American Reich: A Murder in Orange County, Neo-Nazis and a New Age of Hate

In this kaleidoscopic account, Pulitzer-winning journalist Lichtblau (The Nazis Next Door) delves into the 2018 murder of University of Pennsylvania student Blaze Bernstein by neo-Nazi Sam Woodward. The story centers on Orange County, Calif., where both Bernstein and Woodward grew up and were briefly acquainted during high school. Born into a Jewish family, Bernstein, “a friendly vivacious kid” who was gay and wrote poetry, fit in at school. Woodward, meanwhile, was a brooding misfit with few friends and a virulently homophobic father. Lichtblau traces Woodward’s increasing radicalization—he went from drawing swastikas in school notebooks to joining the Atomwaffen Division and attending a far-right militia training camp—and juxtaposes it with Bernstein’s trajectory studying creative writing at Penn. Their paths cross again when Woodward, well-known even by Bernstein for his odd practice of “scamming” gay men by pretending to be interested in them on dating sites, matched with Bernstein while the latter was visiting home. Despite Bernstein’s misgivings, the two met up; the encounter ended with Bernstein’s murder. Lichtblau untangles Woodward’s motivations—he was convicted of a hate crime in 2024—while unpacking the role that Orange County, the birthplace of the John Birch Society, plays in the resurgent far right under Donald Trump, including via parallel narratives spotlighting local extremist leaders who helped organize the January 6 attack and other Atomwaffen Division members arrested for hate crimes. It’s a troubling window into the rage that animates America’s shadowy far-right networks. (Jan.)