Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage

“Riveting.”
—Adam Federman, The New Republic

“Cinematic, suspenseful, totally immersive.”
—Zoë Schlanger, New York Times bestselling author of The Light Eaters

“This book is a marvel.”
—Robert Moor, New York Times bestselling author of On Trails and In Trees

“Masterful reporting. As riveting as any thriller.”
—Seth Harp, New York Times bestselling author of The Fort Bragg Cartel

The explosive true story of a secret group of radicals who launched a clandestine battle to save the planet—and what their legacy illuminates about the past, present, and future of the environmental movement

In the early hours of October 28, 1996, a driver in rural Oregon spotted flames rising from a federal ranger station. Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, but not before discovering a cryptic phrase spray-painted on a nearby wall: “EARTH LIBERATION FRONT.” Over the next decade, the Earth Liberation Front would carry out the most audacious series of politically motivated arsons in American history. Their targets—car dealerships, slaughterhouses, lumber companies, a $12 million Vail ski resort—were chosen to send a message: if the government wouldn’t halt the destruction of the natural world, they would. Despite causing no deaths, the ELF would soon be branded the foremost domestic terrorism threat in America and become the target of one of the FBI’s largest investigations.

Fires in the Night is the definitive story of the ELF’s rise and unraveling, stretching from the old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest to the Seattle streets of 1999’s legendary WTO protests to the paranoid aftermath of September 11. For years, members of ELF, many of them close friends, led double lives, meticulously planning and staging their attacks, using secret book clubs, dead drops, and anonymous communiques, while trying to manage interpersonal friction and stay one step ahead of a relentless task force of police and federal agents. Drawing on years of original reporting and interviews, including with reclusive activists breaking their silence for the first time, as well as thousands of pages of unreleased investigative files, journalist Matthew Wolfe offers a thrilling, intimate account of a moment in American life when the actions of radical environmentalists challenged mainstream complacency. As the climate crisis continues to accelerate, Wolfe asks the most pressing question of our time: facing the end of the world as we know it, exactly what kind of resistance is justified?

Matthew Wolfe’s reporting has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and The New Republic. He was previously a national fel­low at New America. He has a PhD in sociology from New York University, where he is currently a fellow at NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge.