio. Why would you think i'd ever want to talk to somebody like you?" This book could have been better edited. 2 stars cause its not a bad book, its just very... meh.
September 18, 2022
I feel badly for what I'm about to write -- largely for the authors as I know how much time, labor, sweat, etc., is invested in writing a book, let alone a book like this. But I've got to be honest. I bought this book and started it in May 2020 and nearly 2 1/2 years later, having read, stopped, started again much later, stopped, repeat, repeat, I'm now just giving up in massive frustration. And you know, I'm guessing my reaction might not have been so bad if not for the marketing, or more precisely the misleading book title that set me up with massive excitement & lofty expectations only to make me feel -- consistently bored every fu**ing time I read just a paragraph -- that has to be among my top five literary disappointments of all time. Which is saying a lot. It bored me endlessly, almost to the point of begging for physical torture so I could be released from the mental torture, experienced in the constant knowledge that I was experiencing the most UNDERwhelming book of my life! God, I feel cheated. And I resent that. It was so NOT what the title states or promises. Explosive story? Possibly a play on words as some of these women were loosely attached (largely in a support role) to a few Black Panther/BLA bombers. Even then, that would be a lousy trick & not worth crap. But if that title is meant to be literal, that's false advertising if I've ever seen it.
Think about it. If we're sticking solely with nonfiction, in no specific order & off the top of my head, I can think of a number of books that both I & probably a number of others would describe as at least as explosive or exciting, if not more. And I'm aware this is subjective, but at the moment I don't have the time to address that. Nonetheless, some options include:
Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter
(Possibly) The Rape of Nanking by Iris Change
The infamous Anarchist Cookbook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Bernard Fall's Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction by Dan Barker
(and by far the most exciting & explosive nonfiction I've ever read...)
Ken Follett's On Wings of Eagles
There are so many more I could add but I see little point. Moving on, just sticking with the overall theme & era, there are/were so many groups within the US & globally -- some almost more fringe & unknown than M19 -- that there seems to be an endless supply of resources. But as most would expect, there's a plethora of resources on a number of the usual people or groups, which doesn't make them illegitimate to read about, but does cause the forever curious, like myself, to seek out info on more fringe, unknown, suppressed groups, people and topics & as this is the only book I had come across on M19, I was pretty excited. One can only read so much increasingly redundant stuff on groups labeled "dissident, militant" & soon "domestic terrorists." Some include the SDS, Weather Underground, Black Panthers, German Red Army Faction (RAF) (which, like many, had ties to Carlos the Jackal, the most notorious terrorist, but one of whom I feel is correct to include despite not working his violence for personal political reasons -- many of his clients WERE), SLA, BLA, American Indian movement, Italy's Red Brigades, etc. I've known there were others yet some seem to be lacking nearly any resources, info, etc., which simply served to make me all the more eager to locate nearly any info for the really underground ones. And M19CO (related name) was one of those.
To generalize badly, the smallish group was largely comprised of Jewish college graduates or dropouts, nearly all from mid-to-upper class families, most of whom had gone to elite schools, whether Ivy League or more women-traditional like a Smith or Wellesley, many to most of whom were lesbians (neither here nor there -- just part of the overall description, as were the prep schools, etc., et al), who had caught the revolutionary buzz circulating among both thousands of students (typically of similar backgrounds) or historically oppressed minorities, many of which initially formed as both community defense groups (from the police, such as the Black Panthers) or/as well as groups that gave out free breakfast to neighborhood children, set up free medical clinics, preached "black power" in some cases, etc. Some were radical in their speech & ideas while others became quite dangerous, yet often as many were being literally destroyed by the FBI in Hoover's infamous program you all probably know about. M19 has been attributed with some of the more infamous bombings of the late '70s & early '80s, but even though I read a large section of the book, I can't name a single instance in which they either didn't have massive aid from their BLA friends or were themselves little more than watchers & getaway drivers while the men did the dirty work. I'm under the impression that changed with time, but I was so ticked off at what I viewed as false advertising due to the title, as well as being bored beyond description & hoping the women would eventually become the dominant players they're supposed to be that I didn't even care anymore. Lesser known groups (& causes) that interested me were the various & many Puerto Rican "Freedom fighter"/"terrorist" groups fighting a war dating back to the beginning of the