Customer Reviews

The Turner Diaries: A Novel

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(31)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

I did a project recently on different groups in the white racialist movement and read this book as part of my research. Being quite liberal, I had to put it down and go outside for some fresh air, but it was rather hard to find a stopping point in order to do that.
This is a very well-written book. As much as I disagreed with its message, the pages kept turning. It involves elements of the author's idealism, a hero who will do anything that he thinks is right, action, warring factions, government opression, and so many other addictive written elements such as love and love lost, martyrdom, etc.
The particular type of idealism is disturbing; Turner, the hero of the book, is a White racist who, with his fellows, aspires to end all other races-- including Jews, who are portrayed in this book as evil-- for the "protection" of caucasians everywhere. The author sets his stage in a world where the "good guys" are kept down by a Jewish government who wants their guns. Throughout the book he goes from persecuted status to persecuted status until members of the Organization (the White Racialist group of which Turner is a member) revolt. The book portrays White racists as heroes and everyone else as either inconsequential or downright evil, including Whites not affiliated with the Organization. Despite its message, however, it is still well-written and hard to put down. Its nature, disturbing to most, will only make the storyline stick better in your head. I strongly recommend this book to someone who is not easily affected or easily sickened, and someone who is not sitting on a fence. There are graphic parts, disturbing parts, and times when you will put down the book and feel like someone has punched you in the chest, but anyone who enjoyed the movie "American History X" and/or has a fascination with the nature of hate should read this book.

Not coming from the perspective of the author, but rather from that of an open-minded libertarian, I bought and read this book out of sheer curiosity. While some of the scenes were a bit strong for my tastes, I certainly found the book fascinating. I regard it as always worth while to immerse one's self in the study of other perspectives. This book presented me with an ideal opportunity to do so. Whatever one thinks about the ideology advanced by its author, she must nevertheless conclude that this book is pretty interesting.

Also fascinating to me has been the emphasis placed by other reviewers on the idea that this book is 'poorly written.' On the advice of these reviewers, I prepared myself to endure a poor read. I can attest that it is no more poorly written than any other novel for sale on Amazon. I really find it odd that so many reviewers have suggested this, considering that there is nothing noticeably poor about the writing in this book at all. After checking the reviews of clearly poorly written books, and finding nothing resembling such an emphasis, I inferred that these suggestions result from the sensitivity of the subject matter dealt with in the book. To each her own, I guess. Considering this, I advise those whose feathers are easily ruffled to read something else.

I'll skip the racial/religious aspect because it's been discussed to death, both here and in the media.

But consider it from a libertarian, Minuteman perspective. Erase the racial hatred and other nonsense in the book and examine the protagonist purely as a member of an organization opposed to what he views as governmental oppression and a fundamental stripping of his Constitutionally-guaranteed rights. The protagonist-- who is an admittedly flawed individual, a manifestation of the author's own anxieties and fears on a grand scale-- is merely a man who is willing to risk his life, his liberty, and his fortune to strike back at the government for what he feels are crimes. Granted, his perception of "crimes" (so-called race-mixing and the truly ludicrous scenes of Jewish and minority reverse-racism and oppression) is deeply flawed by almost any thinking person's standards, but his methods are deadly accurate.

This book exposes some simple truths. Any well-motivated person can strike back against the government in a variety of ways. Any person who believes absolutely in their cause can prevail, because they are willing to trade their life for an ideal; you can defeat the individual but you cannot defeat the ideal they represent. Disarming citizens gives the government the ability to issue whatever mandate they decree is law, but an armed citizenry can revolt. The Turner Diaries is about a revolt-- unfortunately, most end up getting lost on the racial and religious bigotry within, which does a disservice to the message in this book.

I think John Ross did it better in "Unintended Consequences", which manages to dodge most of the racial and religious issues but still make the point that a micro-revolution can quickly foment into a macro-revolution if the government is vulnerable because it has oppressed its citizenry. Ross focused more purely on gun rights, but on a Constitutional scale, no one can argue against the facts--our rights as free citizens have slowly eroded over the past 50 years. While things have improved greatly for women and minorities, as a nation we are less free despite the successes of the civil rights and feminist movements. Their freedoms were long overdue, but the other rights that have gradually, bit by bit, disappeared right from under our noses are worse crimes by far.

