Customer Reviews

Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies

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In this well-researched, beautifully written book, Jeremy Varon explores the whole range of factors that gave rise to revolutionary rhetoric and practice in the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as the moral and existential dilemmas that lurk behind any question of political violence. I'm especially impressed by his multi-faceted approach to the material. To cite just a few examples: With his close reading of images and texts from the underground press, he does the work of a cultural historian; where he draws from pyschological models of trauma to help explain RAF's turn toward violence, his work is squarely within the realm of intellectual history; by unearthing a range of neglected sources and examining these groups "from the bottom up," his work takes on the flavor of a social historian; and I especially enjoyed his rich, narrative descriptions, which make the book such a pleasure to read. Finally, this difficult topic is everywhere explored with a keen moral integrity - and I certainly do not share one reviewer's suggestion that the author reveals any kind of right-wing bias! To the contrary, Varon remarks that this book was inspired by the same passion for justice that animated the new left itself. He seems sympathetic to the aims (if not the tactics) of many Sixties activists, and in his conclusion, he underscores the implications that this study has to to some of the most pressing exigencies of our time - terrorism and globalization. Of course, both Weatherman and the RAF come in for some strong criticisms, but ironically, the most damning testimony frequently comes from their former members. (This is especially true of RAF). All in all, this is a tremendous achievement -- an intelligent, rigorous, and elegantly written book that deserves a wide audience from scholars and activists alike.

I bought this book thinking it was a companion to the very good
documentary recently on PBS. Instead I found great detail and
incredible analysis of not just the Weathermen but driving forces
behind the anti-war movemnet. It is really an intelectual history of
the peak of the movement in the late sixties and early seventies.
Most will likely be suprised at the sophistication and
care to avoid physical harm, especially after the Townhouse
explosion. I susect that most of those againt the war at the time saw
the group as drug crazed idiots. The book proves this idea wrong.
But it objectively inspects all aspects of the Weathermen. There is an
interesting comparison to the German radicals, the RAF, who were
much more violent. It is so well researched and written that the roots
of 60's ideology may become apparent to some. I relived much of
my development as a student at that time. The mystique, emotion,
and strong intellectual base is well described. And its foolishness
is put in perspective rather than ridiculed. This is one of the best
books I have ever read.

This is one of the best books you'll ever read on the Sixties or the movements that defined it. In examining one of the most controversial subjects to arise in that era - New Left revolutionary violence - Jeremy Varon not only gives us the first really serious examination of the Weather Underground (most often trashed by sixties activists-turned-scholars), but reveals so much more about the zeitgeist of the era - with all its promise and horror - by coupling it with an analysis of the Red Army Faction in Germany. I don't know how that other reviewer can say there's right-wing bias at work in the book when, in my reading, I see a difficult balancing act that seems to appreciate the utopian ideals of the New Left, takes seriously these radicals' intellectual journeys that led them to violence, but certainly doesn't defend the terrible things done to "bring the war home." It's really a thorough, nuanced book that, fortunately, is written so well, even non-experts will understand the complexities of the time.

I only bought this book after hearing the author speak about it at a book event in New York. Instead of a right-wing or left-wing slant, I heard someone straining to get it right; the reward is that the book does the same.

Jeremy Varon's "Bringing The War Home" is simply a "must read" for anyone who wishes to "understand" the '60's and '70's--the very concept of "revolution"--from the perspectives of the Weatherman/Weather Underground, the Red Army Fraction, AND the very governments and societies these groups sought to radically change. Both probing and honest, Varon's narrative and analysis is an important and eclectic cotribution to this critical and defining era. The relevance of this work to contemporary "war on terror" response is impossible to overstate. While a bit "pedantic" in parts--Varon's work is a long overdue illumination of that which defined not only a generation but an entire world. A real "keeper".

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. In the 1960s and 1970s there were revolutionaries all over the world. Most in the third world had good reason to rebel against the establishment. Many governments were ruled by power hungry tyrants who oppressed the masses for their personal economic gain. Other countries suffered under the colonial powers. Jeremy Varon's book Bringing the War Home is a history of two revolutionary groups in the developed world. The Weather Underground operated in the United States and the Red Army Faction in Germany. Both these countries had prosperous economies and had democratic forms of government. Varon endeavors to impartially show the reasons why these two groups came to be. These groups are mainly remembered because of their violent acts. This is an important work because it delves into the motivations behind the members' acts of violence.

