"Boarding Parties is the fourth in a series of anthologies of columns, reviews, and essays about the American condition, covering politics, Islam, freedom of speech, and the culture

A compelling must-read for parents, administrators, faculty, and anyone with an interest in what happens when academics and politics intersect How free are students and teachers to express unpopular ideas in public schools and universities? Not free enough, Joan DelFattore suggests. Wading without hesitation into some of the most contentious issues of our times, she investigates battles over a wide range of topics that have fractured school and university communities-homosexuality-themed children's books, research on race-based intelligence, the teaching of evolution, the regulation of hate speech, and more-and with her usual evenhanded approach offers insights supported by theory and by practical expertise. Two key questions arise: What ideas should schools and universities teach? And what rights do teachers and students have to disagree with those ideas? The answers are not the same for K-12 schools as they are for public universities. But far from drawing a bright line between them, DelFattore suggests that we must consider public education as a whole to determine how-and how successfully-it deals with conflicting views. When expert opinion clashes with popular belief, which should prevail? How much independence should K-12 teachers have? How do we foster the cutting-edge research that makes America a world leader in higher education? What are the free-speech rights of students? This uniquely accessible and balanced discussion deserves the full attention of everyone concerned with academic goals and agendas in our schools.

Sex, Race, and Politics: Free Speech on Campus provides a highly entertaining and academic look at free speech and association issues on the college campus. The presentation of the legal material mixed in with humorous fact patterns makes analysis of the cutting edge campus speech issues enjoyable. Each section includes in-depth discussion questions to encourage a deeper engagement and understanding of the text. Readers will come away with a command of the free speech rights of students and teachers, as well as understanding the meaning and implications of sexual and racial laws as applied in the school setting.

" Keith Fink is a leading authority on harassment laws and free speech issues. He is an active trial lawyer, international speaker, and Professor at UCLA and Southwestern Law School. Professor Fink was a three-time National College Debate Champion while at UCLA. He is the founder of the law firm Fink & Steinberg which has offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Macau. His practice focuses on Employment and Business Litigation. He speaks frequently on a variety of legal topics including the law on sexual harassment and is routinely retained to train on sexual harassment and investigate sexual harassment complaints.

Updated with a new Afterword "The revolution will be Twittered!" declared journalist Andrew Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran. But as journalist and social commentator Evgeny Morozov argues in The Net Delusion , the Internet is a tool that both revolutionaries and authoritarian governments can use. For all of the talk in the West about the power of the Internet to democratize societies, regimes in Iran and China are as stable and repressive as ever. Social media sites have been used there to entrench dictators and threaten dissidents, making it harder- not easier- to promote democracy. Marshalling a compelling set of case studies, The Net Delusion shows why the cyber-utopian stance that the Internet is inherently liberating is wrong, and how ambitious and seemingly noble initiatives like the promotion of"Internet freedom" are misguided and, on occasion, harmful.

There is arguably no arena more contentious in the battle over intellectual freedom (IF) than the public library. When confronted with challenges like censorship and policy disputes, public librarians and paraprofessionals need reliable how-to guidance, and Pinnell-Stephens offers exactly that in this valuable resource. Chock-full of case studies, real-life examples, and hypothetical scenarios, this book provides An easy and thoroughly engaging way to introduce new employees to basic IF concepts Incisive analysis of how IF plays out in the world of public libraries Practical advice on how to effectively handle intellectual freedom challenges Numerous sidebars, written by IF expert Deborah Caldwell-Stone, detailing copyright laws, statutes, past court cases, and sample policies A concise summary of what s at stake and how to react, Protecting Intellectual Freedom in Your Public Library will prepare public library personnel to face the issues at hand.

Having observed that there is no reason whatever for the exemption of Literature, let us now turn to the case of Art. Every picture hung in a gallery, every statue placed on a pedestal, is exposed to the public stare of a mixed company. Why, then, have we no Censorship to protect us from the possibility of encountering works that bring blushes to the cheek of the young person?

Having observed that there is no reason whatever for the exemption of Literature, let us now turn to the case of Art. Every picture hung in a gallery, every statue placed on a pedestal, is exposed to the public stare of a mixed company. Why, then, have we no Censorship to protect us from the possibility of encountering works that bring blushes to the cheek of the young person?