To change things up a bit-- how many illegal wiretaps, restrictions of your rights to gun ownership, suspension of habeas corpus, arbitrary mandatory-minimum sentencing for petty crimes or removal of protections against cruel and unusual punishment will it take before YOU act? Will you act by gnashing your teeth and writing your Congressperson? Or will you fly a bomb-laden plane into the legislature in the middle of a vote? To what degree do you believe in your ideals? These are the questions posed by the book, if one can see past the racial slurs and bigoted diatribes.

I think a lot of people reviewing this book have not even read it. Anyone who gives it ONE star simply because it has racist views is not being fair. The book was a fairly short easy read, although it was not as simplistic as many have said.
The book makes several good points about how brainwashed people are and how willing they are to follow whatever the people in charge tell them too. It was not really a "wake up" call for me, I went to college and saw many people swallow some ridiculous things without question.
The book does have some serious flaws, due mainly tot he fact that it is a compilition of short stories bound into novel form. The books most annoying feature is the constant editors notes from the future, I did not need someone from 100 BNE telling me how to convert English units into Metric ones or what an afro is.
Also the end of the book (spoiler) is very rushed. The brief description of the war against China was not to bad, as China WOULD invade Russia if we nuked them. But the Author fails to state how we beat India, Pakistan, or other serious world powers. The book simply states we beat them around 1999. When the organization was still recovering from the war against the System, which seems unlikely.

I heard so much about this book being a blueprint for right wing nuts to go out and blow stuff up so I decided to read it. It takes place in future America, 1996 which is actually our past. The government is corrupt and being controlled by the jews while all the blacks are sexed crazed monkeys and the white people are under attack. It is up to Earl Turner and a rag tag team of white americans to thwart the entire government, jews, blacks and anything else that isn't white or american. They start a group called The Order and they make bombs, get their guns and take the fight to their enemies by blowing up government buildings and shooting people. More and more whites join the fight for freedom and the government starts to lose it's tyranical grip over America. Then a bomb blows up the Pentagon and shortly after The Order takes control of America. Finally in the epilogue The Order pretty much takes over the world and kills off the non whites. The book is written fairly decent and the characters aren't as carboard as one would expect. The plot is good and interesting although farfetched especially at the end when the whites take over the world. The book is written as a diary which I really didn't like but it's not that big of a problem.

If you can over look the racist aspects of this novel, which was something I was able to do, then this book will be a fairly decent sci-fi suspence book to read.

Did you know that Timothy McVeigh owned a copy of this book and modeled his attack on the Oaklahoma building after the story? This alone makes it a piece of history and a book worth reading.

The Turner Diaries is a fictional account of a white supremecist revolution. I personally do not agree with the views of the author, however I feel that exposure to extremist literature allows the reader to evaluate their own beliefs with a better understanding of the issues at hand. I recomend reading this book for anyone with an open mind and an ability to think for themselves. I do not feel that it is appropriate for highly influential individuals or the extremely sensitive.

This book written by the recently deceased William Pierce under the pseudonym Andrew MacDonald, leader of Americas largest white nationalist organization the National Alliance; is an apocaplytic vision of a future American race war.
Although I found the book somewhat adolescent, I found it to be a vision of American diversity gone wrong, however it expresses Pierces frustration with the marginalization of european Americans in a country which they founded.
I believe Pierce expresses the valid concern of frustrated whites who have seen themselves displaced by massive non-white immigration and dispossessed by the political correctness movement and excessive civil rights laws, and sublimates his rage through the pen and this story.
Pierce is appealing to the dispossessed whites of America who can identify with a main character who heroically fights for his people in a corrupted America.
This book is vital to those who wish to fathom the psyche of the American white nationalist movement which includes the KKK, the National Alliance, Posse Commitatus and other "hate" groups.
If read with an open mind, one can ponder why this book has been suppressed and why the supposedly open minded politically correct want this book off the shelves and out of print.
In a truly free America, there is nothing to fear in this book.

