The Weathermen On Trial

Book excerpt: A Trump tweet starts an FBI investigation in this historical novel and legal thriller, leading to the arrest of an aging university professor for his role in violent acts of protest in the 1970s: actual political bombings and invented political assassinations. Real people such as the anti-imperialist Weathermen leader Bernardine Dohrn and her compatriot Bill Ayers, along with President Trump and his FBI director James Comey, are complemented by fictional characters like FBI Cold Case agent Mar?Shae ?Black? McGurk and East Coast folk musician/university student Val Shaw. Complex plot twists are resolved in a realistic federal trial as the narrative alternates between the original crimes and today?s attempts to arrive at justice. As an introduction to the history of the Viet Nam anti-war movement, the novel represents the real actors? actual backgrounds, motiva-tions, actions, words, and voices, based in part on recent memoirs by various Weathermen and the latest historical research on the group. Their ideology is faithfully incorporated.Paradoxically, the characters on all sides act out of patriotism as they understand it, and their convictions about what America stands for, illustrating the deep divisions in American politics and society.