Forbidden Fruit: The Censorship of Literature and Information for Young People was a two day conference held in Southport, UK in June 2008. This collection of papers from the conference will be of interest to teachers, school and public librarians, publishers, and other professionals involved in the provision of literature and information resources for young people, as well as to researchers and students. The proceedings draw together some of the latest research in this area from a number of fields, including librarianship, education, literature, and linguistics. The topics covered include translations and adaptations, pre-censorship by authors, publishers and editors, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and trans) materials, and the views of young people themselves. The papers included in the proceedings deal with a wide range of issues. Research student Lucy Pearson takes a historical perspective, considering the differences in the way in which two titles, Young Mother in the 1960s and Forever in the 1970s, handle the theme of teenage sexuality. John Harer from the United States and Elizabeth Chapman and Caroline Wright from the UK also deal with the controversial issue of teenage sexuality. Both papers are concerned with the censorship of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and trans) materials for young people, especially referring to issues faced by librarians in dealing with such resources in their respective countries. Another writer to examine the issue from a librarianship perspective is Wendy Stephens, who reports on her action research into students reactions to book banning and censorship in the context of a twelfth-grade English literature research project. Taking one step back fromthe question of access to controversial materials, Cherie Givens reports on her doctoral research examining the often neglected issue of pre-censorship-- that is, restrictions which take place, usually as a result of pressure from editors and publishers, before materials reach the library shelves. Showing a different side of the publishing industry, Christopher Gruppetta writes from the perspective of a publisher keen to promote young adult fiction in Malta. His article demonstrates the huge strides which can take place in a relatively short period of time, even in a religiously conservative country. Talks by young adult authors were also included in the conference programme. Ioanna Kaliakatsou considers how self-censorship is exercised by authors and how attitudes have changed since the early twentieth century. Yet another point at which works might be censored is when they are translated or adapted. Evangelia Moula focuses on censorship in adaptations of classic Greek tragedies, while Helen T. Frank examines Australian childrens fiction translated into French to highlight the process of purification or sanitization that can occur during translations.

An incisive examination of how pundits and politicians manufactured the campus free speech crisis-and created a genuine challenge to academic freedom in the process. If we listen to the politicians and pundits, college campuses have become fiercely ideological spaces where students unthinkingly endorse a liberal orthodoxy and forcibly silence anyone who dares to disagree. These commentators lament the demise of free speech and academic freedom. But what is really happening on college campuses? Campus Misinformation shows how misinformation about colleges and universities has proliferated in recent years, with potentially dangerous results. Popular but highly misleading claims about a so-called free speech crisis and a lack of intellectual diversity on college campuses emerged in the mid-2010s and continue to shape public discourse about higher education across party lines. Such disingenuous claims impede constructive deliberation about higher learning while normalizing suspect ideas about First Amendment freedoms and democratic participation. Taking a non-partisan approach, Bradford Vivian argues that reporting on campus culture has grossly exaggerated the importance and representativeness of a small number of isolated events; misleadingly advocated for an artificial parity between liberals and conservatives as true viewpoint diversity; mischaracterized the use of trigger warnings and safe spaces; and purposefully confused critique and protest with censorship and "cancel culture." Organizations and think tanks generate pseudoscientific data to support this discourse, then advocate for free speech in highly specific ways that actually limit speech in general. In the name of free speech and viewpoint diversity, we now see restrictions on the right to protest and laws banning certain books, theories, and subjects from schools. By deconstructing the political and rhetorical development of the free speech crisis, Vivian not only provides a powerful corrective to contemporary views of higher education, but provides a blueprint for readers to identify and challenge misleading language-and to understand the true threats to our freedoms.

