Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity

“Dan Berger represents an emerging generation of radical activist scholars. A meticulously researched and well-referenced study of the Weather Underground. . . . A gripping story, drawing important lessons for the younger generation of activists.”—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Outlaw Woman: A Memoir of the War Years, 1960–1975

Outlaws of America brings to life the motivations and actions of America’s most famous renegades, who bombed their way into history. Through detailed and original research, Dan Berger offers a nuanced and compelling portrait of the group that risked everything in opposition to war and racism.

This explosive, engaging, and timely book uncovers the untold story of the Weather Underground, from its incendiary beginning to its tumultuous ending—never sparing a critical analysis of the group. Especially noteworthy is Berger’s groundbreaking discussion of the infamous 1981 Brinks case, where former Weather Underground members allied with the Black Liberation Army in a failed robbery that resulted in the deaths of three men and the longtime incarceration of several activists.

Outlaws of America is culled from dozens of in-depth interviews with former Weather Underground members, as well as with civil rights activists, Black Panthers, Young Lords, and others—many of whom speak about their experiences publicly here for the first time. The book also features an extensive appendix including Weather Underground communiqués, a chronology of actions, a collection of rare photographs, and current biographical sketches of many ex-Weather Underground members.

Outlaws of America is published at a time of surging interest in the history of the group, immediately following the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary entitled The Weather Underground, of which Outlaws is the essential companion volume.

Dan Berger is a writer, activist, and PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania. A longtime anti-racism organizer, he is the co-editor of Letters From Young Activists (Nation Books, 2005).

• The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground (Haymarket Series)
• Bringing the War Home
• A Hard Rain Fell: SDS and Why It Failed
• Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence
• Bad Moon Rising: How the Weather Underground Beat the FBI and Lost the Revolution
• Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground 1970-1974
• Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond
• Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen
• Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Antiwar Activist
• The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism