Customer Reviews

Every Knee Shall Bow : The Truth & Tragedy of Ruby Ridge & The Randy Weaver Family

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An excellent account of the shootout and standoff at Ruby Ridge that's all the more powerful because Jess Walter plays it straight down the middle, neither out to get the government nor out to belittle Randy Weaver. What we get instead is a sober laying out of the facts through great use of detail and a strong narrative. I went into the book a little skeptical and underinformed about Ruby Ridge and emerged horrified at what happened, particularly by the behavior of the feds. But Walter doesn't try to make Weaver a pure hero either, showing his eccentricities and willingly raising questions about his handling of the situation such as whether Weaver used his children as a buffer between himself and danger. The obligatory court section of the book is saved from the boring recitation of trial that often characterizes non-fiction, true crime books by an excellent portrait of lawyer Gerry Spence and very nice detail on the jury's lengthy deliberations. Walter ties Ruby Ridge, Waco and Oklahoma City together very nicely without overdoing it. He's a master of understatement, leaving the reader to form his own conclusions. He includes a very good, concise history of the Aryan Nations/militia/freemen/patriot radical right-wing movement. This is a must-read for any student of the radical right-wing movement, especially anyone open-minded enough to be willing to accept that the government has made some horrific, perhaps criminal errors ... and that some of those errors have fanned the flames of hatred more effectively than any racist demagogue.

This book is probably the best known of all the books about this case.It is the book the 1996 Mini-series starring Laura Dern and Randy Quaid was based on. It is well researched and put together.

The book makes a fair attempt to stay neutral, but I think it was a bit too critical of the Weavers and too sympathetic towards the government on a couple of points.That does not at all diminish its value for someone seeking to learn about this case.Its an invaluable resource.The coverage of the trial is astounding. It spans several chapters and is intricately detailed.

The whole trial is covered from the pretrial preparations to the day Randy walked out of jail.

At the end of the book, I felt like I had just been on a long journey through these tragic events .I felt emotionally wrung out. I have been following this case for a long time and already knew a lot about the case but I ended up feeling even more saddened and outraged at what happened to the Weaver family, and I think reading this would make the majority of people marginally sympathetic to the Weavers, no matter how much we disagree with their religious beliefs.If you want to hear the story reported from both sides, this is the book for you.

This excellent book may well be the definitive work on the tragedy of Ruby Ridge. I was prepared for another diatribe; either Randy Weaver the martyr or Randy Weaver the lawless, racist scum. Instead, Jess Walter has written a very even-handed chronicle that left me terribly sad.

If Walter's facts are right, (and they're certainly believable,) this was a story without unalloyed heroes or villains. He takes us through the Weaver family's odyssey from fundamentalist Christians to - well, whackos. He takes us through the story of how the U.S. Marshalls sent to bring in an everyday, minor fugitive found the case spinning out of their control, leaving them on a mountaintop with two people and a dog dead, and the whole world watching. And he explains the inexplicable; how on earth a law enforcement officer could be in a blind with a .308 and orders to shoot on sight.

This is one of the few really essential books I've read this year.

Hats-off to Jess Walter for a great job. I've been in law enforcement for nearly thirty yrears and I think this book should be required reading for every law enforcement officer.

This is a well written book. It is as exciting and easy to read as a novel. All sides of the controversy get a fair hearing. The beliefs of the Weavers, the White Separtist Movement, Christian Identity and others involved in this controversy are explained. The author definately had his point of view but covered all points of view fairly.

Jess Walter has written an unbiased book about the standoff on Ruby Ridge.

Paranoia and fear played a large part in the conflict, for both sides.

The author detailed the religious influences,beliefs, and motivating factors for the Weaver's move to Idaho. A simple weapons charge could possibly have been beaten and the whole situation avoided.

But for the F.B.I. to have such unconstitutional rules of engagement was arrogant and incompetent at best. The Justice Department report admitted that while the F.B.I. continued it's attempts to cover up and promote those that were most involved. I was amazed to read that the Marshals that were involved in the original shootings weren't interviewed by the other law enforcement agencies and the false reports of the Marshals being in danger after they had in fact,already retreated.

"Every Knee Shall Bow.." is a book I recommend if you want to read about the tragedy of Ruby Ridge.

Unlike most books written about Ruby Ridge and Waco, this book is well written and straightforward, free of the extremist polemics that fill other accounts. It also makes a good, suspenseful read.

This was a well-written and well-researched report of what happened at Ruby Ridge and it explained how the government failed in its duties to protect and serve. Had it not been so tragic -- a pre-teenage boy killed by U. S. Marshalls, a mother with her baby in her arms killed by an FBI sniper, a U. S. Marshall also killed -- one might refer to this incident as a comedy of errors. Jess Walter was fair to all sides and expressed the frustration felt by the Marshall whose duty it was to bring Randy Weaver in but who felt his hands were tied until the whole situation overwhelmed him and his team.

Jess Walter delivers a dramatic, thoroughly reported, well written account of the standoff at Ruby Ridge. Compared to the other two major books on this incident, this book plays it the straightest. He points some fingers, but only when deserving.

Even if you know the final outcome, this book is written well enough to still build some suspense to keep the reader readiing.

Overall, a very good book.

The reviewer preceeding me says it all. A balanced account of what did happen in northern Idaho in the early nineties. Sobering to be sure. Anyone interested in domestic terrorists and separtists should read this book to get the "other side's" viewpoint. Nobody wore "White Hats" - lots of gray and black in this account. Don't jump to conclusions until you read some of both sides of the conflict. An excellent read.