Balanced and compulsively readable

With crisp prose and a surprisingly sympathetic and balanced tone, Jeff Guinn delivers a satisfying history of the siege and aftermath. The narration was good, and I read the entire thing in one sitting!

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Excellent as always, to the point, objective

Guinn's contemporary history is always well researched and presented. His works involving Manson, Jim Jones, and Bonnie and Clyde qualify as essential reading, masterpieces. I enjoy those books because they delve into the cultural landscape surrounding the main events yielding great insight into how they materialized but also a look under the hood into the inner workings, history of this country. Guinn's Waco is an excellent account of how the Branch came to be and especially how the ATF, FBI and other forces function and handle (mishandle?) such things. It's to the point and informative and an essential read, part to any understanding of the event. David Thibodeau's survivor account should not be overlooked, and Guinn references him more than once, however Thibodeau's book, while not overtly subjective, still lacks 100% objectivity as Guinn's almost scientifically adheres to. My only criticism is that I had hoped he would have written more on the subtitle subject: the legacy of rage that we are all living through, have yet to see the consequences of. Hopefully that's on his to-do list, a future book.

Another excellent book by Guinn

I just finished the book and enjoyed it.

It’s the second book of his I have read, the first one being the Massacre in Jonestown, which was as good as this one, if not better.

Guinn has established himself as a thorough and trustworthy true crime writer that approaches his subject matter evenhandedly, without an axe to grind.

He sets out to tell what happened and to let the reader form their own conclusions and take away from his research and findings what they will.

If your goal is to hear a diatribe that reinforces a particular view, Guinn’s writings are not for you. If however your goal is to hear a balanced account of events in order to understand the nuances that lead up to what happened, Guinn’s books are a solid choice.

P.S. Narration was excellent as well.

From Houston

A lot of insight I didn’t know. I hope Jeff Guinn Will be able to reschedule his appearance at murder by the book

Fascinating recount

Interesting more balanced story of the events. I can see why there would be conspiracy theories. It seems that all were at fault in some fashion.

Enjoyed the book very much.

Author needs to call rape what it is

The book is written well and it’s interesting but I’m having a lot of trouble getting through it. The author seems pretty forgiving of Koresh’s rape of children, barely using the word rape at all. Phrases like “sex with underage girls” are common. That’s rape. There’s no such thing as sex with underage girls. Overall, this book is more from the men’s perspective than the women’s. Men’s feelings come through the pages, but women’s do not. Women’s experiences are more descriptive.

One of the worst phrases in the book was something about men not wanting to “hand over their wives,” as if they’re objects to be passed around.

I was looking forward to a current, detailed account of the Waco crisis, but I cannot finish this book and I’m returning it.

A story everyone should know…..

…..so often we see events such as the tragedy at Waco happening in real time as the public is fed propaganda and falsehoods designed to justify illegal actions and incompetence by government entities more concerned with image than truth. After the smoke clears, the reality begins to shine though.

This is a perfect example of why it’s important to learn history in order to not make the same mistakes again.

Waco was an unavoidable tragedy.

And this is a thoroughly researched and deeply engaging book.

Wow.

There is so much in this book. It is difficult at times to keep straight of whom the author is speaking. If you did not follow the story at the time you may be confused with whether he is referring to a Branch Davidian or an FBI/ATF agent. You can still follow the gist as you go along but all the jumping with name dropping was a bit much. I personally would need a chart with headshots to be able to keep them all straight. Either way, I found it to be well organized and full of a wide swath of viewpoints so one can best understand what happened and how the events came to be.

Thought Provoking

This is a thorough and compelling account of the siege at Mount Carmel. This challenged everything I thought of the raid which was shaped by the government’s account at the time. Jeff Guinn does an excellent job at presenting both sides of an event that, by any measure, was a horrible mistake and tragedy. It was a great listen.

Excellent

Excellent listen! I appreciated the background information before the siege began. I also appreciated the follow-up with members afterwards.