Political Media Review

This edited collection draws together works from scholars involved in ‘green criminology’. Green criminology studies how governments, corporations, military complexes and human consumption harm the environment and non-human animals. Damage to air and water quality, animal testing, uranium proliferation and slaughterhouses are examples of the kinds of issues green criminologists examine.

The 2003 documentary film Earthlings, Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix and directed by Shaun Monson, presents a shocking account of the relationships between nature, nonhuman animals, and humankind with horrifying images of animal use over the swooning original soundtrack by Moby.

While Earthlings’ thesis is the noble comparison of these three elements of life, the film mostly draws on the dark consequences of human dominance over animals.

This critical anthology, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? Reflections on the Liberation of Animals, investigates the clandestine faction known as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF). In a holistic collection of essays from academics, writers, political prisoners and activists it uncovers the true nature of the group who, along with other “eco-terrorists,” are deemed the number one domestic terrorist threat by the FBI.

Norm Phelps book, The Longest Struggle: From Pythagoras To PETA, constructs a broad historical narrative that makes new and important sense of Western history from the perspective of animal advocacy and vegetarianism. By working from the animal and vegetarian standpoints, Phelps uncovers aspects of Western history that are as crucial to understand as they are systematically ignored.