Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens
The Endless War over the West's Public Lands
by John L. Smith
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Pub Date Mar 10 2021 | Archive Date Apr 23 2021
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Description
The grazing rights battle between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the federal government, resulting in a tense, armed standoff between Bundy’s supporters and federal law enforcement officers, garnered international media attention in 2014. Saints, Sinners, and Sovereign Citizens places the Bundy conflict into the larger context of the Sagebrush Rebellion and the long struggle over the use of federal public lands in the American West.
Author John L. Smith skillfully captures the drama of the Bundy legal tangle amid the current political climate. Although no shots were fired during the standoff itself, just weeks later self-proclaimed Bundy supporters murdered two Las Vegas police officers and a civilian. In Eastern Oregon, other Bundy supporters occupied the federal offices of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and one of them died in a hail of bullets.
While examining the complex history of federal public land policies, Smith exposes both sides of this story. He shows that there are passionate true believers on opposite sides of the insurrection, along with government agents and politicians in Washington complicit in efforts to control public lands for their wealthy allies and campaign contributors. With the promise of billions of dollars in natural resource profits and vast tracts of environmentally sensitive lands hanging in the balance, the West’s latest range war is the most important in the nation’s history. This masterful exposé raises serious questions about the fate of America’s public lands and the vehement arguments that are framing the debate from all sides.
Advance Praise
Sometimes history seems not to make sense but to be a riot of discordant ideas, weird cultural tides, and deluded personalities. As John L. Smith tells the tale, the showdown between law enforcement officers and misnamed “patriots” at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in 2014 included all that and more. If you seek to know the birthplace of our “post-factual” world, Smith offers a prime candidate. From rangeland to courtroom, Bundy and his sons have helped to create a dangerous new American West where theater is reality and truth is whatever the loudest shouter claims it to be. —William deBuys, author of A Great Aridness and The Last Unicorn"
"What this author brings to the table is a deep understanding of Nevada history and the political rivers running through it. Unlike other writers, he understands the state and the players as well as anyone." —Geoff Schumacher, author of Howard Hughes: Power, Paranoia and Palace Intrigue
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Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781948908900 |
| PRICE | $39.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 383 |
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Featured Reviews
Daniela G, Reviewer
I was excited to discover a topic that I never explored before. As a European, the split in land ownership between counties and the federal government in the United States was a foreign concept.
This booked opened up otherwise niche topics like ongoing conflicts around the grazing rights on public lands (in the Western states of U.S.) and the less obvious links to religion and far-right militia groups. It felt like an expose of what goes on behind the scenes of a cowboy’s life life in practical terms and how conflicts of principle can escalate and become dangerous in a matter of days.
Written in a journalistic style, the book is maybe not the easiest of reads – but compensates through the abundance of facts. The 2014 Cliven Bundy ranch incident is the trigger story, but the author than builds the full context chapter by chapter. It touches on the history of the Mormon faith, extreme nationalism and racist attitudes that sometimes are interlinked, all the way up to the Trump election in 2017.
If you enjoy reading about current events, you will find this book useful regardless if you are U.S citizen or not. I also enjoyed finding Vice documentaries and Youtube videos linked to the events mentioned in the book.
(I think there is an extra comma on the book cover, although I do appreciate this is an ARC so not fully edited)
june l, Educator
This was an interesting story that has a long-form journalism feel to it. The ARC I reviewed had a lot of typos, and some sections felt a bit repetitive and probably could use another editing pass. but I learned a lot about this story and more about Nevada as well.
Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.
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