Direct Action: An Historical Novel

New edition of the classic work of documentary fiction with an updated activist handbook.

Direct Action is the novelized history of a community of activists who helped lay the foundation for today's vibrant direct action movement - from Seattle to the School of the Americas and back to the streets of our cities.

Direct action is more than getting arrested. It's solidarity. It's affinity groups and collective process. It's nonhierarchy and respect for diversity. It's coalitions and alliance-building. It isn't just a political tactic - it's a whole new practice.

The book includes the complete novel with over 500 photos and images plus a 35-page activist handbook.

More than 7000 people were arrested in nonviolent protests in California in the early 1980s, developing the art of direct action to a peak not reached again until Seattle in 1999, and in many ways never surpassed. Actions at over a dozen sites, including:
- Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab
- Vandenberg Air Force Base
- Concord Naval Weapons Station
- Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant
- San Francisco Financial District

"Brought back the experiences so vividly that I could smell the unwashed bodies, feel the cold and the rough wool of the blankets, and taste once again that inimitable combination of spam and fruit cocktail the guards called "The Empire Strikes Back!" - Starhawk, from the Foreword

Captures the spirit of possibility that ignited a generation of activism, presenting the very human heart of activist culture. - Andrea Prichett, Rebecca Riots

Fascinating, steeped in reality... brings alive a part of our history and offers its lessons and legacy to the present. - Starhawk, Reclaiming Quarterly

If only every social justice movement had as dedicated an historian and storyteller as Luke Hauser... Deftly evokes complex issues... -- Carolina De Robertis, Bay Area Women Against Rape

770 Pages. With more than 500 photos and images from the LAG archives, plus a 35-page direct action handbook and many other resources. Foreword by Starhawk.