Where We Live: Environmental Activists' Fight to Save Their Communities

Drawing on extensive interviews he conducted with environmental activists across rural and urban Appalachia and the Midwest, Randy Cunningham analyzes what motivates activists, how they strategize, and what issues they encounter. An indispensable guide to the on-the-ground realities of environmental activism in contemporary America. Randy Cunningham's Where We Live analyzes key aspects of environmental activism through the perspectives of those who know the field best: activists themselves. Each chapter grapples with a different topic. Readers thus come to know not only the stories of individuals and groups in their specific struggles. Cunningham's sharp analysis also enables readers to grasp how their struggles are related to one another. This book will be invaluable to activists looking for a better understanding of their own work as well as to historians, sociologists, and anthropologists conducting research on environmentalism in the contemporary United States. The book includes extensive documentation and endnotes.

Review :
"Cunningham's crucial and inspiring work spotlights the 'expendable people'--those harmed by the colonial practices of extractive industries in the midwestern United States--and the love of community that inspires these unlikely activists to rally against the corporate merchants of mass suffering and death. A book we must all read as the accelerating climate crisis transforms each of us into activists-of-necessity in an increasingly desperate fight to save our landscape, loved ones, and democracy. -- William Horne, Villanova University "These are wonderful accounts of brave people fighting to keep their homes from becoming sacrifice zones. Reflexive NIMBYism by the privileged is a real problem; the inspired defense of places that have been written off, on the other hand, must be a huge part of the battle for a working earth." -- Bill McKibben, author The End of Nature "Where We Live is essential reading for scholars and citizens who want to learn about the often disturbing realities of how power operates in society. Readers will learn how regular people can have a real impact on their communities, even when fighting powerful and hostile industries, corrupt regulators, and unsympathetic politicians. This book will empower people with ideas from courageous and creative leaders who are fighting to preserve nature and the health of their families and neighbors. The text is accessible to all readers, and I plan to assign this in my environmental sociology class." -- Michelle Oyakawa, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Muskingum University "Where We Live provides powerful analysis of critical grassroots struggles against the domination of the planet and people in the Midwest. The book will be particularly valuable to activists and is essential to understanding the limits of large nonprofit organizations." -- Chris Stocking, Member Organizer of Clevelanders for Public Transit "Where We Live tells the heroic, personal stories of environmental activists fighting against great odds to defend their communities from corporate polluters. It's an instructive primer on grassroots organizing -- and essential reading for everyone who is trying to understand why so many working people justly believe our political and economic system is rigged against them." -- David Beach, Executive Director of EcoCity Cleveland, 1992--2007