century. A war against the US government, trying to earn their freedom as a nation instead of what the people there had been forced to endure as an American trophy obtained via the Spanish-American War and later as a federal territory, though never a state. If you want to read about some horrors long suppressed in American textbooks, look up info on Puerto Rico since about 1900 & its relationship with the US government. (While not recommending any in specific, some options might include Militant Puerto Ricans: Migrants, Armed Struggle & Political Prisoners or War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony.) Anyway, there were many such dissident groups in the US, one of the foremost of which was called the Young Lords. One of the least known, least publicized yet most violent ended up, I believe, bombing more than 120 government & other important commercial locations/buildings than any other was FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional). Some of their more infamous bombings included Wall Street -- literally -- the Rockefeller Center, courthouses, theaters, New York Life & Metropolitan Life's NY headquarters, as well as attempts against government officials like Carter & Bush, etc. While little known to the public & aside from their leader, virtually unknown to most of the government, a group of them were captured in Illinois around 1980. So, you want government acknowledgment, let alone details? Do your best looking because basically the only thing the government has ever produced as available to the public and not classified is something I have in many formats, including the actual book produced by Congress. Many of these versions have different titles, but they are all literally the same. The book held in my hand right now is called Clemency For the FALN: A Flawed Decision? Otherwise formally known as a "Hearing Before the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session September 21, 1999, Serial No. 106-44." And it's a copy of the most boring drivel, the actual Congressional hearing so important about this dangerous FALN, that its purpose was to crap all over Clinton for granting clemency to these men who had just spent close to 20 years in prison. Yep, that's it. Now, try to find info, docs, lit BY FALN. There are a couple of books about or including FALN. But it's hard. There's not much there by the group. Two German universities had a couple of documents awhile back. FALN is still around, though, unlike virtually all of these other groups. Leaving them all, like M19, in the dust. (M19's era lasted from the late '70s to slightly beyond 1985.)
Yes, I went on too long there but my point is I would prefer to read about any of these other groups rather than M19, or perhaps a different author/publisher might have made or would make a difference. Considering my interest in the subject, let me make clear about just how much I do not recommend this book. I'd rather read Sartre's tome Being & Nothingness (and I love his fiction & drama), which has to be among the most brain-addling & rather blasé book (or maybe I'd rather read about algorithms?) I've read yet. So while everyone is different & some have liked this M19 book, I guess it's no surprise to me that its rating on Goodreads is below a 3.5. Sorry, but never recommended by me.
Think about it. If we're sticking solely with nonfiction, in no specific order & off the top of my head, I can think of a number of books that both I & probably a number of others would describe as at least as explosive or exciting, if not more. And I'm aware this is subjective, but at the moment I don't have the time to address that. Nonetheless, some options include:
Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter
(Possibly) The Rape of Nanking by Iris Change
The infamous Anarchist Cookbook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Bernard Fall's Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu
God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction by Dan Barker
(and by far the most exciting & explosive nonfiction I've ever read...)
Ken Follett's On Wings of Eagles
There are so many more I could add but I see little point. Moving on, just sticking with the overall theme & era, there are/were so many groups within the US & globally -- some almost more fringe & unknown than M19 -- that there seems to be an endless supply of resources. But as most would expect, there's a plethora of resources on a number of the usual people or groups, which doesn't make them illegitimate to read about, but does cause the forever curious, like myself, to seek out info on more fringe, unknown, suppressed groups, people and topics & as this is the only book I had come across on M19, I was pretty excited. One can only read so much increasingly redundant stuff on groups labeled "dissident, militant" & soon "domestic terrorists." Some include the SDS, Weather Underground, Black Panthers, German Red Army Faction (RAF) (which, like many, had ties to Carlos the Jackal, the most notorious terrorist, but one of whom I feel is correct to include despite not working his violence for personal political reasons -- many of his clients WERE), SLA, BLA, American Indian movement, Italy's Red Brigades, etc. I've known there were others yet some seem to be lacking nearly any resources, info, etc., which simply served to make me all the more eager to locate nearly any info for the really underground ones. And M19CO (related name) was one of those.
