Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste [Hardcover]

Thomas V. Peterson (Author), Steve Myers (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2001

Tells the story of how a group of rural people used methods of civil disobedience to defy the nuclear industry and governmental authority and prevented the building of a nuclear dump in Allegany county in western New York.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Through character development, snappy dialogue, and vivid scenes, Linked Arms tells the story of a rural people's successful struggle to keep a major nuclear dump out of Allegany County in western New York. Five times over a twelve-month period hundreds of ordinary people-merchants, teachers, homemakers, professionals, farmers, and blue collar workers-ignored potential jail terms and large fines to defy the nuclear industry and governmental authority by linking arms in the bitter cold to thwart the siting commission through civil disobedience.

The hearts and minds of the resisters emerge in the narrative, as we find out why these people found civil disobedience compelling, how they organized themselves, and what moral dilemmas they addressed as they fought for their convictions. While becoming more engaged in the resistance, they confronted critical issues in contemporary America: democratic decision making, environmental policy, legal rights, corporate responsibility, and the technology of nuclear waste.

Some of the book's highlights include: conversations that took place between Governor Cuomo, Assemblyman Hasper, and the protestors, which thoughtfully probe who should bear the financial burden of a failed and dangerous technology; the scientific and technological issues discussed between Ted Taylor, a nuclear physicist who was one of the key people in the Manhattan project, and the leaders of the resistance; and the citizens' initiation of a lawsuit that eventually reached the Supreme Court and abrogated the central provision in the 1987 congressional law that mandated states build low-level nuclear dumps across the country. These dialogues and vignettes illustrate how the civil disobedience and dogged determination of the people of Allegany County changed the course of history. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Thomas V. Peterson is Professor of Religious Studies at Alfred University and the author of Ham and Japheth: The Mythic World of Whites in the Antebellum South. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 266 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791451313
• ISBN-13: 978-0791451311
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,252,661 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Power of the People !", January 29, 2002

By 

"dikbehm" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste (Paperback)

Through a highly engaging and readable text, we join a mixed group of farmers, tradespeople, and resident academics in rural upstate New York as they are born in the realization that acting together, non-violently, and with sacrificial resolve, they can protect their beloved lands and everyone's futures from ill-thought governmental-industrial dumping of nuclear waste in their midst.
The beauty of the book is the author's letting the people speak for themselves as they each face personal and sometimes professional challenges in the unfolding drama of building effective resistance to bad government policy. Here you read how real folks in a real drama make significant change not only in their own back yards, but through subsequent Supreme Court decisions to their activity, for the nation as a whole.
This is must reading for:
- people anywhere being 'put upon' by greedy corporate or careless government actions,
- students of the efficacy of non-violent civil disobedience in the modern age,
- cynics who may feel there are inseperable bounderies between the "classes" in our society preventing thereby meaningful political action,
- and, in it's final dramatic chapters, lovers of horses.

Read it and enjoy!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars American History Changed, January 24, 2002

By 

joe mcmahon (brooktondale, ny United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste (Hardcover)

This book tells the story of people in a rural Upstate NY county that was slated to receive nuclear waste as mandated by the federal govt. Find out how their movement changed the course of America because they refused to accept that they were "economically and politically powerless". Inspiring and educational.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Read, August 24, 2011

By 

R. Magill - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste (Paperback)

I have to say that when I was required to buy this book for a NYS history class, I was not planning on reading it. I grew up in the heart of Allegany County and this dump would have, literally, been 5 miles from my house. I was 5 when the proposed dump project was unveiled--yet I don't remember much of this fight. I was so impressed with this book, I did my entire class project on the Allegany County Dump Protests. (I got a 100, too!)

Reading this book was fantastic for me--and will be for anybody interested in how small communities fight big corporations and government--and win. I didn't know that the head of janitorial staff at my college was willing to be arrested to protect this dump-site from nuclear waste. I didn't know that my 3rd grade teacher was a major player in this fight. This inspiring story of small-town people who, according to the big government of NY were too uneducated and few to do anything, were able to stop such a gigantic monstrosity from destroying their health and land.

This is a fairly quick read--and it reads like a conversation with an old friend. Sprinkled with humor and wit, you truly don't know that you're done with the book until you turn the last page--I read it in 2 nights. Inspiring and gripping at the same time, you come to see how each small part that each person played came together in a fight that literally saved lives.