The definitive, unbiased account of the twenty-four hours surrounding the historic January 6th attack on the Capitol The January 6th insurrection was a stunning and unprecedented attack on the center of American government. Unlike previous national traumas that united the country in the face of turmoil, the siege has only further divided Americans, as many continue to dispute the facts and downplay its significance. In Storm at the Capitol, Mary Clare Jalonick delivers a deeply reported and definitive account of the violence at the Capitol told through firsthand narratives—from the rioters themselves and the police who fought them, to the lawmakers who fled the violence, and the staff, workers, and reporters who were there that day, including Jalonick herself. Her retelling begins in the predawn hours of January 6th, as Trump’s supporters travel to Washington, some with plans for violence, and ends in the early morning hours of January 7th, after Vice President Mike Pence slams his gavel on the House rostrum and declares Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. A vivid, terrifying, and human portrait, Storm at the Capitol is a riveting listen for anyone who is worried about the future of our democracy.

The 24 Hours in Charlottesville author offers a minute-by-minute account of the January 6 riots through the never-before-heard stories of those who were thereNeus’s progressive lens goes beyond mainstream reporting to reveal important truths about racial justice and the US white nationalist movementDrawing on the collaboration and support of Tim Heaphy, chief investigator of the U.S. Congress’s January 6 Select Committee; on exclusive access to the United States Capitol Historical Society’s oral history project on the insurrection; and on her personal contacts on the Hill, Nora Neus reconstructs what it was actually like in and around the Capitol during those 24 hours. Her narrators include high-profile politicians and maintenance workers, Capitol Hill residents and White House photographers, police officers who defended the building and insurrectionists who have since disavowed their actions.Police officers recall the insurrectionists screaming at them and calling them traitors. Staffers remember “walking over pools of blood” as they ran for their lives. A young Asian-American staffer recalls locking herself in a room just feet from the rioters, mentally preparing to be raped. A mostly Black janitorial staff began cleaning the blood of insurrectionists off the marble floor on the Capitol before the building was even officially secured.January 6 was a well-planned attack coordinated largely right out in the open, the threat of which lawmakers and government officials underestimated in part because it was coming from white people. Neus will examine the underlying racial implications of not only the attack itself, but also in the planning and coordination of the response.