by Luke Mogelson
Penguin Press
09/13/2022, hardcover
SKU: 9780593489215
The New Yorker's award-winning war correspondent returns to his own country to chronicle its accelerating civic breakdown, in an indelible eyewitness narrative of startling explanatory power
After years of living abroad and covering the Global War on Terrorism, Luke Mogelson went home in early 2020 to report on the social discord that the pandemic was bringing to the fore across the US. An assignment that began with right-wing militias in Michigan soon took him to an uprising for racial justice in Minneapolis, then to antifascist clashes in the streets of Portland, and ultimately to an attempted insurrection in Washington, D.C. His dispatches for The New Yorker revealed a larger story with ominous implications for America. They were only the beginning.
This is the definitive eyewitness account of how--during a season of sickness, economic uncertainty, and violence -- a large segment of Americans became convinced of the need to battle against dark forces plotting to take their country away from them. It builds month by month, through vivid depictions of events on the ground, from the onset of COVID-19 to the attack on the US Capitol -- during which Mogelson followed the mob into the Senate chamber -- and its aftermath. Bravely reported and beautifully written, The Storm Is Here is both a unique record of a pivotal moment in American history and an urgent warning about those to come.
Reviews:
"A crucial account... Mogelson recounts the chaos in consistently striking, memorable detail. Essential for understanding the right-wing rage that boils across America." -- Kirkus
"A sterling example of why Luke Mogelson is one of the most indispensable journalists working today. Meticulous, unsparing, and as brilliant as it is unsettling, this book is a survey of American bedlam. Our future as a nation to no small degree hinges upon our ability to grapple with the concerns Mogelson chronicles in these pages." -- Jelani Cobb
"Bearing clear-eyed witness, Luke Mogelson puts himself at the roiling center of conflicts that have riven our nation. He wades into danger to talk with everyone -- conspiracy believers, Proud Boys, victims of race hatred, ordinary heroes bent on saving what is good about us. This book is filled with reverence for the fallen, grief for the living, unthrottled mourning for the betrayals of our country's highest principles. Don't let democracy die. Pick up this book. It's all in the title, dear reader. The Storm is Here." -- Louise Erdrich, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Night Watchman
About the Author:
Luke Mogelson has written for The New Yorker since 2013, covering the wars in Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, and Iraq. During the pandemic, he reported from across the U.S. Previously, Mogelson was a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Kabul. He has won two National Magazine Awards and two George Polk Awards.