To generalize badly, the smallish group was largely comprised of Jewish college graduates or dropouts, nearly all from mid-to-upper class families, most of whom had gone to elite schools, whether Ivy League or more women-traditional like a Smith or Wellesley, many to most of whom were lesbians (neither here nor there -- just part of the overall description, as were the prep schools, etc., et al), who had caught the revolutionary buzz circulating among both thousands of students (typically of similar backgrounds) or historically oppressed minorities, many of which initially formed as both community defense groups (from the police, such as the Black Panthers) or/as well as groups that gave out free breakfast to neighborhood children, set up free medical clinics, preached "black power" in some cases, etc. Some were radical in their speech & ideas while others became quite dangerous, yet often as many were being literally destroyed by the FBI in Hoover's infamous program you all probably know about. M19 has been attributed with some of the more infamous bombings of the late '70s & early '80s, but even though I read a large section of the book, I can't name a single instance in which they either didn't have massive aid from their BLA friends or were themselves little more than watchers & getaway drivers while the men did the dirty work. I'm under the impression that changed with time, but I was so ticked off at what I viewed as false advertising due to the title, as well as being bored beyond description & hoping the women would eventually become the dominant players they're supposed to be that I didn't even care anymore. Lesser known groups (& causes) that interested me were the various & many Puerto Rican "Freedom fighter"/"terrorist" groups fighting a war dating back to the beginning of the century. A war against the US government, trying to earn their freedom as a nation instead of what the people there had been forced to endure as an American trophy obtained via the Spanish-American War and later as a federal territory, though never a state. If you want to read about some horrors long suppressed in American textbooks, look up info on Puerto Rico since about 1900 & its relationship with the US government. (While not recommending any in specific, some options might include Militant Puerto Ricans: Migrants, Armed Struggle & Political Prisoners or War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony.) Anyway, there were many such dissident groups in the US, one of the foremost of which was called the Young Lords. One of the least known, least publicized yet most violent ended up, I believe, bombing more than 120 government & other important commercial locations/buildings than any other was FALN (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional). Some of their more infamous bombings included Wall Street -- literally -- the Rockefeller Center, courthouses, theaters, New York Life & Metropolitan Life's NY headquarters, as well as attempts against government officials like Carter & Bush, etc. While little known to the public & aside from their leader, virtually unknown to most of the government, a group of them were captured in Illinois around 1980. So, you want government acknowledgment, let alone details? Do your best looking because basically the only thing the government has ever produced as available to the public and not classified is something I have in many formats, including the actual book produced by Congress. Many of these versions have different titles, but they are all literally the same. The book held in my hand right now is called Clemency For the FALN: A Flawed Decision? Otherwise formally known as a "Hearing Before the Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session September 21, 1999, Serial No. 106-44." And it's a copy of the most boring drivel, the actual Congressional hearing so important about this dangerous FALN, that its purpose was to crap all over Clinton for granting clemency to these men who had just spent close to 20 years in prison. Yep, that's it. Now, try to find info, docs, lit BY FALN. There are a couple of books about or including FALN. But it's hard. There's not much there by the group. Two German universities had a couple of documents awhile back. FALN is still around, though, unlike virtually all of these other groups. Leaving them all, like M19, in the dust. (M19's era lasted from the late '70s to slightly beyond 1985.)
Yes, I went on too long there but my point is I would prefer to read about any of these other groups rather than M19, or perhaps a different author/publisher might have made or would make a difference. Considering my interest in the subject, let me make clear about just how much I do not recommend this book. I'd rather read Sartre's tome Being & Nothingness (and I love his fiction & drama), which has to be among the most brain-addling & rather blasé book (or maybe I'd rather read about algorithms?) I've read yet. So while everyone is different & some have liked this M19 book, I guess it's no surprise to me that its rating on Goodreads is below a 3.5. Sorry, but never recommended by me.
June 8, 2020
Previously untold story of a group of hard-core communist holdovers from the 60's who couldn't let go of the revolutionary rhetoric and tried to continue the goals of the various movements from that era with a series of bombings of police military and government buildings funded by a string of armed robberies.
The "hook" if you will is that these were all women.
It's a fascinating read when read through the prism of today's discussions of "white privilege" and 'systemic racism" that have been stirred up to a boiling point of late and have spilled out into rioting in the streets much like those of the late sixties.
The author tries very hard and largely succeeds in being objective but he seems to be a little sympathetic to the goals of the group. I am betting he would admit to admiring their goals but not their methods.
In the final chapter he dismisses the threat of the wave of left inspired violence (antifa) and feels that the extreme right is a lot more dangerous. Certainly mass shootings from deranged white supremacists or racists shouldn't be ignored.