The first comprehensive history of free speech in America for a general readership, from a respected historian and free speech activist
A 2007 Book Sense Selection
In this lively history of our most fundamental and perhaps most vulnerable right, Christopher Finan traces the lifeline of free speech from the War on Terror back to the turn of the last century. The story of the fight for free speech in times of war and peace--when writers, publishers, booksellers, and librarians are often on the front lines--is essential reading.
"At a time when America's freedoms and liberties are under attack in Washington, Finan's book is a powerful reminder of why we must carry on the fight to preserve the central underpinning of the American democratic system."
--Senator Bernie Sanders
"A marvelously readable account of the struggle for free speech in the United States."
--Geoffrey R. Stone, author of Perilous Times
"A welcome and much-needed change from the simplistic good-versus-evil treatment this subject often gets. Could be the definitive study of a perpetually complex, contentious issue."
--Booklist, starred review
"American history is marred by recurrent episodes of hate--Red scares, super-patriotism, fear of sexual expression. Christopher Finan brilliantly paints that record, and shows how courageous Americans have fought for freedom."
--Anthony Lewis, author of Gideon's Trumpet and Make No Law
"Finan's colorful narrative . . . shows how much progress we have made--and how far we have to go."
--Nadine Strossen, president of the ACLU and professor of law, New York Law School
"A book with enormous relevance for post-9/11 America."
--GeneRoman, America Magazine

One of the original, and greatest defenses of free speech, originally published as a written 'speech.' Please visiti www.ArcManor.com for more works by this and other great authors.

The history of Latin American journalism is ultimately the story of a people who have been silenced over the centuries, primarily Native Americans, women, peasants, and the urban poor. This book seeks to correct the record propounded by most English-language surveys of Latin American journalism, which tend to neglect pre-Columbian forms of reporting, the ways in which technology has been used as a tool of colonization, and the Latin American conceptual foundations of a free press.

Challenging the conventional notion of a free marketplace of ideas in a region plagued with serious problems of poverty, violence, propaganda, political intolerance, poor ethics, journalism education deficiencies, and media concentration in the hands of an elite, Ferreira debunks the myth of a free press in Latin America. The diffusion of colonial presses in the New World resulted in the imposition of a structural censorship with elements that remain to this day. They include ethnic and gender discrimination, technological elitism, state and religious authoritarianism, and ideological controls. Impoverished, afraid of crime and violence, and without access to an effective democracy, ordinary Latin Americans still live silenced by ruling actors that include a dominant and concentrated media. Thus, not only is the press not free in Latin America, but it is also itself an instrument of oppression.

When a B-29 bomber exploded over Georgia in 1948, the victims' families were denied access to crucial information relating to the accident because the federal government claimed such access would endanger national security. When the Supreme Court upheld that claim in "United States v. Reynolds" (1953), a new precedent was established, allowing the executive branch to assert an all-encompassing "state secret privilege" as a basis for withholding information from public scrutiny.

For more than fifty years that decision has been viewed with apprehension by a great many scholars and citizens, who feel it has fostered a dangerous cult of secrecy and undermined accountability by declaring that only the executive branch can be trusted with sensitive material. Now Louis Fisher, America's leading authority on separation of powers, recounts the story of Reynolds to reassess its lasting impact on our society.

Taking us back to a time when Americans were preoccupied with protecting military secrets from the Red Menace, Fisher shows how this case produced fundamental distortions in the judicial process that have increased with each passing year. He critiques the government's arguments in Reynolds from district court to Supreme Court and dissects the landmark opinion authored by Chief Justice Fred Vinson. He also explains how Reynolds affected subsequent battles over executive-held information both within the courts-the Pentagon Papers, the Watergate tapes-and between Congress and the president, as exemplified by the Freedom of Information Act and the much-debated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Drawing upon declassified documents and interviews with surviving family members, he weaves a compelling story-one that took a new twist when it was finally discovered that the information originally withheld was not sensitive at all but rather revealed Air Force negligence.

Especially in light of the Bush administration's continued use of Reynolds to justify its post-9/11 claims to unilateral authority, Fisher's work could not be more timely. His book is essential reading for all who question presidential authority-and should be required reading for all who don't.

Transparency in Global Change examines the quest for information exchange in an increasingly international, open society. Recent transformations in governments and cultures have brought about a surge in the pursuit of knowledge in areas of law, trade, professions, investment, education, and medical practice--among others. Technological advancements in communications, led by the United States, and public access to information fuel the phenomenon of transparency. This rise in transparency parallels a diminution of secrecy--though, as Burkart and Leslie Holzner point out, secrecy continues to exist on many levels. Based on current events and historical references in literature and the social sciences, "Transparency in Global Change" focuses on the turning points of information cultures, such as scandals, that lead to pressure for transparency. Moreover, the Holzners illuminate byproducts of transparency--debate, insight, and impetus for change, as transparency exposes the moral corruptions of dictatorship, empire, and inequity.

