As a New Yorker reporter, Mogelson has reported on wars in the Middle East and now Ukraine. But following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the aftermath of which the author meticulously covered for the magazine, Mogelson embedded himself into the corrosive, utterly self-inflicted war Americans have waged upon themselves over the past decade. Seeking this war's hot spots, Mogelson reports not only from Minneapolis, but also Portland (anti-fascist protests), Harrisburg and Lansing (disputed vote counts), and, finally, on January 6, 2021, the Capitol riot, the very epicenter of the insurrection by supporters of Donald Trump to upend the centuries-long peaceful transfer of power from one president to the next. Mogelson's fine reporting is multifaceted, including profiles of principal and supporting figures from all sides, a clear narrative of how this battle has played out, and, most impressively, perilous at-the-scene reporting, including a dazzling account of the January 6 riot from inside the Capitol itself. Perhaps most striking in this book is the almost casual dehumanization of political adversaries by the extreme alt-right, with violence to the Other only a trigger-pull away. An unflinching, minutely observed, and wholly unsettling portrait of today's America, begging the question: Can the center hold?

A war correspondent provides a crucial account of the events leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt. "While they demonstrated their ability to attempt an insurrection…I have a hard time crediting them with the imagination necessary to conceive of one," writes Mogelson, New Yorker staffer and winner of two National Magazine and two George Polk Awards, referring to the Proud Boys and other right-wing radicals who stormed the Capitol. The orders for that insurrection came from elsewhere, as a congressional investigation is now unveiling. Mogelson examines the uprising as the expression of a kind of free-floating White rage that he has been tracing over the last few years. His reporting has taken him to places such as Michigan, where, in 2020, thousands of Trump supporters, anti-vaxxers, and other dissidents attempted to shut down the state capitol while others plotted to kidnap and perhaps even kill the state's Democratic governor, who "had recently extended a stay-at-home order and imposed additional restrictions on commerce and recreation." The Covid-19 pandemic was one spark, along with "a raging blizzard of propaganda [that] would completely blot out reality." The reality that Mogelson presents is unrelentingly bleak, culminating in a vivid, and frightening, blow-by-blow account of the assault on the Capitol, which he witnessed firsthand. By not declaring himself a member of the press, he was able to move among figures such as the so-called QAnon Shaman, "who was carrying out a highly specific and consequential mission, from which he would not be deterred"--namely, to reclaim the Capitol for God by bellowing "shamanic songs" to activate the electromagnetic ley lines along which D.C. was supposedly built. (His mission ultimately ended in a sentence of 41 months in prison.) Other participants were much less woo-woo, of course, earnest in their mission to overturn the election and, in the bargain, hang Mike Pence for upholding the Constitution. Mogelson recounts the chaos in consistently striking, memorable detail. Essential for understanding the right-wing rage that boils across America. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Mogelson is a journalist whose pieces for The New Yorker form the basis of this book. In 2020, he returned to the US after years as a foreign correspondent to report on domestic contentions that were being amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. He focuses especially on the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, which he presents as the culmination of a long preparation of reprehensible acts and ideas by the American far Right. Thus, the event was a microcosm of bigger issues that had occurred in 2020. The second thesis, arising out of Mogelson's war reporting in Afghanistan and Iraq, is found in his description of the protests and riots following George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis, which displayed "the weaponization of US power against vulnerable people." His perspective emerges in vivid accounts of his experiences on the front lines--both in the US and abroad--and in interviews with those involved on all sides. The tone is one of deep concern mingled with barely suppressed indignation and revulsion. Overall, the book provides a detailed account of the events of the Capitol insurrection that adds both drama and understanding to the press accounts. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers and undergraduates. --Fred E. Baumann, Kenyon College

Having covered the War on Terror for The New Yorker since 2013, National Magazine and George Polk honoree Mogelson returned home in 2020 to assess growing civic violence in the United States. From there, it was a quick step to being embedded with the militias marching on the Michigan state capitol, covering events in Minneapolis and Portland, and standing in the U.S. Senate Chamber with the insurrectionists to tell readers what really happened that day.

The clash of right and left during 2020 reveals America's blighted soul in this vivid account. New Yorker writer Mogelson (These Heroic, Happy Dead) interviews rifle-toting militiamen protesting Michigan's lockdown measures, documents violent demonstrations in Minneapolis and Portland, Ore., after the killing of George Floyd, and mingles with "Stop the Steal" protestors in Washington, D.C. The book's climax is an impressionistic, firsthand account of the January 6 Capitol riot: "Each time the mob heaved, it lifted me off my feet. One of the people I was pressed against wore a helmet, a gas mask, and an army combat uniform with a patch that read 'Armor of God.' " Unabashed about his own political leanings, Mogelson paints rightists mainly as QAnon zealots and covert racists, and sympathizes with leftists who defend the burning of a Wells Fargo in Minneapolis and other acts of property destruction as blows for racial and social justice. While noting some excesses, he praises antifascists for being willing to put their bodies on the line against the Proud Boys and other alt-right extremists. Unfortunately, some of Mogelson's rehashes are selective and misleading: Breonna Taylor was not killed "in her bed," but died in her hallway after her boyfriend fired once at police. The result is a colorful but biased study of American extremism. Agent: Alice Whitwham, Cheney Agency. (Sept.)