Product Description

Coyotes and Town Dogs is a history of the U.S. environmental movement since Earth Day, told in a dramatic narrative that traces the evolution of Dave Foreman, founder of the radical environmental group Earth First!, from disillusioned Washington, D.C. insider to rabble-rousing radical. This book proves that the environment isn't boring -- or at least that it wasn't when the cockeyed cowboys of Earth First! were grabbing headlines. A solid history that manages to read like Tom Wolfe in his fast-paced, rock-and-roll prime, Coyotes and Town Dogs gives you the greatest hits of the century-old American conservation movement in a book that's become a cult classic among twenty-somethings who care about the planet.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1918753 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 483 pages

From Amazon.com
When a few scruffy "redneck hippies" first gathered in 1980 in the isolated Pinacate of Mexico to discuss environmental issues, none had any idea that they would launch a movement that would involve thousands of activists and a good number of FBI agents. But by the time they emerged from that wild country, Dave Foreman and company had evolved into Earth First!, a group that vowed to protect wild places by whatever means necessary. Susan Zakin traces the movement over 10 years to its splintering in the early 1990s after Foreman and three other activists were arrested for conspiracy to destroy an Arizona nuclear-power plant. Zakin's vivid prose mirrors the movement's excitement, occasional terror, and just as occasional triumph--notably author Edward Abbey's notorious "cracking" of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1981 (a giant roll of black polyurethane provided the illusion that the dam had sprung a leak), which first brought Earth First! national attention.

From Publishers Weekly
In the late '70s through the '80s, the radical environmental group Earth First! achieved notoriety by its flamboyant activism while provoking widespread debate on environmental issues. In this lengthy, rambling account, reporter Zakin profiles the group and its major figures: Dave Foreman, Bart Koehler, Tim Mahoney, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Louisa Willcos and Judi Bari. Zakin also describes other leading environmentalist figures from John Muir to David Brower. Earth First! members were disappointed with the national organizations and dismayed by Reagan policies. Devotees of Edward Abbey's The Monkeywrench Gang , they followed the principle of "act now, think later." Zakin describes the group's activities in the West as it confronted loggers, miners and road-builders. She chronicles the rise of anti-environmentalist backlash and violence in northern California, FBI surveillance of Foreman and his companions and their subsequent arrest in 1989 for conspiracy to destroy government property. Foreman, who wrote Confessions of an Eco-Warrior in 1991, was released after agreeing to a plea-bargaining deal.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Zakin, a freelance journalist, has written a lively, fast-paced historical account of the sometimes controversial environmental group Earth! First. Beginning and ending her book with the 1989 arrest and 1991 trial of founding member Dave Foreman ( Confessions of an Eco-Warrior, LJ 3/1/91), Zakin traces Foreman's experiences from his days as a Washington lobbyist to his involvement with several colorful personalities, or "buckaroos," who eventually became the nucleus of Earth! First. Zakin chronicles the group's various environmental activities, including the struggle over Black Mesa in Arizona, the "cracking" of Glen Canyon Dam, and tree spiking in the Pacific Northwest. Zakin also provides a good analysis of the environmental movement, both historical and contemporary, and shows the relationship between Earth! First and such groups as the Wilderness Society and Sierra Club. This solid work should be purchased where interest warrants.
- Eva Lautemann, DeKalb Coll. Lib., Clarkston, Ga.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.