American Alt
A True Story of Madness and Friendship in a Fractured Country
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Jul 7, 2026
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- $27.99
Publisher Description
A glimpse into the mind of an American conspiracy theorist, the schizophrenia, trauma, and misinformation that drove him to the brink, and the friendship that brought him back.
"A mesmerizing, compassionate, and deeply meaningful exploration of a perilous corridor of American life." - Robert Kolker, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Hidden Valley Road
Named a Best Summer Read by The Los Angeles Times
On the eve of January 6, 2021, Michael Dodd and his three friends found themselves in a stolen vehicle on the grounds of the Washington State Capitol, armed to the teeth, and ready to kidnap Governor Jay Inslee. Only there weren't actually three others in the car-Michael was alone. Months later, the violent plan thwarted, Michael sat in a psychiatric hospital and learned that he was struggling with undiagnosed schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. His knowledge of that fateful day was spotty, fractured by the different personality states he now knew were affecting his reality. Skeptical of a state mental health system, but anxious to find out how his world turned upside down, he reached out to a longtime friend, the author Chris Lockhart, for help.
American Alt is the odyssey of two friends trying to piece together the fragments of Michael's shattered memory and uncover the truth of what pushed him to the edge. Set against the beautiful but economically fractured Pacific Northwest where both men rambled in their youth, Lockhart delivers a suspenseful, profoundly moving story of discovery and affirmation.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
One man offers an unfettered look into the mental illness that almost made him a domestic terrorist in this fascinating non-fiction read. Michael Dodd contacted his friend, author Chris Lockhart, from a mental health facility in 2021 with only spotty memories of how he’d wound up in a truck with an AR-15 and plans to kidnap the governor. Dodd invited Lockhart to offer some “objectivity” to his situation, and as Lockhart reveals for us here, the pair eventually set out together on a mission to investigate what brought Dodd to that perilous moment. The answers are as brutal as they are fascinating. Though Dodd was finally diagnosed with schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder following his arrest, he and Lockhart find no shortage of factors that helped push him toward a paranoid breaking point, like the lack of mental health resources in poor, rural Washington; his own childhood abuse; and the atrocities he witnessed in Afghanistan as a Marine. This is an eye-opening case study on how conspiracy theory culture can prey on society’s most vulnerable.
