Author’s Note: Composites and Alterations of Fact
Preface
Prologue: The Stolen Giant
Part I: Chrysalis
1: A Weatherman Appears in My Living Room
2: The Columbia Gateway Drug
3: Hoover’s “Black Problem”
4: From Wall Street to Bleeker Street
5: “He Left You His Eyes”
6: Rogue
7: Judith Regan
Part II: The State Is Our Enemy
8: The Sonorous Baritone of William Kunstler
9: The Collegiate and The Collective
10: Bombers and Besties
11: Canadian Terrorists?
12: A Penitent Yippie Appears at Folk City
13: Rat and the Masturbators
14: The FBI’s Bomb Expert
15: BOOM!
16: Children of the Revolution
Part III: Mother Right
17: …And Jane
18: An Explosion in Foley Square
19: Two Mothers Two Truths
20: It Was a Great Night for the Revolution
21: Rewards for the Wicked
22: Liz Fink’s Bag-o-Marbles Schtick
Part IV: White Man’s Rules
23: The Attica Brothers
24: Uprising
25: A Surprise Ally
26: Trouble at the Factory
27: “Their Throats Were Slashed.”
28: Kunstler and the Observers
29: Fink’s Bunker
30: September 13th 9:05 am
31: Three Truths That Tell a Lie
32: The Verdict
Epilogue: Beautiful Things
Appendix
Acknowledgments
An Anatomy of the Laundry
Key Groups and Acronyms
Character Guide
Sources and Interview Subjects
Selected Bibliography
Notes
Joshua Melville is the author of five books, including
Confessions of a Record Producer and Million Dollar MistakesHe
lives in Los Angeles, California.
"What does the fabled Sixties mean to the children of the enflamed
radicals? The aptly named American Time Bomb is one tour de force
answer. I couldn't put down this masterpiece of combined historical
sleuthing and self-reflection." Mark Rudd, author of Underground:
My Life with SDS and the Weathermen
"With the imaginative powers of a novelist, the tenacity of an
investigative reporter, and the seriousness-of-purpose of an
historian, Joshua Melville has produced a remarkable double
memoirfirst, the story of his dad, Sam Melville, murdered by an
agent of the state at the age of thirty-seven during the notorious
uprising at Attica prison, and, second, the pursuit of his father's
legacy, and his own truth. All children must eventually learn to
walk on their own, of course, to make their distinct and wobbly way
through life, to sing their own songs and tell their own stories. .
. . Melville has taken on that universal task with uncommon
couragehis odyssey takes him through treacherous waters where he
confronts a host of mythical monsters, resists a chorus of sirens,
and overcomes substantial obstacles. In the end, Sam Melville got
the historian he deservesthe dazzling son he called Jocko." Bill
Ayers, author of Fugitive Days: Memoir of an Antiwar Activist
"Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his
son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. Genesis
22:7. American Time Bomb is Isaac's account. It differs
dramatically from the official version." Ron Kuby
"Josh Melville makes a strong argument that the pen is mightier
than the sword. As a son, longing to understand his father's death
at Attica, his story is the stuff of grand opera and Greek tragedy.
As detective and historian he has delivered a mesmerizing tale,
insisting that America look at itself." David Rothenberg, founder
of the Fortune Society
"What do you do when the father who abandoned you turns out to be a
major domestic terrorist? In this devastating, visceral, and
breathtaking memoir, Melville asks complicated questions
unflinchingly. His story is at turns heartbreaking, infuriating,
resonant, and difficult. It's one-of-a-kind book, and I couldn't
put it down." Susan Jane Gilman, author of Donna Has Left the
Building
" American Time Bomb is a vital read for this moment. When hundreds
of state troopers entered the Attica State Correctional Facility
back in 1971 with guns blazing, killing sixties' radical Sam
Melville, his son's life was forever changed. Because state
officials then denied any wrongdoing, as well as hid, 'lost,' and
sealed all records related to their brutal retaking of that prison,
Josh Melville had to spend literally decades trying to figure out
exactly how his dad was murdered, and, increasingly important, how
he had lived well before that awful day. American Time Bomb is a
most beautiful memoir, and even while the conclusions that it draws
may, like the tumultuous decades that it covers, generate some
debate, they will no doubt give readers much to think on for a long
time to come." Heather Ann Thompson, author of the Pulitzer
Prize--winning Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of
1971 and Its Legacy
"An engaging and intimate memoir that offers a personal history of
the radical underground and adds context to the story of the Attica
uprising." Library Journal
"A nuanced, ambivalent portrait of a man who pushed himself to
extremes and left behind a wounded family." CrimeReads
"American Time Bomb is a vital read for this moment." -- Heather
Ann Thompson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood in the
Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
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