~E342: Elves Against the Machine~ An interview with @matthew-wolfe.bsky.social about his new book Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage www.patreon.com/thiswreckage...

E342: Elves Against the Machine w/ Matthew Wolfe | This Wreckage

An interview with Matthew Wolfe about his new book Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabo

patreon.com

Hugely thoughtful review of my book on eco-saboteurs The Earth Liberation Front from @adamfederman.bsky.social in @newrepublic.com zooming in on its central moral conundrum: at what point is it OK to break the laws of a system that is already horribly broken? newrepublic.com/article/2130...

How Earth Liberation Front was labeled the most dangerous terrorist organization in the United States (even though they never actually hurt anyone).

Elves Against Capitalism: How the Earth Liberation Front Came to America

The fires began with a gentle Midwestern boy who loved animals. Kevin Tubbs grew up in a comfortable suburb outside Omaha, Nebraska, in a canary-yellow ranch house filled with dogs. Tubbs’s mother,…

buff.ly

Much thanks to @redpeppermag.bsky.social and Gareth Thompson for their very kind review of my book on the Earth Liberation Front, “Fires in the Night,” which he dubs a “nail-biting page-turner” www.redpepper.org.uk/culture-medi...

Fires in the Night - review - Red Pepper

In his review of Fires in the Night by Matthew Wolfe, Gareth Thompson reviews a nail-biting history of environmentalist direct action

redpepper.org.uk

What Eugene’s ’90s-era eco-sabotage movement means today: Q&A with author of new book By Ashli Blow

What Eugene's ’90s-era eco-sabotage movement means today: Q&A with author of new book

“Fires in the Night” digs into the radical environmental movement ELF. Environmental and public health correspondent Ashli Blow discusses the group’s legacy with the book's author, Matthew Wolfe.

lookouteugene-springfield.com

Thanks so much to Seattle’s NPR affiliate @kuow.org for having me on to talk about the secret history of the Earth Liberation Front and my new book “Fires In The Night” from @vikingbooks.bsky.social! www.kuow.org/stories/the-...

Thanks to @eugeneweekly.com for a terrific interview about my new book, “Fires In The Night: The Earth Liberation Front, The FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage.” Burning Activism eugeneweekly.com/2026/06/25/b...

Burning Activism

Burning the Forest Service ranger stations in Oakridge and Detroit, torching a ski resort, releasing wild horses, sabotaging powerlines and burning SUVs at what was a Joe Romania’s dealership on…

eugeneweekly.com

Let's do this! Pacific Northwest mini-tour for my new true crime/radical politics book "Fires In The Night: The Earth Liberation Front, The FBI, and A Secret History of Eco-Sabotage"! We're hitting @powells.bsky.social in Portland, Seattle, Olympia, Eugene, Corvallis!

Just got my copy of “Fires in the Night: The Earth Liberation Front, the FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage” by @matthew-wolfe.bsky.social. Highly recommend it! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725669...

If you want to know what an undercover cop looks like, here’s a good example. While researching my book on the ELF, I interviewed detective Greg Harvey, who spent years infiltrating the environmental movement. His disguise, pictured on the right, included a wig from a Halloween costume of Jesus.

~NEW EPISODE~ The Rise and Fall of the Earth Liberation Front We talk with author and journalist @matthew-wolfe.bsky.social about the origins of the ELF and the current reassessment of them amidst today’s climate and political crises. 🎙️: bit.ly/4uOg22i

Thank to Willamette Week for running, with such care, an excerpt of my book!

Willamette Week@wweek.com · 2mo ago

‘Property destruction, they would explain, was a way of levying a fine on desecrating nature—of, in effect, removing a financial incentive from killing the planet. And arson was merely the simplest, cheapest method of extracting this tax.’

Dudes in ski masks cuddling fuzzy animals: a thread (Found these mostly in old animal rights zines while researching my book -- buy it! link in bio!)

Admiring Dave Foreman's incredible 1980s radical environmentalist drip

Much thank for @podcastgreenred.bsky.social for a great conversation!

Green and Red Podcast@podcastgreenred.bsky.social · 2mo ago

~NEW EPISODE~ The Rise and Fall of the Earth Liberation Front We talk with author and journalist @matthew-wolfe.bsky.social about the origins of the ELF and the current reassessment of them amidst today’s climate and political crises. www.patreon.com/posts/rise-a...

Trump is removing limits on “forever chemicals,” opening our national parks for logging and drilling, and stripping the EPA for parts. If that makes you want to burn something down (figuratively), this is the book for you. Huge thanks to @nytimesbooks for recommending FITN!

It’s been largely forgotten but, in the 1970s, basically EVERYONE was an environmentalist, Democrat and Republican. Starting in the 1960s, Americans became aware we were facing a dire ecological crisis. Smog in L.A. was so bad, visibility sometimes dropped down to almost zero.

Photo I found in court documents while researching my book on the Earth Liberation Front: A downed 1,000,000-volt electrical tower just southeast of Bend, Oregon, which the ELF successfully pulled down on the night December 30, 2000, by unscrewing its guy wires.

On October 19, 1998, the Earth Liberation Front burned down the Two Elk Lodge, a $20 million ski resort in Vail, Colorado. This required torching not just one structure but ELEVEN structures, including a ski lift. It was the most expensive act of eco-sabotage in U.S. history.

On March 30, 2001, members of the Earth Liberation Front set fire to 35 brand new SUVs at the Joe Romania Chevrolet dealership in Eugene, Oregon, as a protest against global warming. Photo © Paul Carter of the Eugene Register Guard, via Imagn Images.

In the days leading up to my book dropping, I'm posting some rare Earth Liberation Front-related photos. This is the Superior Lumber Company, in Glendale, Oregon, which the ELF torched on January 2, 2001. In a communique, they referred to Superior as "a typical earth raper."

Hey all, just sharing the beautiful cover for my forthcoming book, "Fires In The Night: The Earth Liberation Front, The FBI, and a Secret History of Eco-Sabotage," coming out June 23, 2026, from Viking! Pre-orders available!