The Turner Diaries

The Turner Diaries is a novel written by William Pierce (under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald), the leader of the white supremacist group National Alliance. It details a violent overthrow of the federal government by white supremacists and also describes a brutal race war that is to take place simultaneously. The book is a graphically violent, and is told through the perspective of John Turner, an active member of the rightwing underground.

The book opens with the bombing of FBI headquarters, which, critics say, could have served as a model for the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Although The Turner Diaries was only available by mail order and at extremist gatherings, it is believed to have sold half a million copies, and to have had many more readers, because it was handed from one person to another.

To date, several groups or individuals have been inspired by this book:

• At the time of his arrest, Timothy McVeigh, the man responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing, had a copy of The Turner Diaries in his possession. McVeigh’s action against the Murrah Federal Building was strikingly similar to an event described in the book where the fictional terrorist group blows up FBI Headquarters.

• The Order, an early 1980s terrorist cell involved in murder, robberies, and counterfeiting, was motivated by the book's scenarios for a race war. The group murdered Alan Berg, a Jewish talk show host, and engaged in other acts of violence in order to hasten the race war described in the book. The Order’s efforts later inspired another group, The New Order, which planned to commit similar crimes in an effort to start a race war that would lead to a violent revolution.

• The Turner Diaries provided inspiration to John William King, the man convicted for dragging a black man to his death in Jasper, Texas. As King shackled James Byrd's legs to the back of his truck he was reported to say, "We're going to start the Turner Diaries early."