But I find it strangely naive that someone who has studied domestic terrorism for so long seems to miss the fact that groups like M19 or the Weathermen grew out of the student protest movement of the 60's. It's not at all a stretch to imagine that there are small groups of young people involved with today's' current student protest movement who are moving down the road to "revolutionary violence" because they feel the current methods aren't ideologically pure enough or not getting the results they hoped for.
In this case maybe the old saw about "those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it" has some weight???
The "hook" if you will is that these were all women.
It's a fascinating read when read through the prism of today's discussions of "white privilege" and 'systemic racism" that have been stirred up to a boiling point of late and have spilled out into rioting in the streets much like those of the late sixties.
The author tries very hard and largely succeeds in being objective but he seems to be a little sympathetic to the goals of the group. I am betting he would admit to admiring their goals but not their methods.
In the final chapter he dismisses the threat of the wave of left inspired violence (antifa) and feels that the extreme right is a lot more dangerous. Certainly mass shootings from deranged white supremacists or racists shouldn't be ignored.
But I find it strangely naive that someone who has studied domestic terrorism for so long seems to miss the fact that groups like M19 or the Weathermen grew out of the student protest movement of the 60's. It's not at all a stretch to imagine that there are small groups of young people involved with today's' current student protest movement who are moving down the road to "revolutionary violence" because they feel the current methods aren't ideologically pure enough or not getting the results they hoped for.
In this case maybe the old saw about "those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it" has some weight???
March 2, 2020
I would give it 3.5 stars (wish Goodreads would get on that).
First time reading the book, I found a warning label in it...which is so weird.
Also, the title is about bombing the capitol but that was only like, 3 pages of the book. So maybe a different title would be better? Either way, not a bad read...just a bit misnamed.
First time reading the book, I found a warning label in it...which is so weird.
Also, the title is about bombing the capitol but that was only like, 3 pages of the book. So maybe a different title would be better? Either way, not a bad read...just a bit misnamed.
March 2, 2020
Oddly, there was less than one chapter about bombing the US Capitol.
February 4, 2021
Lol abandoned after the obv conservative pro police viewpoints came in. Just not tolerating that these days.
July 1, 2024
This book provided great insight on the radical sectors of late 20th-century activism. Rosenau provides excellent detail on how the members of May 19th and other organizations came to justify their actions and also how the FBI was ultimately able to capture them. I did feel like the flow of the book at times was a little all over the place, but generally found it a good read!
August 15, 2019
“Tonight We Bombed the U. S. Capitol” by William Rosenau, published by Atria Books.
Category – United States History Publication Date – January 07, 2020.
The first thing the reader must remember is that this is a true story. Terroristic acts did not belong solely to men of their organizations. In the 1980’s there was a small band of well educated young women who had a political agenda that they were willing to sacrifice for. They fought against the Vietnam War, Hispanic and Native American policies, and assisted in black extreme actions.
These women challenged authority at all levels while committing bank robberies to fund their work. These six women were responsible for some of the most daring operations of the time; this included a bombing campaign in and around the Nation’s Capitol.
These women were as ruthless as any terrorist group at the time and it is small wonder that they did not get more notoriety than they did. Besides their terrorist activities they were responsible for prison breaks and armed robberies.
If you are a student of history this is an excellent choice to study as this is a not well known part of history that has remained hidden until the publication of this book.
Category – United States History Publication Date – January 07, 2020.
The first thing the reader must remember is that this is a true story. Terroristic acts did not belong solely to men of their organizations. In the 1980’s there was a small band of well educated young women who had a political agenda that they were willing to sacrifice for. They fought against the Vietnam War, Hispanic and Native American policies, and assisted in black extreme actions.
These women challenged authority at all levels while committing bank robberies to fund their work. These six women were responsible for some of the most daring operations of the time; this included a bombing campaign in and around the Nation’s Capitol.
These women were as ruthless as any terrorist group at the time and it is small wonder that they did not get more notoriety than they did. Besides their terrorist activities they were responsible for prison breaks and armed robberies.
If you are a student of history this is an excellent choice to study as this is a not well known part of history that has remained hidden until the publication of this book.
September 24, 2021
This book was so boring.
