"Dan Berger represents an emerging generation of radical activist scholars. A meticulously researched and well-referenced study of the Weather Underground. . . . A gripping story, drawing important lessons for the younger generation of activists."-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 19601975

Outlaws of Americabrings to life the motivations and actions of America's most famous renegades, who bombed their way into history. Through detailed and original research, Dan Berger offers a nuanced and compelling portrait of the group that risked everything in opposition to war and racism.

This explosive, engaging, and timely book uncovers the untold story of the Weather Underground, from its incendiary beginning to its tumultuous ending-never sparing a critical analysis of the group. Especially noteworthy is Berger's groundbreaking discussion of the infamous 1981 Brinks case, where former Weather Underground members allied with the Black Liberation Army in a failed robbery that resulted in the deaths of three men and the longtime incarceration of several activists.

Outlaws of Americais culled from dozens of in-depth interviews with former Weather Underground members, as well as with civil rights activists, Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others-many of whom speak about their experiences publicly here for the first time. The book also features an extensive appendix including Weather Underground communiqus, a chronology of actions, a collection of rare photographs, and current biographical sketches of many ex-Weather Underground members.

Outlaws of Americais published at a time of surging interest in the history of the group, immediately following the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary entitled The Weather Underground, of which Outlawsis the essential companion volume.

Dan Bergeris a writer, activist, and PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. A longtime anti-racism organizer, he is the co-editor of Letters From Young Activists(Nation Books, 2005).

The Weather Underground emerged from splits within the Students for a Democratic Society and for a period of time in the 1970s carried out a string of bombings that placed it in the front ranks of the American underground revolutionary organizations that developed out of the tumult of the 1960s. In this sympathetic, but not uncritical, history of the organization, Berger (a doctoral candidate at the U. of Pennsylvania) goes beyond the shallow psychological explanations of the group's activities that have characterized many earlier discussions by taking the evolution of the group's anti-imperial and racial solidarity politics seriously and judging their actions not from the perspective of the government, which understandably feared and hated it, but from the perspective of other organizations of the New Left and according to the criteria of the goals the organization set for itself. The result is a welcome addition to the scholarship of American leftism that shows the Weather Underground as serious and committed political activists grappling with the question of how privileged whites can most effectively fight imperialism and racism in solidarity with anti-colonial forces while avoiding vanguardism. However, the work is far from a hagiography and provides serious treatment of the group's problems with patriarchy and democratic failures, among other problems.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The Weather Underground emerged from splits within the Students for a Democratic Society and for a period of time in the 1970s carried out a string of bombings that placed it in the front ranks of the American underground revolutionary organizations that developed out of the tumult of the 1960s. In this sympathetic, but not uncritical, history of the organization, Berger (a doctoral candidate at the U. of Pennsylvania) goes beyond the shallow psychological explanations of the group's activities that have characterized many earlier discussions by taking the evolution of the group's anti-imperial and racial solidarity politics seriously and judging their actions not from the perspective of the government, which understandably feared and hated it, but from the perspective of other organizations of the New Left and according to the criteria of the goals the organization set for itself. The result is a welcome addition to the scholarship of American leftism that shows the Weather Underground as serious and committed political activists grappling with the question of how privileged whites can most effectively fight imperialism and racism in solidarity with anti-colonial forces while avoiding vanguardism. However, the work is far from a hagiography and provides serious treatment of the group's problems with patriarchy and democratic failures, among other problems. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dan Berger is a writer, activist, and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. A long-time activist, he is the co-editor of "Letters From Young Activists" (forthcoming: Nation Books, 2005). His writing has appeared in academic journals, activist publications, and Web sites across the country. He lives in Philadelphia.