At the end well allow questioning. So the e up here audience can here. You can keep it going all year to the tribunes premium book section fiction series and membership program. To download the books app. For more information to our bookstore and finally, we love social media like anyone to take eel free pictures, post messages and inif a hem to twitter, ram or facebook using the prls15. Before we begin please silence phones, turn the flashes off your cameras and with that our moderator, perlstein. I like a short but sweet ill give a so short one for bryan burrough, for research, in his most recent book, days of rage americas radical underground, the fbi, and the forgotten age f revolutionary violence, i joke that we should call him Bryan Burroughs yes, thank you. Im here all week. Wanted tod him how he be introduced, he said he writes writes ty fair and he book. The book for which hes best known other than this most is barbarians at the out in 1990. Ame and nabisco, food company. Book is a est accomplishment of and moral inquiry. Its something we thought we lot about because of the last 14 years and thats domestic terrorism but he shows this subject in a new light by taking story back so. 969 or and all the way up through kind s, and middle of the 1980 one of the striking facts in the book is that the most fatal and dangerous year for domestic prior to the first world tray Center Bombing in the United States was 1981, which really makes you scratch your head and say, wow, maybe i book, which you should. Ive read it very closely. I have a review cupping out nation magazine next month. The first thing i would like for bryant to talk about is just the sheer scale of political iolence in the United States during this period. My favorite example to get that was a story you told about the evacuation of a movie theater. So maybe you can address that. Oh, this was just a small in the new york may, that i picked up, 1970. Small puerto rican independence in a set off a bomb theater in the bronx. Lowes, during the liberation of l. Q. Jones and that were so prevalent by time, so kind of blase, that to the times account the next morning the police said when they tried to clear the after they cleaned up the bomb, no one would leave. They refused to leave. Rest of ed to see the the movie. There was no sense of continuing danger. New yorkers, ere its a bomb already, lets get the back e movie, and score in the San Francisco chronicle. That was another one. So many bombs ad during the 1970s that the chronicle began running an box score of how many there were and who was in but the scope of domestic violence, what we would today, istic terrorism dont feel terrorism because by nd large, these bombs were not intended to kill indiscriminately. Most are what i call protest bombs. That means bombs set off in, late at night. Corporate , headquarters. Exploding press releases. Releases, notpress intended to kill, intended to draw the media and police focus, to communicate, which would be to the bottom of the pay phone or sin to come a Radio Station this type of thing it is sheer scale of what stunned me. Inquiry in the early it, s counted, what was 2,500 bombings during the period duringonth 1971 and 1972, which is just amazing. Back, i remember trying to explain why the Weather Undergrounds first berkeley, which we disclose and describe in this book for the first time, why it noticed and because its counted, i going to the major newspapers, 34 other ignificant bombings in the month of february around the country. Ost of which injured far more people than the half dozen policemen that weather first attacked. Amazing thing is not only how widespread it was but how is, thatly forgotten it there is so little cultural and institutional memory. 1970s, through the 9, i remember patty hearst. So much of this was centered in was centered in the bay area and thirdly in chicago. Media capitals. Yes. If you grew up like i did in a like my n in texas or mother, in a small town in arkansas this was easy to miss. On one day in new york, in 1975, following uerto rican independence bombing, there were so many bomb phone into areas buildings, that a hundred thousand offers workers that day evacuated, just Milling Around the suites of manhattan. The first time they ever word trade center. One of the striking things to think speaks kind of more highly of americans medal days than these days, was kind of a san qua. Ou talk about new yorkers saying this is new york, were dont talk about this particular event in the period and ive researched this period, across a lot of 1975, a tories but in man climb over the white house the with a lead pipe, and secret service doing what they do, when there is a physical to the actual ground, to the president s residence and office they shot him to death a three was like in the New York Times about it. That was it. One sentence wikipedia story. Compare that to this poor mentally ill woman, who rammed why ar, no one knows because she was turned into swiss cheese. She had her infant in the car. Was it Like National week but a e a hundred or so military and personnel descended on her home with hazmat material make sure she wasnt cell. Of some terrorist this type of violence was so deeply woven into the 1970s, if and read it, no one expressed any outrage unless someone was killed or hurt. It was so much a part of life in urban america in the 1970s, it no big deal. My favorite quote in the whole legendary pete hammel. Oh, another bombing, who is it this time . Can you imagine anybody saying day. Thats because coming after the 1960s, coming off watergate with multitude of awful things going on in new york and s, i dont in 1970 think radical violence would have been in the top 10 things anyone was worried about. Do you think it says anything about us as a people or a ountry that were so scared of our shadow . Were scared of our shadow now because once we collectively this period we were reintroduced to violence in a very different way. Suddenly out of nowhere, to a really didnt remember this stuff, we had 1993 9 11. And suddenly, now, when i say shudder o people, they and