by Nora Neus
Beacon Press
12/30/2025, hardcover
SKU: 9780807020623
The 24 Hours in Charlottesville author offers a minute-by-minute account of the January 6 riots through never-before-heard stories of those who were there
Neus goes beyond mainstream reporting to reveal important truths about the US white nationalist movement
This bracing account reconstructs what it was actually like in and around the Capitol during those 24 hours.
- Lawmakers recount donning gas masks and being evacuated to safe rooms.
- Police officers recall insurrectionists screaming at them and calling them traitors.
- Staffers remember "walking over pools of blood" as they ran for their lives.
- A young Asian-American staffer recalls locking herself in a room just feet from the rioters, mentally preparing to be raped.
- A mostly Black janitorial staff began cleaning the blood of insurrectionists off the marble floor on the Capitol before the building was even officially secured.
Neus's sources include original interviews, court documents, firsthand accounts, the US Capitol Historical Society's oral history project on the insurrection, and the work of Tim Heaphy, chief investigator of the congressional January 6 Select Committee.
January 6 was largely planned right out in the open, but lawmakers and government officials underestimated the threat in part because it was coming from white people. Neus examines the underlying racial implications of not only the attack itself, but also in the planning and coordination of the response.
Reviews:
"An especially important document." -- Booklist, Starred Review
"Nora Neus has crafted a fascinating window into one of the most consequential days of modern American politics. Her deep research delivers a seat-of-your-pants, pulse-racing read, journeying minute by minute through a day that changed America forever." --Garrett Graff, author of The Devil Reached Toward the Sky: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb
"In 24 Hours at the Capitol, Nora Neus has brought to life a propulsive and compelling narrative while providing a vital historical record to combat the forces of misinformation seeking to obscure what really happened on January 6th." --Ian Rosenberg, media lawyer and author of The Fight for Free Speech: Ten Cases That Define Our First Amendment Freedoms
About the Author:
Nora Neus is an Emmy-nominated producer, speaker, and author who covers race, policing in America, and white nationalism. She has produced over 3,400 hours of live television at CNN and covers major national and international news for outlets including the Washington Post, POLITICO, VICE News, Teen Vogue, and The Guardian. Neus also runs the Longform Lab, a 6-week intensive course for journalists.