Two weeks after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, the town of Lewistown, Montana, held a patriotic parade. Less than a year later, a mob of 500 Lewistown residents burned German textbooks in Main Street while singing "The Star Spangled Banner." In Lewistowns nationalistic fervor, a man was accused of being pro-German because he didnt buy Liberty Bonds; he was subsequently found guilty of sedition. Montanas former congressman Tom Stout was quoted in the towns newspaper, "The Democrat-News, "With our sacred honor and our liberties at stake, there can be but two classes of American citizens, patriots and traitors!

"Darkest Before Dawn" takes to task Montanas 1918 sedition law that shut down freedom of speech. The sedition law carried fines of up to $20,000 and imprisonment for as many as twenty years. It became a model for the federal sedition act passed in 1918. Clemens Work explores the assault on civil rights during times of war when dissent is perceived as unpatriotic. The themes of this cautionary tale clearly resonate in the events of the early twenty-first century.

This is history at its exciting, human best. Clemens Work tells the little-known story of how Americans were punished for what they said during World War I: imprisoned, brutalized, lynched. It is a crucial part of the American struggle for freedom of speech.Anthony Lewis, columnist for the "New York Times" and author of "Gideons Trumpet" and "Make No Law"

Clem Work has written a colorful and engaging account of a rough-and-tumble era when exercising your right of free speech could get you tossed into jail, or worse. Works description of the frenzied and often irrational reaction to dissent duringwartime is truly timeless, disturbingly reminiscent of our own world, post-9/11/01. This book reminds us just how fragile Americans allegiance to the First Amendment can be.Jane E. Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota

Work offers a new way of thinking about a broader topicseditionand one in which new insights are provided. That, in my mind, is the essence of scholarship.--Charles N. Davis, executive director of The National Freedom of Information Center at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and associate professor of journalism

""Darkest Before Dawn" makes an important contribution to the literature of the history of free speech in America. No future study of sedition laws could hope to be complete without drawing on this well researched and well written work. Clem Work has made his mark--and what a marvelous mark it is!"--Ronald K. L. Collins, scholar, The First Amendment Center

Book Details Montana's Attack on Dissent in World War I Era (article by Charles S. Johnson, chief of the Lee Newspapers State Bureau in Helena, Montana):

"As U.S. troops fight in Iraq, Montanans heatedly debate whether we should be engaged in that war. This robust discussion is exactly as it should be in a country that has enshrined the right to free speech in its Constitution's Bill of Rights.

"But the ability to comment candidly, in speech and writing, on this country's policies should never be taken for granted. Clemens P. Work's excellent new book, "Darkest before Dawn: Sedition and Free Speech in the American West," describes in absorbing detail one of the darkest eras in Montana history in which dissenting voices were stifled.

"During World War I, some Montanans opposing U.S. involvement in the war and those immigrants expressing pro-German, anti-American sentiments in beer halls found themselves arrested. Seventy-four Montanans all but one of them men-were convicted of sedition. Forty of these men and the one lone woman served sentences of up to 20 years at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge and faced fines of up to $20,000.

"Montana's frightening Sedition Act, enacted by a special legislative session and becoming law Feb. 22, 1918, became a model for the Federal Sedition Act, which was enacted May 16, 1918. The language defining sedition in the federal law is identical to the Montana law except for three words.

"It is a shameful, frightening yet fascinating story. Yet it's one many Montanans know nothing about. It should be taught in our schools at all levels so we dont repeat the mistakes of our past.

"The book, published this fall, is a well-written, fully documented history of the period. It sets the stage for what happened here, describes the terrifying events and puts the Montana era in a national context. Work, director of graduate studies at the University of Montana School of Journalism, weaves a compelling story about what led to the dissenting voices.

"Western Montana's two major industries then were mining and timber, which faced an insurgent labor movement upset over unsafe working conditions and low wages. The radical labor group, the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies, helped stir the pot. Miners walked off the job at the Anaconda Copper Mining Co.'s Speculator Mine in 1917 after a fire killed 168 workers and exposed dangerous, illegal working conditions.