Written by Dr. William Luther PIERCE, the founder of the National Alliance, under a pen name, THE TURNER DIARIES is one of the most controversial novels ever written - and rightfully so. As this particular book is not one which one stumbles accidentially across you likely have heard all the stories about it, with the novel allegedly providing the inspiration for the Federal Building bombing in Oklahoma City. Some people even claim that the book's climax (with author Earl TURNER embarking on a kamikaze style mission aboard a crop duster plane against the "system's" last stronghold, the Pentagon) influenced the 9/11 attacks. Well, personally I don't believe in these claims. For instance, both Stephen KING and Tom CLANCY have written novels which include 9/11 style scenarios and nobody ever claimed they inspired real life terrorists. And as far as Timothy McVEIGH is concerned, Dr. PIERCE himself repeatedly said that THE TURNER DIARIES were intended as fiction (and not as a blueprint for a revolution) and stated that McVEIGH had no affiliation whatsoever to the National Alliance.
Controversies and anectodes aside, it goes without saying that THE TURNER DIARIES never was intended for a bleeding heart liberal and politically correct audience. If easily offended, stay away like a vegetarian would avoid a rare T-bone steak.
The title of my review indicates what you can expect in this novel. It is extremely violent and racially unrelentingly radical, particularly in the last 50 or 60 pages, when TURNER's organisation incites a total race war, first in California, then throughout the USA and finally worldwide. There is a socalled "day of the rope", where thousands of "race traitors" are summarily hanged on lamp posts. Chaos reigns and blacks resort to cannibalism. There are gory scenes which would not be out of place in a zombie film: "The cellar, which was illuminated by two kerosene lanterns hanging from steam pipes, had been converted into a human slaughterhouse by the Blacks in the apartment building. The floor was slippery with half-congealed blood. There were washtubs full of stinking entrails, and others filled with severed heads. Four tiny, human haunches dangled overhead from wires." (p.151)
Believe me, the last couple dozen pages or so will stay long with you after you have finished reading! (Contrary to other reviewers who found scenes such as the aforementioned one almost ridiculously exaggerated I think they are spot on. The so called civilisation is just a thin veneer. Ethnic wars are the most cruel ones and cannibalism has occured in all of the many savage tribal wars in Africa from the Congo and Biafra to Rwanda.)
What surprised me, however, was the relatively restrained wording - rarely ever a n- or k-word. The novel is quite well written. No, it is not dull as other reviewers stated. Earl TURNER, the "author" of the diaries, is an electrical engineer by training and a trouble-shooter for all technical issues for the racialist underground organisation of which he is a member, totally devoted to the political cause. Unsurprisingly, a character like him would write in a rather technical (i.e. "dull") way. Granted, the "love story" with his comrade Kathrine feels tagged on and not overly convincing, but it is not overly distracting.

Due to the content it is real hard to recommend THE TURNER DIARIES. Personally I found the late Dr. PIERCE's second novel HUNTER much better (though I am aware that I'm in a minority position).

The Turner Diaries is your basic dystopia. The government is oppressive, the people are too entertained to care, and the conditions which the people live in are horrible. Much like Brave New World (Huxley), this book, written in 1976, is a sort of "prophecy" for the world we live in today. It predicted high gas prices, electricity failures, and gun control acts. I believe it is an interesting portrayal of the government that most people could relate to, but are unwilling to accept.

Now everyone knows this book is full of racist propaganda, so it should come as no surprise that the antagonists of this book are the blacks and jews. Being of jewish heritage, I was interested in the social commentary of the book. I was disappointment that the book gives no establishment of why they are the enemy. In this dystopia, it is assumed (as if not knowing is ignorance on MY part) that jews and blacks have superceding power over the US Government, and therefore are the system. I found this a ludicrous assumption, but came as no surprise to me since racism is the tradition of ignorance and stupidity.

In my opinion, the book would have been much more meaningful to the average American if the enemy, rather than being those dictated by the Aryan faith, were the major political parties. Unfortunately, this book is propaganda. It mixes truth with lies and blurs the line between racism and reality. I agree with the book in that "people feel no loyalty to the System anymore" but disagree with the notion that this is because of black civil rights or a jewish nation.

The beauty of the first amendment is that you get to read it at all. The FBI probably wants it banned, but you have a right to know, whether it's right or wrong. As Milton said, the truth will always prevail in a free-thinking, uncensored society.

... At the risk of offending everyone, I had fun reading this
book. From the beginning when the Cohen bill (get it?) tries to take
away everyone's guns to the execution scene where white women who
slept with black men get executed to the constant Jewbaiting, this is
one very whacked book. It's like Red Dawn but without the veneer of --
actually Red Dawn didn't have any veneer. Ok, it's like Red Dawn
without Erin Gray to blow up anything.

The Nazi propaganda gets
tedious, of course. The joy the narrator takes in assassination makes
one hope that the author is under close surveillance. But the pacing
the plotting are pretty good. Usually when I read these fringe
elements, I get the sense that I'm losing out on style in favor of
getting something truly twisted. In this one, I'm kind of sad that the
writer takes himself seriously and really believes in the Nazi
cause. He could have written some great thrillers.