I dunno, maybe it's just me. I've been supposedly "reading" 3 books concurrently recently, and never finishing any of them, because all of them are boring. But I can't bring myself to do 3 DNF's at once, especially since I think I've only ever had 2 or 3 DNFs total, so I try to push through. This one was an audiobook, so you'd think at least I could just turn it on and zone out, but even that was too tedious. But I got there.
It's tough to put my finger on why this book bored me so much more than any other dry non-fiction. Dry non-fiction is my jam! And yet somehow this one was just soooo dry. No storytelling. No pazazz. No relating to the kooky characters. They were just a bunch of kinda boring people who wanted to blow things up I guess. There definitely SHOULD be an interesting tale buried in here somewhere. More gifted writing would have found it and drawn it out. Lady domestic terrorists should be gripping material. Alas...
So boring. So glad to put it behind me.
I dunno, maybe it's just me. I've been supposedly "reading" 3 books concurrently recently, and never finishing any of them, because all of them are boring. But I can't bring myself to do 3 DNF's at once, especially since I think I've only ever had 2 or 3 DNFs total, so I try to push through. This one was an audiobook, so you'd think at least I could just turn it on and zone out, but even that was too tedious. But I got there.
It's tough to put my finger on why this book bored me so much more than any other dry non-fiction. Dry non-fiction is my jam! And yet somehow this one was just soooo dry. No storytelling. No pazazz. No relating to the kooky characters. They were just a bunch of kinda boring people who wanted to blow things up I guess. There definitely SHOULD be an interesting tale buried in here somewhere. More gifted writing would have found it and drawn it out. Lady domestic terrorists should be gripping material. Alas...
So boring. So glad to put it behind me.
January 6, 2024
An interesting read, but I hesitate to say its well-researched. Ive lived in Greensboro my whole adult life and hace read the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Rosenau cherry picks one perspective of many to paint communists as trying to get black people killed and at fault for being massacred by the kkk with police help. Its hardly an accurate portrayal of the event and it makes me worried about what else he's misrepresenting to make a point.
He also spends an unreasonable amount of the book pointing out which women are lesbians and not mothers. The men get real characterization, but the women are always defined by what kind of fucking theyre doing.
He also spends an unreasonable amount of the book pointing out which women are lesbians and not mothers. The men get real characterization, but the women are always defined by what kind of fucking theyre doing.
August 6, 2020
Very entertaining book with much of it taking place not far from where I lived in my high school years, yet I was oblivious to it all. The narrative moved quickly and having been written 35+ years after events it was nice to get the after story with it. Interesting to see the pieces of the puzzle, both alert citizens and diligent FBI agents with some good luck mixed in. It would have been interesting to have been able to get some in depth analyze of how such normal kids got so radicalized, but alas none of the M19 participated.
November 9, 2020
Wow what a wild ride this Audiobook was. outlining the May 19th terrorist group, who they were, what tactics they used to fight back against american neo liberalism global.colonalism. its a interesting component of US History that many have no idea occurred.
Well laid out, the author does a good job of walking you through the different women in the group and the multiple choices each had to make in order to enact the multiple.bombings that occured as part of this groups ideology for Fighting against White Supremacy and the US.
Well laid out, the author does a good job of walking you through the different women in the group and the multiple choices each had to make in order to enact the multiple.bombings that occured as part of this groups ideology for Fighting against White Supremacy and the US.
March 3, 2020
Started off slow, we to be honest, boring. It finally got going and became interesting. The sixties and seventies we're times where, in my opinion, people felt guilty for our wealth or standard o living and became politically active to change that. Whereas people tended to get violent to hey their message out, today they, in a last ditch effort, have sought government office to change things
March 27, 2021
Lots of good info here. Not as much directly pertaining to the bombing of the Capitol as one would think, but since he was not able to speak to those involved, that makes sense. I learned a lot, but think a better title is needed.
February 13, 2021
Thoroughly researched and documented.
July 26, 2021
This is book is about a mostly female American terrorist group calling itself M19, composed of female terrorists who once worked for the SDS, then the Weathermen, and when the other leftist terrorist groups died out in the 1970's, carried out their own activities, planting bombs in various political and military facilities during the 1980's. Knowing the government knew about them and were after them, they had to go deep underground, and wound up basically a radical cult with a twisted ideology and no leader. It was not long before the FBI found them and massive evidence to convict them, and before they were caught, realized not only did they fail to affect American policy or culture in the slightest, they never even got publicly known. None of them would give their side of the story to the author, undoubtedly because they were afraid of answering hard questions about themselves, despite their public defiance. Certainly they must have realized that posterity would not vindicate them.
