In Law and Liberty, John Bicknell reviews the influence of Edward Abbey, author of The Monkey Wrench Gang, which advocated “active measures” to sabotage the machinery and works of industrial civilization such as major hydroelectric dam. Despite Abbey’s contradictory and even offensive views – he was openly racist and sexist – his influence was profound, and is still producing devastating echoes in bitter conflicts like pipeline sabotage in British Columbia.
Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.
