Up in Arms

An excellent examination of the "Sagebrush Rebellion" that is occurring today in the western United States. The author tells the story through the eyes of the Bundy family, ranchers in Nevada.
Some ranchers/farmers/citizens of the western states are rebelling against the fact that the U.S. Government owns a huge portion of the land in these states. For example, in Nevada, the Federal Government owns 85% of the land. The land is controlled by various National Parks, National monuments, Wilderness areas, and by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
The problem, as the ranchers see it, is that they cannot utilize the land as they want for grazing cattle. The government's position is that the land should be managed to prevent overgrazing and overuse of the available water.
To add fuel to the fire, the government further limited land usage when it was discovered that certain rare plants and animals were on the land, and wanted to ensure their survival. Creatures like the desert tortoise (Nevada), the spotted owl (Oregon), and the Snake River salmon (Washington).
To add to the conflict, many "Patriot" groups have joined with the ranchers to fight the government. Some of these groups were civilian paramilitary outfits, like the Militia of Montana and the Michigan Militia. These groups believe that Americans are losing control over the government to globalist forces. Life was changing, and, they felt, not for the better. By joining these groups of like-minded people and arming themselves, they felt like it was a way to regain control and to be part of something important. These groups have been around a long time. For example, the John Birch Society in the 1950's, and the Posse Comitatus in the 1970's.

Enter Cliven Bundy.

Bundy was a Nevada rancher who grazed his cattle on his land, as well as on BLM land. Which was allowed, as long as he followed BLM rules and paid for the usage of the land. Bundy strongly felt that the Federal government had no say over the use of the land, and that the proper authorities should be county government. Bundy stopped paying his BLM rental fees. This went on for years, with the fees and the nonpayment fines growing and growing. Finally, the BLM told Bundy that he had to remove his cattle from their lands.
Bundy came up with the conclusion that the federal government was not allowed to own any land. He believed the Constitution was clear in this fact, specifically settling on a passage called the "Enclave Clause". However, the courts, all the way up through the Supreme Court, did not agree.
Things were building to a head. Bundy would not budge in his beliefs. Also, the Patriot groups were growing, due to the election of Barack Obama as President. Before Obama's election, there were 148 Patriot groups in operation. In 2012, there were 1,360!
And then along came Alex Jones, the voice behind "Infowars", an ultra conservative radio show. Jones took up Bundy's cause. He said that the Federal authorities were trying to instigate a confrontation with Bundy, With the result being Federal agents being killed in the confrontation, which would then allow Obama to declare martial law and bring in UN troops to run the U.S. His words caused the Patriot members to flock to Bundy's ranch, to protect him. There were hundreds of people camped out at the Bundy ranch to protect him and his cattle.
Bundy began believing that he was the person chosen by God to save the United States from destruction. He surrounded himself with the Patriot group members, using them as bodyguards against the Feds. He was further encouraged by statements from U.S. Senator's Dean Heller and Ted Cruz. Cruz actually blamed Obama.
The BLM then made a major miscalculation. It sent a man named Dan Love to resolve the situation. Love conducted a militaristic "round-up" of the Bundy's cattle from the BLM land. Overly aggressive, macho, sexist, and tone-deaf to common sense, Love triggered a armed standoff between the outnumbered BLM agents and the Bundy group. With the result being the BLM backed down. The book does an excellent job of describing the tense standoff.
Then Bundy himself made some real bone-headed mistakes. He made some very racist remarks to the media. Which resulted in people turning against him and his crusade.
It was a real mess.
Things settled down for awhile. Then came the next case to become the Patriot's cause. Dwight and Steven Hammond were ranchers in Oregon. They came under the BLM's gaze for starting fires and poaching deer. The Patriot's (and the Bundy's) rallied to their defense. The result being another armed standoff. This one after the Patriot's took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge offices in Oregon.
Cliven Bundy's son, Ammon, became a leader in this standoff. Ammon must have had some real mental problems. He thought that God was working through him to accomplish His purposes, so that Americans would have something to pass onto their children.
The Malheur occupation did not become as big a cause as the Bundy ranch occupation. Only about 40 people were occupying the refuge. The government had learned since the Bundy ranch debacle. It took a more "hands-off" policy. It settled in for a long siege, the results being that the occupiers eventually gave up.
Then came all the court cases. The Federal prosecution team decided that they could not use a lot of the evidence they had obtained, as it was poisoned by the conduct of the BLM agent Dan Love. The presiding Judge found out about this evidence, let the defense use it,

The end results, I will leave untold, as it would spoil the book for the reader.

