Here come the reviews

OK, it helps that some of these really nice reviews that are coming in are from friends of mine. But my friends are also brutally honest people who would tell me if And Hell Followed With Her sucked. Here's what they're saying instead:

Rick Perlstein at The Nation:

But trust me on this one. And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border is one of the best books you can read on one of the most crucial subjects you can study: how the toxic mindset of white supremacist, anti-government insurrectionist lunacy migrates again and again into the mainstream of American political discussion. And if that's not enough to draw you, here's a bonus: David wraps his lesson in a true crime story Joe Conason blurbs as “reminiscent of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” I couldn't tell you if that's precisely so; I've never read Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I can't tell you much about the crime story either: It's just that gripping and suspenseful, and I don't want to spoil it for you.

David Goldstein at The Stranger :

But the book is less about the crime itself than it is about the way the rhetoric, mission, and mismanagement of the Minutemen organizations made such violence almost inevitable. Minutemen organizers relentlessly insisted that they were merely about protecting the border. They fought back against accusations of racism, claiming they conducted background checks to screen out Nazis, white supremacists, criminals, and other dangerous elements. Forde's story exposes that lie.

Julie Muhlstein at the Herald in Everett (Scott North's newspaper) wrote up a nice profile of the book that is more an interview with the author than a review. But you may enjoy reading it.

I've also included, atop today's post, the video of Sebastian Wielemans' film A Cycle of Fences, which is a kind of accompaniment to the excerpt of Chapter 12, "Adrenaline Rush," that ran this weekend at AlterNet. If you've read the chapter, you won't be able to help laughing grimly.

'A Tragic, Dark and Sadly Crazy American Story': Why You Will Want to Read 'And Hell Followed'

The reviews for my new book, And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border, are rolling in, and the praise is flowing -- especially from Susan G at Daily Kos:

Neiwert's insights after covering right-wing extremism movements, his gift with language, his considerable storytelling skills all combine to make And Hell Followed With Her a near compulsive—and frightening—read. His ability to combine the history of these various organizations with the more immediate crime, and his analysis of the mindset of those who spent their lives immersed in the delusions of the right wing, make this book an important one, one with implications that reach far beyond one woman, two deaths and one border town.

If you'd like a sample, AlterNet published the entirety of Chapter 12 at its website:

The Anti-Immigrant Paranoia That Drives Shawna Forde to 'Patrol' the American Border

You may also want to peruse the discussion of the book that occurred Sunday at the Firedoglake Book Salon (thanks to Brian Tashman for hosting, and to Bev Wright for arranging everything).

Finally, here's the audio of my interview with Steve Scher at KUOW-FM earlier this week:



I think you'll find that what they're saying is true: This book is a must-read, not just important but compelling as hell too.


Cross-posted from Crooks and Liars.