they call these people terrorists. Interesting. It is totally, for me to i had to get my head back before 9 11. Bombs an 1 of these killed anyone. A few did. Puerto rican group detonated a bomb at a wall treet restaurant that killed several people. Several of these groups killed peep. Does or a dozen but the majority werent intended to kill. Some truly awful laboratories. You mentioned fl liberating puerto rico, the puerto rico cant, arent they lready liberated but the bombing that they undertook in the tavern in 1975, its kind of new york tourist attraction, it was where george ashington said farewell to his troops, they did it with a lot incidinary. Until lunch time. Six people . Four. Four people. Hey were half new york, half chicago. Their bombs were mostly 1974 to 1981. Fully funny. The story, im fairly sure this is the first time ive read it detail. They came out of a high school in chicago. Most of them were counselors and teachers, and oscar lopez, lone one who remains in prison today a community activist, who roberto cle called men. The interesting thing about me particular bombing to was, also in counter distinction to violent political terrorists today, these folks within the ainstream of the left or even the liberal mainstream had, you might say, supporters, you might say apologists. To me the most striking thing in the book and why the story is important, not so much for all bombings, was because they had these sort of aiders and was ers, and to me, what striking was the response of the Episcopalian Church in new york, came to them and aid, this puerto rican revolutionary group. Basically operating out of a basement. Puerto rican, mainstream social Services Group a terroristront for group. Episcopalian the leadership that the communique a typewriter in their base president and the who was the response of the archbishop of new york . Diocese, episcopal government split into two halves. Were just kind of freaked out and concerned and progressives, who attacked the overreaching. In chicago, there were do you have a you have a quote, going after politically active right. Hispanics. Difficult forvery anybody to imagine then or prove a il now that revolutionary terrorist Bombing Group was using the National Headquarters of the episcopal of the orking out basement as a front and we can now prove it. Admits it in wyer the book. There are just stories like this from the 1970s that have been forgotten. We remember patty hearst. We remember when weather blew up the townhouse. Sla was ber when the blown up on national tv in 1973, ut there are so many great apotro if i and footnote stories like that. These s talk about what folks believe themselves to be accomplishing. Lets center the discussion a group that has profound scs, hments to chicago, into the weatherman, into the Weather Underground. In 1968e it started days of rage americas radical underground, the fbi, and the forgotten age of revolutionary violence tells dozen mostf the half prominent underground groups of with 70s, beginning weather through the black Liberation Army and a couple of others. All of these that groups for all the different they es had in common was were born during the tumult of the 1960s. The underground of the 1970s is a forgotten last chapter of all that happened in the 1960s. Obviously, what happened is, i lways say that most of these people were unable to shape the dream of 1968. 1968 was that a worldwide revolution was sweeping the globe. Inevitable that it was coming to the United States. The government would fall, and world order was upon us. Come 1969 it didnt happen. Started e in and literally cracking heads, as stormtroopers here in chicago and by late 1969 or core of 0 the hardest the militants including leadership of sds, which is white protest group of the era began to talk seriously about going underground. Fight to the next level. Launchingas literally a kind of war against america. A declared war. As that sounds, they have a long track record of could point to, to show that perhaps it wasnt that crazy. 35 started with, what, people on a hillside in china. To the like one day next. Weve all seen godfather part two. Ho chi minh started with 10 guys in vietnam. Started with 25 on a leaky boat. They all ended up in control of the countries. Eather was the first of the groups and the most imitated, the largest and most influential f the groups that sought to make that happen in america. And there is a great untold failed out how they utterly to do so. Right. And to connect it to chicago, was the e guys who ayers, who is, bill he ame surfaced in 2008, still goes around giving speeches, about this great ntiwar movement, i point out in my book, bill ayers was not an antiwar activist. War activist. He declared war on the united tates and i tell the story in my review about a great ocialist friend of mine, jimmy weinstein, a publisher of americas first socioist these er in decades, in times. Now a great left wing magazine, cousin was in the weatherman. And i said, what would you do if cousin, whose name is j. J. An absolute very, very basically advocate of murderous revolutionary violence, what would you do if knocked on your door today . He said i would turn him into destroyed because he the left. They didnt do the left any favors certainly. Right. One of the interventions that make to this story is that aftermonstrate that, yes, this terrible accident that happened in a townhouse in lower anhattan, in march of 1970, several members of the weather nderground blew themselves up accidentally, you point out that weather d the underground to a policy of only undertaking bombings that would only damage property and not people. That, they had to a very different idea in mind. Thats been the central myth Weather Underground for the last 45 years is they never intended to hurt a soul because thats the wnhouse, path that they embarked upon for six years. They did fairly conventional protest bombings. Uing in bathrooms. The f. B. I. , after a while, egan to take them less seriously and called them the terrible toilet bombers, because was where most of these bathrooms were placed