Legal Niches

Striking at the Roots ? book review

By jennifer

Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism, by activist Mark Hawthorne, is an inspiring new book to kick off the new year. It really IS a practical guide to animal activism — it has chapters on many different methods of animal activism, from leafleting and tabling to corporate campaigning and multimedia to direct action. You can buy it here from Amazon.

Drawing from interviews with dozens of activists, Hawthorne compiles advice, real-life stories, and other resources into one big bundle of helpful — and entertaining — information. Striking at the Roots would be useful for the newcomer to activism, the veteran activist, and anyone in between.

This book doesn’t get into the abolitionism-versus-welfare debate, which I think is a smart decision. Rather than talk about within-the-movement conflicts, the book focuses on outward-looking issues, i.e., the most effective ways to eliminate animal use, such as vegan outreach and corporate campaigning. The section on restaurant outreach looks particularly helpful for me personally, since I’m hoping to get started with a DC restaurant outreach effort in the next couple of months.

Striking at the Roots also has a very important chapter on the ways to cope with the emotional challenges of animal activism. As pattrice jones made clear in her book Aftershock: Confronting Trauma in a Violent World, activism can be very emotionally draining, and activists must take care of themselves while they try to take care of the rest of the world. Hawthorne discusses some of the ways in which animal activism in particular can be emotionally challenging, and he provides suggestions on how to combat this effect.

Striking at the Roots would be useful for individual activists and for animal activist groups. I’m planning to buy a copy for my school’s SALDF organization. Kudos, Mark Hawthorne, for writing this much-needed book!

Full post as published by Animal Blawg on January 11, 2008 (boomark / email).