The Alphabet Bomber: A Lone Wolf Terrorist Ahead of his Time (Potomac), by Jeffrey D. Simon
In 1973 and ’74 a series of explosions triggered by sophisticated devices shook Los Angeles. After the most notorious, the blast that killed three people at LAX, responsibility was claimed by an unknown group, the Aliens of America. Jeffrey D. Simon unearths the forgotten crime spree in The Alphabet Bomber. As the subtitle indicates, there really was no terrorist group, only a lone maniac, Muharem Kurbegovic, whose agenda was anti-religion, anti-communist, pro-sex and pro-immigration. A Bosnian emigre, Kurbegovic was a reasonably successful engineer who nursed grievances. Found competent to stand trial, he was convicted and is still in prison, parole denied. Simon did due journalistic diligence, interviewing participants in the trial and identifies Kurbegovic as the prototype of the terrorist who works alone, an especially difficult breed for law enforcement to stop. The book’s editors should have zapped the clichés. Simon writes that Kurbegovic “was not a happy camper.” Really, not a happy camper!
Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement (University of North Carolina Press), by Monica M. White
The idea of uplifting the lives of African American southern tenant farmers was foundational to Booker T. Washington and other reformers as the 20th century began. Often though, the sharecroppers uplifted themselves on the nearest train headed north. Poverty and racism drove the Great Migration and many African Americans equated farming with subservience. Monica M. White sees it differently. In Freedom Farmers, the University of Wisconsin professor of environmental justice looks instead at black farmers who stayed put, including a surprising number of small landowners who provided support for the 1960s Freedom Riders. White’s special focus is on the little recognized black agricultural collectives that offered the promise of solidarity against oppression as well as economic autonomy and prefigured such more contemporary efforts as the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. Some of the projects White profiles bring together two poles of African American thought: the hands-on skills advocated by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois’ emphasis on collectivity.
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Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Fergusson and America’s Journey From Slavery to Segregation (W.W. Norton), by Steve Luxenberg
In one of the most notorious cases to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, Plessy v. Fergusson (1896), the majority of justices ruled in favor of segregation. “Separate but equal,” a deceptive concept when separation was determined by racist assumptions, became the law of the land. As Steve Luxenberg writes in his engaging study, Separate, the story behind the ruling is little known. Like the civil rights movement 60 years on, Plessy v. Fergusson was a deliberate legal test by activists. However, in Plessy, the activists were Creoles from New Orleans disgruntled by their loss of status (they had previously occupied middle ground in Louisiana’s racial hierarchy between white and black). Luxenberg delves into the personalities of key players including the Supreme Court justices. The court consisted of Yankees except for one Kentuckian born into a slave-owning family. The Kentuckian cast the lone dissenting vote.
Top Gun: An American Story (Hachette), by Dan Pedersen
Flying from their station in the Gulf of Tonkin, the carrier-based pilots carrying out missions over North Vietnam “learned what it was like to sit at a wardroom table surrounded by empty chairs.” So recalls a veteran of that high-casualty campaign, Dan Pedersen, in his memoir of the air war and its aftermath—the inauguration of the “Top Gun” advanced pilots training program. U.S. aviators embarked into the Vietnam War looking back on a track record of victory over Japan and North Korea, only to be slammed by “the most fearsome air defense network in the world,” manned by North Vietnam but Soviet designed. Their Migs also went after U.S. planes and shot many down. Pedersen’s account is a complaint against uncomprehending civilian leaders as well as complacent military bureaucrats. It wasn’t a good war but Pedersen and his mates fought for each other and their survival in the face of high odds.