"The powerful Anaconda Copper MiningCo. dominated Montana economically and politically as few corporations ever have nationally. Its copper was a critical product in the war effort. The Company had the ears, if not the souls, of most of the state's leading politicians. It also either owned, or had in its pocket, most of Montana's major daily newspapers.

"The United States entered the war in 1917. By no means did all Montanans embrace the idea. Many German immigrants saw no reason for the United States to fight against their homeland, nor did all Irish immigrants support this country bailing out Great Britain.

"Dissent was not tolerated in Montana as a wave of super-patriotism spread. Besides passing the Sedition Act, a special legislative session emboldened the Montana Council of Defense, previously a minor group urging people to grow gardens and buy bonds. The Legislature granted the council the extraordinary power to pass virtual statewide laws.

"The council soon banned German books and forbade the use of the German language here, even in the pulpit, driving Mennonites into Canada. The council encouraged neighbor spying on neighbor, with the full encouragement of spineless politicians, with a few exceptions such as U.S. Attorney and later Sen. Burton K. Wheeler and U.S. District Judge George M. Bourquin.

"The Montana press followed the council in lockstep, with a few courageous exceptions such as William F. Dunn, fiery editor of the "Butte Bulletin," a labor paper.

Work said most sedition convictions in Montana were based on "offhand outburst, often in saloons," usually by blue-collar workers, many of them immigrants, often using foul language.

"As part of his research, Work created the Montana SeditionProject (Web site: http: //www.seditionproject.net/), and, with students' help, has tracked down relatives of some of those convicted and seeks to learn more about others. As Work wrote on the Web site, 'Those caught in Montana's sedition net were hardly heroes, but they should not have been scapegoats either.'

"Among those reading Work's book with keen interest is Gov. Brian Schweitzer, whose grandparents were German-Russian farmers who immigrated to Montana nearly a century ago.

"'What made this country great is the melting pot because we accept a lot of different nationalities, ' Schweitzer said. 'They came here because they wanted to be here. Most were like my grandparents. They came here because they had nowhere else to go.'"Asked if he might issue posthumous pardons to some Montanans convicted of sedition nearly 90 years ago, Schweitzer said he hadn't thought of it. Then he said, 'Why not? I will look into pardons. This was a time of some pretty mass hysteria. Why not clear the names of some of the people?'"

For more information go to www.seditionproject.net/

Having observed that there is no reason whatever for the exemption of Literature, let us now turn to the case of Art. Every picture hung in a gallery, every statue placed on a pedestal, is exposed to the public stare of a mixed company. Why, then, have we no Censorship to protect us from the possibility of encountering works that bring blushes to the cheek of the young person?

"The Anarchist in the Library" is the first guide to one of the most important cultural and economic battlegrounds of our increasingly plugged-in world. Siva Vaidhyanathan draws the struggle for information that will determine much of the culture and politics of the twenty-first century: anarchy or oligarchy, total freedom vs. complete control. His acclaimed book explores topics from unauthorized fan edits of "Star Wars" to terrorist organizations' reliance on "leaderless resistance," from Napster to Total Information Awareness to flash mobs.

This book opens with a full discussion of 'mediated politics' and of developments in the media in Zimbabwe since independence up until the present day. The author analyses in considerable depth the 2000 election, posing the central and habitual question, namely, whether it was free and fair, taking into consideration factors of political competition, political violence and intimidation. He outlines a political profile of Zimbabwe's media, and finally presents some reflections on political journalism in the Zimbabwean context. The research for this book was undertaken collaboratively between the Department of Media and Communication at the University of Oslo, and the Media Programme at the English Department at the University of Zimbabwe.

Historians are generally too engrossed with the details of battles, all as drearily similar to one another as scenes of murder and rapine must of necessity be, to spare a glance for the far brighter and more instructive field of the mutations or of the progress of manners. This work is attempt to supply the deficiency on the particular subject of burning books.

The government is hiding information from its citizens-or so most Americans believe. While even some members of Congress now call for greater access to classified documents, federal agencies continue to withhold a massive amount of information in the name of national security, maintaining a culture of secrecy rooted in the Cold War.

This new book examines who in government is hiding what from the rest of us, how they're doing it, and why it should matter to all of us. Contributing scholars, journalists, and attorneys survey the policies of federal intelligence agencies and presidents-notably Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton-to keep information secret. They show how these agencies have gone far beyond legitimate security needs to withhold information, and they describe the frustrations and costs encountered in their own efforts to obtain classified information.

