End of Days
Ruby Ridge, the Apocalypse, and the Unmaking of America
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3.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
“A riveting and thoroughly researched chronicle...reminiscent of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.” —The New York Times Book Review
The gripping story of the Ruby Ridge siege, showing how the historic standoff between federal agents and a white-separatist family set the stage for the conspiracy-laced politics of the Trump era.
“Vivid, frightening, and fascinating…This book blew me away and opened my eyes.”—Walter Isaacson, author of The Code Breaker and Elon Musk
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 failure to appear in court on a gun charge. When Weaver finally surrendered to the authorities eleven days later, his wife, son, and dog lay dead, as did a 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 End of Days, Chris Jennings explains the significance of this historic siege by setting the story of the Weaver family within the long history of apocalyptic Christianity in the United States, illuminating the ways in which that faith 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 twentieth-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 nation confronts today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This stirring account from Jennings (Paradise Now) posits that the fatal 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff in Idaho was a flash point for contemporary political and religious extremism. Vicki and Randy Weaver were an unremarkable Midwestern couple whose lives were upended by the farm crisis of the 1980s. Seeking stability and spiritual clarity, the family abandoned their Baptist congregation, withdrew from community life, and embraced an increasingly insular worldview. Their move to a remote Idaho ridge, where they built a cabin and prepared for what they believed was the approaching apocalypse, placed them in the heart of a region rapidly becoming a magnet for militias and white supremacists. Jennings vividly reconstructs how mounting tensions over Randy's gun charges led to a fatal confrontation with federal agents that left Vicki, the Weavers' teenage son, the family dog, and a U.S. marshal dead. The author's meticulous reporting also highlights the FBI's reputational damage after the confrontation and the speed with which the Weavers were transformed into martyrs by anti-government and white supremacist groups. Sharply observed and chillingly relevant, this real-life page-turner reveals how economic desperation, isolationist faith, and conspiracy thinking can form a combustible blend.
