by Dan Berger
AK Press
2006, paperback
SKU: 9781904859413
Outlaws of America brings to life America's most famous renegades, the Weather Underground. Based on detailed and original research, it is a gripping account of the actions and motivations of the group of white people who risked everything to oppose war and racism. At the same time, it provides a nuanced and critically engaged study demonstrating the Weather Underground's contemporary significance.
This engaging, and timely book tells the untold story of the Weather Underground, from its incendiary beginnings to its tumultuous end. In an unsparing critical analysis, Berger uses dozens of in-depth interviews with former Weather Underground members and other long-time activists to trace the group's evolution in relation to the civil rights, Black Power, and anti-war movements. From the Students for a Democratic Society of the 1960s through the political trials of the 1980s, Outlaws of America is a history of the Weather Underground that clearly resonates today. It is essential reading for students, activists, and anyone concerned about both the state of the world and what to do about it.
"Impressively reconstructed from ambitious oral histories and from the written record, Outlaws of America powerfully situates the white revolutionary New Left in an era of possibility and state terror, of internationalism and Black Power. It captures the dreams and tragedies of the Weather Underground in a way that has utterly eluded the canned histories of the Sixties." David Roediger, author of The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class.
"Hopefully, Dan Berger represents an emerging generation of radical activist scholars. In a meticulously researched study of the Weather Underground, Berger writes a gripping story, drawing important lessons for the younger generation of activists." Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Outlaw Woman: Memoir of the War Years.
Dan Berger is a writer, activist, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Struggle Within, editor of The Hidden 1970s and co-editor of Letters From Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out and currently lives in Philadelphia.