The authors review important cases exemplifying State Department, agency, and presidential efforts to withhold, destroy, or delay release of these records. In chapters centering on the Kennedy assassination, the Nixon tapes, and the FBI's files on John Lennon and the Supreme Court justices, readers will find an abundance of startling and disturbing revelations. By citing some of the methods used by agencies like the CIA, NSA, NSC, and FBI to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act-often with the cooperation of the judicial system-these essays clearly show that abuses of secrecy aren't limited to the withholding of information but extend to the absurd lengths taken to avoid disclosure.

With the Cold War over and in the wake of challenges to the status quo from the Moynihan Commission, A Culture of Secrecy is particularly timely reading for a concerned public. Its cases will instruct others seeking access to classified material, and its exposure of government practices may lead to greater openness that will facilitate historical research and guarantee the public's right to know.

The United States is founded upon the principles of freedom of religion, although it has been difficult at times to understand and apply those principles. Phillip Hammond argues that the Constitution assumes a radical religious liberty, which protects the convictions of individual Americans, whether or not those convictions are explicitly religious. This book is an excellent guide to the church-state debate of today, and deepens that discussion by examining the root cause of disagreement about what freedom of religion means in America.

During much of the military regime in Brazil (1964-1985), a complex but illegal system of restrictions kept the press from covering important news or criticizing the government. The author of this text investigates why the press acquiesced to this, and why the system was known as self-censorship.

A powerful indictment of contemporary attacks on free speech, this book argues for a vigorous First Amendment jurisprudence protecting even offensive types of speech. In recent years, political activists, academics, and legal specialists have attacked traditional notions of free speech protection as they concern hate speech, obscenity, and pornography. They have called for changes in Supreme Court doctrine in defining the First Amendment and have argued that the traditional view of free speech actually creates and perpetuates a society in which the weak--women, minorities, the poor--have no voice. While recognizing their fears, Nicholas Wolfson argues that it is impossible to separate "bad" speech from "good" speech without fatally compromising the uniquely American concept of free speech, and that efforts to modify our concept of free speech for a greater egalitarian good can only result in undue state influence over private speech. In a keenly argued analysis, he finds that, in the end, the preservation of free and vigorous speech requires a strong First Amendment protection for even the most hateful of speech.

The First Amendment protects even the most offensive forms of expression: racial slurs, hateful religious propaganda, and cross-burning. No other county in the world offers the same kind of protection to offensive speech.

How did this free speech tradition develop? "Hate Speech" provides the first comprehensive account of the history of the hate speech controversy in the United States. Samuel Walker examines the issue, from the conflicts over the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and American Nazi groups in the 1930s, tot he famous Skokie episode in 1977-78, and the campus culture wars of the 1990s.

The author argues that the civil rights movement played a central role in developing this country's strong free speech tradition. The courts were very concerned about protecting the provocative and even offensive forms of expression by civil rights forces. Civil rights groups, therefore, preferred to protect rather than restrict offensive speech--even if it meant protecting racist speech.

While researching Russia's historical efforts to protect nature, Douglas Weiner unearthed unexpected findings: a trail of documents that raised fundamental questions about the Soviet political system. These surprising documents attested to the unlikely survival of a critical-minded, scientist-led movement through the Stalin years and beyond. It appeared that, within scientific societies, alternative visions of land use, resrouce exploitation, habitat protection, and development were sustained and even publicly advocated. In sharp contrast to known Soviet practices, these scientific societies prided themselves on their traditions of free elections, foreign contacts, and a pre-revolutionary heritage. Weiner portrays nature protection activists not as do-or-die resisters to the system, nor as inoffensive do-gooders. Rather, they took advantage of an unpoliced realm of speech and activity and of the patronage by middle-level Soviet officials to struggle for a softer path to development. In the process, they defended independent social and professional identities in the face of a system that sought to impose official models of behavior, ethics, and identity for all. Written in a lively style, this absorbing story tells for the first time how organized participation in nature protection provided an arena for affirming and perpetuating self-generated social identities in the USSR and preserving a counterculture whose legacy survives today.