This remarkable work of reportage weaves together the strands of MAGA Nation ... holds up the traditional role of journalist as neutral observer and finds it wanting...In their pursuit of truth, intrepid reporters such as Mogelson light our path forward.
Mogelson’s account of his return to the US has a great deal more edge to it, given his experiences in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, and amid horrifying outbreaks of disease in west Africa. There is nothing wry in his description of the United States, in the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency, unable to contain a pandemic that would go on to kill more than a million Americans ... Mogelson writes with the descriptive fluency and eye for detail that you would expect of a reporter with his credentials. But what makes this book more than a dystopian travelogue is his ability to tease out connections across history and make illuminating global comparisons ... Mogelson digs back through history to expose the roots of the national malaise.
Going beyond the events of Jan. 6, [Mogelson] shows how such protesters often proudly bond in communities of imagined apocalypse. More broadly, he traces a disturbing link between mobilized extremists, the dominant faction of the Republican Party, and the big lie ... Powerful though it is, The Storm Is Here has a few flaws. At times I felt dizzy moving among continents, American states, extremist groups and animating issues. For my taste, the author doesn’t take enough time — camera down, phone ringer off — to ask why this is happening ... The storm is here, Mogelson’s important book warns us, in the threat of public violence and at the ballot box. It’s here because a loss has for too long gone unrecognized, and because a lie that ties itself to this loss can feel more compelling to some than a truth that ignores it.
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?
... crucial ... 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 ... Mogelson recounts the chaos in consistently striking, memorable detail ... Essential for understanding the right-wing rage that boils across America.
... vivid ... 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.