Both these groups came to be in the late 1960s and were small. Most if not all members came from prosperous families and had good educational and labor opportunities. Varon's purpose for his book is "to restore a stronger measure of rationality and moral purpose to Weatherman and RAF." Varon believes that they saw themselves as part of the global revolutionary struggle that was taking place at the time. They existed in an era where passive resistance had proven effective yet they subscribed to the violent revolutionary ideas of Franz Fannon and the criticism of society of Herbert Marcuse. They idolized Ernesto "Che Guevara who embodied Fannon's philosophy and believed that violent struggle was the only way to change the oppressive establishment that
existed in every poor country. Guevara believed that the United States was imperialistic and aided the oppressors. He advocated fighting small revolutions or "many Vietnams" to defeat it.

The Weather Underground and Red Army Faction believed that by attacking their governments they were adding to the small revolutions thereby helping in the global struggle against imperialism. They believed that the Vietnam War was a criminal imperialist war and they saw Ho Chi Ming as a freedom fighter. He was successfully fighting the most powerful army in the world with peasants. They idealized revolutionary violence. They saw themselves as being oppressed by the police and they saw violence as a "natural right to resistance."

Varon writes that other reasons for the group's intense radicalism involved the concepts of "white guilt" in the Weather Underground and Nazi guilt on the part of the RAF. The Germans could not believe that their parents had stood by while the Nazis tortured and killed millions. The Weathermen could not understand how some people suffered in horrible poverty in the richest country in the world. Both groups were appalled at the inequalities in the world.

There was also an element of competition. Who was more committed to the revolution? They had to prove themselves as authentic fighters against the establishment. They believed that they had to stand up for their beliefs to the death. Martyrdom was an acceptable risk. Even the Black Panthers considered them extreme. After the 1968 Days of Rage in Chicago, Fred Hampton said "We no not support people who are anarchistic, opportunistic, adventuristic, and Custeristic [i.e., suicidal]."

When the Vietnam War ended so did the Weather Underground. The RAF continued becoming increasingly violent until shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Their ideology gone and most members in prison, they could not find a reason to exist. Varon's work is very timely because the Cold War mentality has been replaced by the War on Terror mentality. The suicide bombers of September 11 were all from prosperous homes and had
excellent education and job opportunities and like the members of the Weather Underground and the RAF they had no problems being martyrs.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.

Jeremy Varon's "Bringing the War Home" is a well-written and engaging account of the radical student movement in the United States and Germany during the 1960s.

Varon outlines and explains why some anti-war and civil rights protestors moved from passive resistance to the state to outright acts of terrorist aggression.

The author is particularly good at tracing the "development" of the ideologies radicals used to justify their violence, and at explaining the difference between US and German radicalism.

Thankfully, "Bringing the War Home" is free of the post-modern jargon polluting much academic writing today, and thus is a joy to read.

The Symbionese Liberation Army fascinated me as a child. For one thing, the Patty Hearst kidnapping story was wall-to-wall for weeks. Then Patty showed up at a bank robbery and in those days before the Stockholm Syndrome it was assumed that the heiress had had her consciousness raised by her kidnappers. There were many things about the SLA that intrigued. What, for example, is a Symbion and why did it need liberating? Is it any wonder that I had the vague idea this was all connected to the Lebanese civil war? In news reports the SLA was talked about in the same breath as the Baader-Meinhof gang. If the SLA was vague, the Baader-Meinhof gang was practically a ghost. By the time I became aware of them there wasn't a Baader or a Meinhof on the scene which only added to the confusion. Sometimes they were referred to as the Red Army Faction making it easy to confuse them with the Red Brigade. A few years later members of the Weather Underground starting turning themselves into the police after years, well, underground. It seemed like the Seventies were crawling with middle class white kids sashaying around throwing bombs. Why they were throwing bombs had something to do, vaguely again, with the Vietnam war.

I couldn't make sense of it then and for years later I couldn't find any books (in those pre Web days) to explain even the basics let alone attempt to answer any of the larger questions. Finally some thoughtful research is being applied to this era, starting with the incredible documentary Guerilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst. Then there was Susan Braudy's slightly less scholarly but oh-so-much fun Family Circle about Kathy Boudin of Weather Underground Fame. Both are entertaining and illuminating of the individuals involved. What's been missing for me is a deeper understanding of what the "radicals" in question where trying to achieve. That's where Bringing the War Home comes in.

