This book is a story about inequality, its many forms and far reaching consequences, and unconventional efforts to challenge it. The book expands our understanding of inequality by making sense of the often tense and violent relationships among humans, ecosystems, and nonhuman animal species. I consider how radical environmental and animal rights movements challenge these socioecological inequalities through a vision they call total liberation. These activists see inequality as a threat to life itself—for oppressed peoples, species, and ecosystems—and take direct action against institutions in ... More

This book is a story about inequality, its many forms and far reaching consequences, and unconventional efforts to challenge it. The book expands our understanding of inequality by making sense of the often tense and violent relationships among humans, ecosystems, and nonhuman animal species. I consider how radical environmental and animal rights movements challenge these socioecological inequalities through a vision they call total liberation. These activists see inequality as a threat to life itself—for oppressed peoples, species, and ecosystems—and take direct action against institutions in an effort to enact social change. The government, corporations, and the media have labeled these individuals “eco-terrorists” and have cracked down on activist networks through the use of punitive legislation, surveillance, infiltration, grand jury subpoenas, and imprisonment. Activists maintain their resolve that they seek a world in which all forms of inequality and unfreedom are confronted. Along the way, they must address their own demons associated with internal movement dynamics reflecting elitism and insensitivity within their ranks. Therefore these movements are of sociological and political significance because they simultaneously confront and embrace systems of inequality that reflect the dominant social order. Based on interviews with 100 activists, extensive fieldwork observations, and exhaustive analyses of thousands of pages of documents, websites, journals, and ‘zines produced by movement activists, organizations, and networks, Total LIberation is a close-up, insider’s account of one of the most important—and feared—social movements today.