Shadowlands: Fear and Freedom at the Oregon Standoff

Poet McCann (Thing Music) presents a riveting in-depth investigation into the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by armed right-wing protesters determined to wrest control of the land from the government. The setting, which McCann renders with a poet’s precision (“sun-crisped juniper [and] fecund muck”), is Harney County, Ore., where Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of rancher Cliven, assembled like-minded militia members to undertake an armed occupation of the refuge to protest the idea of federal management and conservation of public lands, rather than allowing them to be used for logging and cattle-grazing. The monthlong occupation reached a climax with the shooting death of Bundy follower LaVoy Finicum by FBI agents and the remaining protestors’ subsequent surrender. McCann then documents the carnival-like atmosphere at the protestors’ conspiracy trials. He portrays his characters vividly, Ammon in particular, describing his oratory style as “theo-legalistic” and casting a “spell of urgency.” He provides context on the underlying motivations of the protesters “bitterly hanging on to the last threads of privilege” in an increasingly diverse America, and the broader history: Manifest Destiny and the atrocities inflicted upon Native Americans, Joseph Smith’s writings (the Bundys are Mormon), and Thomas Jefferson’s often contradictory ideas about government and rebellion. McCann’s arresting and brilliant firsthand account is required reading for anyone interested in the ideological gap between the American Left and Right. Agent: Stephanie Steiker, Regal Hoffman Literary Agency. (July)