All-American Monster

by Brandon M. Stickney

Book Overview

In this riveting and revealing biography of Timothy McVeigh, Brandon M. Stickney not only answers many of the compelling questions surrounding McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing, but puts this critical information into the broader perspective of McVeigh's childhood, his education, military service, and his efforts to find meaning and purpose in life. A reporter and a native of the western New York area where McVeigh was born and raised, Stickney draws on personal experience as well as numerous interviews with McVeigh's family, friends, and associates to offer intimate details of Tim's lifefactors that contributed to his startling transformation.Stickney carefully fits together the complex pieces of the puzzle that is Timothy McVeigh. Utilizing little-known and often shocking pieces of information the fruits of an intense investigation Stickney transports readers inside the mind of McVeigh to discover what might well have been his thoughts and feelings as his life moved closer and closer to that fateful April morning.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573920886
• ISBN13: 9781573920889
• Release Date: September 1996
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 350 Pages
• Weight: 1.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Great Biography of A Terrible Man

I'm mainly writing this review because I wanted to counter some of the negative things that have been said about "All-American Monster." If Stickney has come across to some reviewers as biased, there's a reason for that and that is that all the available evidence pointed to McVeigh's guilt! He later even admitted as much himself, showing no remorse for the children that he killed, calling them, as I recall, "collateral damage." But Stickney's greatest accomplishment here is in fleshing out just how an American war veteran with no truly distinguishing characteristics pulled off the single worst case of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. It's the same thing that has been said about the Nazis, that whole banality of evil thing. McVeigh was a total loser who decided to let his boredom and hatred lead him down a road that caused the destruction of innocent lives. As Stickney has deftly chronicled here, he was no different than any other work-a-day stiff living in any corner of this country--except that he decided to lash out at a perceived enemy (the "government"), that was in reality made up of people just trying to make a life for themselves, thereby gaining himself notoriety and priming the country for the greater human toll of 9/11. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to plumb the roots of evil.

american made monster

Although this book is does not take a sympathetic approach to McVeigh's story, it becomes pretty apparent how McVeigh may have been lead astray. He was abandoned by his mother, had an emotionally detatched father, etc. Shows both sides of this tragedy. The tragedy of the bombing and the trajedy of McVeigh's disenchantment with America; especially after he was treated like a human guinea pig by the army. Very interesting book, I couldn't put it down.

an unauthorized bio

I got this because I wanted some insight into how the story all came about and definitely more information.I got it here.A lot of questions were answered here,so if you want insight and revelation into what happened and why this book is a good place to start.I liked it because it was so informative.I considered that a book should have a certain amount of information to be able to be fair and the writer is fair to all sides.