It's hard to overstate Jeremy Varon's accomplishment. He tackles the Baader-Meinhof Gang (Red Army Faction or RAF) and the Weather Underground - two groups as focused on their own myth-making as on the "change" they sought to affect - and rescues them from being either "left wing nuts" or "revolutionary heroes". He makes a clear case for what inspired both groups. For the RAF Germany's Nazi past seemed unexorcised, former Nazis were in positions of power in government and business. Worse, for the RAF, some of the mindset that enabled the Nazis to rise to power remained in place: a desire for order over law, conformity at any cost over dissent, etc. Socialism, even communism, still seemed a better venue for achieving true equality over what they perceived as the failed promises of Western Democracy. For the Weathermen it was the blatant inequality that plagued Black Americans on every level that inspired them. For both groups, the Vietnam War was both a cause and an inspiration. If the people of a small Third World Country could stand up to (and even defeat) a super power in the name of their own liberation, surely a revolutionary vanguard in Germany or the US could do the same. That was their reasoning, at least.

Varon goes deeper still in the both the workings of each group and their ideology. His analysis of their writings and intra-group debates is thoughtful and thought-inspiring. While some may think Varon gives each group a little too much credit for their ideological writings, I'd argue that Varon exposes the weaknesses (and a few of the strengths) in each. The Weather Underground's writings can look like a Mad Magazine parody of Trotsky or Lenin's works one minute, then coolly rational when refusing to back down on the necessity of American Workers to give up some of their benefits in order for workers around the world to be at parity. The RAF, by contrast, has far fewer rational moments. A truly shattering quote from Ulrike Meinhof's mother sums up the flaw in both groups: "social-ethical-utopian ecstasy, a contourless vision of the Coming Time." Power to the people, death to the fascist insect they preys upon the people, and kill the pigs. They believed, they KNEW, things had to change, but then what? What aside from not being what it was before was society going to become?

The Weather Underground and the RAF came to embody a radical chic in the early 1970s that, along with the fear they inspired, was entirely out of proportion to their numbers, their followers or even their acts. They spent more time on their communiques then on educating the oppressed about their status or on anything else for that matter. The revolution had better be televised or there wasn't much chance of anybody knowing these groups existed. But of course they were made for tv: articulate, attractive middle-class young people spouting moral outrage. (See the documentary for a few unintentionally hilarious clips of young radicals on tv.) You can't help but think that Lenin or Trotsky would have joined the Black Panthers in their disdain of both groups.

So while I can't say that Varon made me respect either the Weather Underground or the RAF, he did something far more important. His book has helped me to understand why they came to be in the first place and rescued their goals - vague though they sometimes were - from the fog of myth.

This is isn't an easy read. Varon is an academic and he writes like one. The prose is not impenetrable but it requires attention.

This is a fine piece of comparative history. I think it's far superior to other texts on the WUO. I don't think I'm qualified to judge the sections on the RAF, though I found them clear, informative, and provocative.
I respect that Varon has the courage to draw some uncomfortable conclusions about the groups he surveys.
For those who think Varon is a right winger because of the conclusions he draws, you might want to have a look at his C.V.

For those of you looking for an objective historical account of the R.A.F. or Weathermen this is definitely not the place to look. The book starts out well but, unfortunately the author's right-wing bias is soon apparent. Jeremy Varon is obviously someone who opposes the anti-capitalist/ anti-imperialist movement as a whole, and is consistently dismissive of the views of both groups. He also accuses the R.A.F. of anti-semitism, due to their solidarity with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. This is both offensive and inaccurate. Weathermen also expressed solidarity with the P.L.O. but seemingly because they are not German, they escape Varon's charges of anti-semitism. I bought this book as I am researching a thesis relating to the R.A.F. but I was sorely dissapointed by the unrelenting bias of this author's personal views. I would like others considering purchasing this book to be aware that it is a subjective, not historical account.

Varon has a valuable mission in attempting to draw lessons from the activities, beliefs, and commentaries generated by the Weather Underground and the RAF. It's unfortunate, then, that he settles into the very "pathology" of resistance that he criticizes at the opening of his book. By focusing tightly on individual reflections of these groups' former members, he centers his discussion on emotion, theory, and abstraction. His decision to provide little context for their actions leaves us with the same problems as Aust's study of the RAF: the sense that these people were crazy and disconnected from reality. That might have been the case, but without making some attempt to at least depict that reality, Varon ensures that we can't "read" the Weather Underground or the RAF as anything other than irrational abberations. A more detailed history of the period might provide a better view - it would at the least allow for the possibility that these extremists' actions had concrete roots.

Not much to like here.