I do like one of the statements at the end of the book. It sums up the situation then, as well as today's current news. "Paranoia and anger are contagious, and when they're fed by misinformation and misguided emotional appeals, everybody loses".
That should be the advice we all could use today.

An excellent book. I highly recommend to everyone.

I really didn’t expect to like this book, but I was drawn into it and read it right through. It’s quite a saga about a ranch family in Nevada that’s been on the land for generations and gets into a dispute with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over their cattle being on protected land, as it has been forever. It turns out that 80% of Nevada at that time controlled by the government, either part of a park or under BLM. Hard to believe. It gets pretty involved so I won’t go into the particulars but it becomes a very heated situation when the BLM decides to show up to take the whole herd. They bring an entire command center and all kinds of agents and equipment, trucks, mobile pens, this is a multi-million project here just to grab farmer Bundy’s cattle.

Cliven Bundy reaches out to his large family first and they all show up to circle the wagons and then they put out the word on their ranch website. The word gets out, and Cliven gets a call from a man who started a small militia to help people in his situation, and Cliven was asked if he wanted their help. He agreed after his son was roughed up and arrested. So the militia put out the word, and other groups passed it on. People from all over began leaving their homes and going by any means they could, heading for the Bundy ranch. You can see the buildup and problems coming already.


I found it to be a well-researched book, and I enjoyed the writing. It certainly kept my interest all the way through. This is a good book for those that enjoy David and Goliath stories about people with a beef against the government. I liked the aspect of friends and neighbors who came together to help one another in a time of need, though I’m sure there will be those who feel that Bundy was in the wrong. I just enjoyed the book. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author John Temple, and the publisher for my fair review.

Free copy provided by NETGALLEY

My review is that this is not the first great book by John Temple and shouldn't be the last. He writes well but there are so many layers, so many characters, true believers, fakers, and just plain crazies that it is hard to know what to believe. Take a dive in a State where it claims sovereignty but 80% of the land is owned by the federal government and see what you come up with.

Up in Arms by John Temple was received direct from the publisher. The Bundy debacle by the federal government (Obama Administration), kind of forced everyone paying attention to choose a side. While the Bundys were blatantly breaking the law, was there intent to cause anyone or anything harm? And certainly any reasonable person can agree the federal government was being overly aggressive and we have all seen how that generally turns out. This book covers these topics in a way that did not try and push the reader to one side or the other, even though the reader had to know, while researching the book either side put their own slant to things. if you, or someone you by gifts for, is interested in "little man vs the government" style books, or simply just followed this story while it was in national news, certainly give this book a read.

4 Stars

The author's painstaking research and attention to detail is obvious in the writing of this book. There were many facts that I only discovered after reading this!

I appreciated the depth of research shown here. Mr. Temple has written an engrossing book about a frightening situation (from all perspectives - anarchy vs. Gov’t overreach). There are many layers to delve through and the author does an admirable job of sifting through the events and personalities involved. All in all, a frightening situation on all levels.
My thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review.

Up in Arms is an even-handed, exhaustive look at the travails of the Bundy family in their disputes with the federal government over land rights. The dispute ultimately attracts the Patriot Movement and details other similar conflicts that involve the Bundy’s. It’s a compelling well-researched book that really lets the reader draw their own conclusions, and gives us an insight into the whole issue. I was given an ARC by the publisher through @NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I vaguely remember hearing about this standoff on the news years ago, so I was interested in learning more about it. The author’s writing style was compelling, and his research was incredibly thorough. The book reads like a novel (almost John Grisham-like), yet it’s so informative. I highly recommend this book and hope to read more by John Temple!

This book evokes all kinds of emotions, apprehensions and ideologies, as conflicting as they may be to wrap in a single word or sentence.

Good write-up.