Live Free or Die
n early 2016, a couple of dozen armed Mormon cowboy ranchers took over a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service installation in eastern Oregon., Anthony McCann offers a nuanced account of the 41-day occupation of the Malheur (“bad luck”) National Wildlife Refuge. McCann has a sharp eye for detail, he knows the historical and natural settings, and he also understands how to get out of the way of his characters. Zealots of the sovereign movement, these occupiers argued that the federal government had no authority to own or govern public lands; some even insisted that the government was entirely illegitimate, justifying their beliefs by citing the Constitution, the very document that legitimized the federal government and defined its powers.
