Twelve Days in June

This is the first story in a five-part series on the greatest crisis in American democracy since the Civil War, as it unfolded over just twelve days in June 2021. Drawing on newly available sources and exhaustive research, Max Ezer recounts the gripping drama of those events from the perspectives of key participants, and places the violence in the context of the political turmoil that preceded it. This issue's story, "Prelude," places special emphasis on clarifying the events of the eight months leading up to the crisis, about which there has been much confusion and disinformation.