Jeff Gentner/AP
Following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Amazon took the unusual step on January 12 of removing all copies of a novel called
The Turner Diaries from its virtual shelves. That may seem like a drastic stance given the debate over censorship and free speech that has accompanied these types of purges. But it’s one that signifies just how notorious the book has become, and how much real-world damage it’s arguably caused.
Written and self-published by a racist man who founded a dangerous white supremacist organization,
The Turner Diaries has long been viewed as a fundamental manual of extremism. While other more well-known cultural artifacts like
“The Turner Diaries" has been cited as inspiration in at least 40 domestic terror attacks and hate crimes, including the one on the U.S. Capitol. It also helped inspire the main Oklahoma City bomber.
The Turner Diaries a blueprint for Capitol attack
By Dorany Pineda
In the 1978 novel The Turner Diaries, an underground revolutionary group of self-proclaimed patriots known as the Organization attacks the U.S. Capitol. A car bombing of FBI headquarters kills hundreds. In The Day of the Rope, members of the Organization publicly hang members of Congress, journalists and others they deem traitors. The goal, of course: to overthrow a federal government they believe is engaged in a vast elitist conspiracy.
When historian and author Kathleen Belew watched a white mob of Trump supporters attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, leaving five people dead, she immediately thought of the novel, partly because others have thought about it too: the white supremacists who stormed the Capitol and the law enforcement agencies who monitor them. The FBI has called The Turner Diaries the bible of the racist right.