because in the public building they were the one place where given some privacy you could close the door and do the wiring and things that you needed to do. Important thing and one of the more important points in the book is that whats forgotten by apologists like bill ayers and many weather alumni what they up is the fact there were two phases to the Weather Underground. In longest one, yes, was, fact, protest bombings. For the first 90 days they detonate bombsto to kill policemen and military officers. In their first action, disclosed in the book in berkeley, seriously injuring one officer and lightly injuring a bunch of others. There was an action in detroit n which bill ayers group attempted to detonate two bombs at a police function, and the in the s the one townhouse, march 6, 1970 where the new york collective led by a man named Terry Robbins was building a series of very arge bombs that they intended to detonate at an officers new jersey, dix, that night, as luck or however you want to look at this would it, terry knew a lot about politics, a lot about poetry but bombs. Ugh about building the bone went off in his hands, killed him and two others. The entire townhouse down upon him. Convinced the rest of the leadership that they had to murderous violence. Other groups later went on and did it including the black but from there on out, bernadine and jeff leaders, w principal along with bill ayers, chartered letter y called one write to a berkeley paper, called it responsible terrorism. Was, what i call protest bombing. Bombs not intended to kill. Now, bill ayers told terry gross that they never tried to kill any cops. And id you get the story how confident are you that they policehind this berkeley bombing . My source, the young man that placed it. Omb and there is every reason in the world that bill ayers doesnt want the world to know this but his notoriety nt and his fame, there is a large of the radical left out there to whom bill ayers is not very popular. Came forward in the book because they, i think, frankly felt like why is bill only underground figure that most of america has ever heard of. Man, for instance, who built 198 of the Weather Underground bombs, who went on a long career teaching in the Public Schools in new york comes out for the first time in our and tellss identified his story. It el certain that part of is ron realizing he had a part n this history too, and they also, many of them including the one who talks about building and in berkeley that night, feels like bill is not telling the true story. Story is uglier than they want people to remember. Away with they get it . How about the f. B. I. . I love the f. B. I. Today. The loyalty and professionalism. To know a lot of people who work there but the hour. Was not their finest hey had very little history in infiltrating, successfully infiltrating radical groups. Of these hilarious memos that you can get back in how these people live like rep pro baits. Their hair is dirty and they have drugs. In the movement would talk to the f. B. I. So very even though hoover, in something many people on the want to believe or remember, he had forbade illegal and aries in 1966 and by large, i think that was, that away from, the weather 47 in especially squad new york brought back black bag obs, and illegal mail opening and every conceivable thing you after in spades to going weather and the long story short, one of the great ironies era, in the end, exactly one weatherman of the primary cyber, opposed to exactly one weatherman, one of the two young women who crawled of the rubble of the townhouse that morning, was ever convicted of anything. The top three officials of convicted, were indicted for these, for these breakin. One had the charges dropped. Two others were convicted and Ronald Reagan pardoned them. So, i mean, the interesting f. B. I. , not only did they cheat but they lost. Of thenot only that, one most frustrating things about this is i thought i would go di on a book 10 be able to would tell this with documentary evidence. It turns out on weather at least, most of these groups, you get is just junk because i talked to half a dozen fbi agents in the late 1970s who said after these investigations they were s started, taking all the new york files where most of the work was done ome and burning them in the fireplaces. There is just nothing there. To result, i kind of had take off my story hat and put on my old middle age newspaper hat and start just tracking it down, and, you know, burrough. Me is brian you dont know me. I dont happen to be radical but look, anyway, would you tell me about that building you bombed 1972. Brian burroughs. So when i reviewed the book i cinematic. O its like youve seen the movies that stuff was ripped from the headlines. Were talking about a member of cell goes olutionary into an after hours joint where bad things that are bad for the people are going on. Know, and make everyone strip down naked, steal all know. Money, you the cops come. The cops says, what are all people doing naked . Guy ome guys like, some ripped us off but they are gone now and then another guy says, there. S right over on his clothes. A lot of these stories, one of the things i learned is if going to be a member of a violent revolutionary army and over by the cop the first thing you want to do is windows. Down the roll down the windows. Thats what the black to members. Aught when the cops came some hide heir heads, which they start shooting at the cop. And the glass would be flying and you dont want anyone to be right . And these guys all had medium thisrge afros and there is one story about this particularly murderous guy, last quote on that after that shootout was our women were picking glass out hair all night. How many rounds of ammunition ere involved in that final showdown, do you think . I dont know, but it was cut to pieces. The unofficial end of the black Liberation Army. Was lack Liberation Army not prone to peaceful protest bombings. Of the e a spinoff panthers, black panthers. Exactly, as weather map was a of sds. From the t nominally their world s, emissary, cleaver, who b