The Longest Struggle: Animal Advocacy from Pythagoras to Peta

From the first hominids who hunted wooly mammoths to today's
factory farms and bio-engineering labs, The Longest Struggle tells
the story of animal exploitation and the battle for animal justice. After
describing the roots of animal rights in the ancient world, author Norm
Phelps follows the development of animal protection through the
Enlightenment, the anti-vivisection battles of the Victorian Era, and the
birth of the modern animal rights movement with the publication of Peter
Singer's Animal Liberation.

In a brisk, readable narrative, The Longest Struggle traces the
campaigns of animal rights pioneers such as Henry Spira, Alex Hershaft, and
Ingrid Newkirk, as well as leaders who have come more recently on the
scene, such as Heidi Prescott, Karen Davis, and Bruce Friedrich.

Always
grounding his story in its historical setting, Phelps describes the
counterattack that the animal abuse industries launched in the 1990s and
analyzes the controversies that have roiled the movement almost from the
beginning, including "national groups vs. grass roots," "abolitionists vs.
new welfareists," and activists who favor arson and intimidation vs. those
who support only peaceful, legal forms of protest. The Longest
Struggle concludes with an overview of current campaigns and tactics,
and an assessment of the state of the movement as we enter a new century,
including the threat represented by an overzealous "war on
terror".

Thoroughly researched and annotated, The Longest Struggle
reflects the author's two decades as an animal rights activist and his
access to movement leaders who have shared with him their personal stories
of campaigns that made animal rights history. At once an accessible history
of animal protection thought and a revealing narrative of campaigns for
animal rights, The Longest Struggle is must read material for
everyone who wants to understand the most radical social justice movement
of our time.