Ashley Dawson is Professor of English at the Graduate Center / City University of New York and the College of Staten Island. He is the author of several books on key topics in the environmental humanities, including People's Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons, Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change, and Extinction: A Radical History. A member of the Public Power NY campaign and the founder of the CUNY Climate Action Lab, he is a long-time climate justice activist.
Praise for Extinction: An elegant, controversial thesis -The Guardian A welcome contribution to the growing literature on this slow-motion calamity. -Los Angeles Review of Books Dawson's searing report on species loss will sober up anyone who has drunk the Kool-Aid of green capitalism. -Andrew Ross Fusing social and ecological challenges to power is the only way forward ... a long-awaited, elegant and comprehensive expression of why the time is right to make these links. -Patrick Bond A great tool for anti-capitalists, climate change activists, and those still making sense of the intrinsic connections between the two. -Jasbir Puar Historically grounded, densely researched, fluidly written ... a powerful and painful exploration of human civilization's environmental irrationalities. -Christian Parenti Praise for People's Power: For anyone wanting to understand what comes after oil and how we might get there. -Imre Szeman, author of On Petrocultures A gift to activists, providing a clear and accessible history of energy as well as a vision towards the publicly owned, democratically controlled, 100% renewable world we need. -Aaron Eisenberg, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation A brilliant guide to building collective, equitable, and radical energy democracies in the here and now. -Lavinia Steinfort, Transnational Institute Praise for Extreme Cities: Named One of the Top 10 Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly and Planetizen Extreme Cities is a ground-breaking investigation of the vulnerability of our cities in an age of climate chaos. We feel safe and protected in the middle of our great urban areas, but as Sandy and Katrina made clear, and as this fine book reveals anew, the massive shifts on our earth increasingly lay bare the social inequalities that fracture our civilization. -Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org