But the author nearly ruins his book by glossing over antifa and BLM terrorism and all its murders, assaults, rapes, arson, lootings, which have done far more harm than the few examples of supposed right-wing violence he claims. A couple of shootings does not a grand conspiracy make, and in fact, he only vaguely mentions abortion clinic violence and fails to list any incidents, and shockingly fails to mention the only right-wing riot during the 1960's-1970's, namely the Hard Hat Riot in Ney York City. But worst of all, he calls the Oklahoma City bombing right-wing terrorism, which it wasn't. Timothy McVeigh was actually an ex-soldier who renounced religion and his own country. He was really like any of the M19 members, only more successful. This may not be the 1960's, but then as now most violence and terrorism comes from the political Left and almost none from the Right.
But the author nearly ruins his book by glossing over antifa and BLM terrorism and all its murders, assaults, rapes, arson, lootings, which have done far more harm than the few examples of supposed right-wing violence he claims. A couple of shootings does not a grand conspiracy make, and in fact, he only vaguely mentions abortion clinic violence and fails to list any incidents, and shockingly fails to mention the only right-wing riot during the 1960's-1970's, namely the Hard Hat Riot in Ney York City. But worst of all, he calls the Oklahoma City bombing right-wing terrorism, which it wasn't. Timothy McVeigh was actually an ex-soldier who renounced religion and his own country. He was really like any of the M19 members, only more successful. This may not be the 1960's, but then as now most violence and terrorism comes from the political Left and almost none from the Right.
June 17, 2024
Covers an interesting time period in American history focusing on one of the lesser known far left groups.
The writer is competent but despite this it reads more like a a series of long Wikipedia articles, giving a blow by blow account of the group and its actions. The author doesn’t do much to analyze the group, its origins and its motivations. I appreciate the few pages it does to contextualize the rise of the group and place this kind of violence in relation to far right and Salafi-jihadist violence today.
Despite this, there is not much here other than reporting on the group and the writing is not special enough to improve the book overall. Worth a read but pretty surface level.
The writer is competent but despite this it reads more like a a series of long Wikipedia articles, giving a blow by blow account of the group and its actions. The author doesn’t do much to analyze the group, its origins and its motivations. I appreciate the few pages it does to contextualize the rise of the group and place this kind of violence in relation to far right and Salafi-jihadist violence today.
Despite this, there is not much here other than reporting on the group and the writing is not special enough to improve the book overall. Worth a read but pretty surface level.
July 2, 2023
everyone makes fun of The Weather Underground for being naive and reckless and maybe even a CIA psyop to undermine the anti war movement, but I have a soft spot for lefty geezers like them and Fanon and the feminist radicals in this who, tactics aside, appear to be on the right side of history for literally almost everything. Sucks that the writer is such a conservative fuddy duddy who thinks his characters are twerps, but miraculously he makes this easy to ignore and instead his gallery of anti establishment beautiful losers get to let their freak flags fly
June 21, 2024
This was informative and told me about a piece of American history I never knew before, but the timelines in the book were very confusing. I'd read the capsule bio of one terrorist and follow it all the way up to the murder of Waverly Brown; then we'd learn about another M19 member and trace a very different route to the murder of Waverly Jones. Then yet another terrorist arrives by way of another university and shoots Waverly Brown again. It all resolved towards the end, but...
July 14, 2024
Solid overview of the May 19th Communist Organization/Armed Resistance Unit. Sadly lacks some more of the depth it could have benefitted from via interviews with participants. However, they were actually contacted and rejected discussion with the author. Other than that it’s a well-written book with some solid information.
January 19, 2020
interesting history of a group i never knew existed, although it moved sort of slowly at times. i wish there'd been more insight into the connections between domestic and foreign counterterrorism (like he started getting in to on literally the last page), but overall enjoyed the book
January 23, 2022
The author was significantly less sympathetic to the female terrorists than I am, and he wasn’t interested in exploring their identities much. Also the writing was clunky and there were several typos. But I did learn that there sure was was a lot going on in the 70’s and 80’s
October 9, 2023
Loved the story, and the embedded history. It follows both a single hijacking and gives some context historically and generally. I don't watch that many action movies, but I thought it was more exciting than any action movie i've seen.....
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