Greenpeace

"World changers aren't planners. The planners come later, with critics and social philosophers to mop up and win awards . . . World changers are the mothers weary of seeing their children abused and fathers who have had enough of petty tyrants. Rosa Parks, the seamstress who refused to sit in the back of the bus. Jesus. Buddha."

Add to this list of world changers the ragtag group who founded Greenpeace in perhaps the least likely of settings: a quiet neighborhood dubbed "the Shire" in Vancouver, Canada. This masterful history follows that pioneering group of musicians, journalists, attorneys, teachers, sailors, and scientists as they attempted—and often succeeded—to disrupt American nuclear bomb tests in the Aleutian Islands (and French tests in the South Pacific), interfere with Japanese and Russian whale ships, halt Norwegian harp seal hunters in Newfoundland, and pressure the American government to comply with international peace-keeping and environmental efforts—all against overwhelming odds.

Indeed, Weyler's engrossingly detailed and well-told tale contains cloak-and-dagger espionage, unlawful searches and seizures, police brutality and faulty arrests, high-seas piracy, and more than a few good old-fashioned miracles. Here, then, is an emotionally charged and vividly rendered history of Greenpeace's coming of age in the 1970s—a full chronicle of the organization's transformation from an effective (but decidedly underground) international heckler into an organized force for change, a mobilized and truly global cultural celebrity.

The events of Weyler's still saga resonate today, of course. Humanity still has much to do; ecology is still very much worth fighting for. And, as one of the players in Greenpeace points out, "The sooner we get on with it, the better."