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This book took just under seven years to complete, and for all but the last few months of that time I was an independent historian. As such, I experienced both an unusual sense of isolation in researching and writing this book, as well as a heightened feeling of reliance upon those who actively supported my work. One result of this contradiction is a rather lengthy list of acknowledgements.

First and foremost, none of what I have accomplished would have been possible without the incredible support of my wife Anne Carlson, as well as that of our children, Sofia and Nico. Anne is a gifted teacher who invariably brings a thoughtful and passionate eye to my work as well as to her own. In particular, her approach to questions of race and class in daily life has been immeasurably influential on my efforts to deal with such issues in this book.

A handful of other friends and comrades have supported me so completely in this project that they deserve special recognition. Kingsley Clarke, a former member of Sojourner Truth Organization (STO), saw the real-world political importance of my project very early on, and I might well have abandoned the job years ago had he not been so encouraging. Long ago, my brother, Peter Staudenmaier, set me on my path toward anarchism. Though he has pursued a slightly different trajectory as a radical historian, we regularly compare notes on our respective research, and he has always seen the very best in what I have accomplished. Christian Ogilvy has remained one of my very best friends and my closest political comrade during the entire time I’ve worked on this project, and his honest feedback has kept me grounded in the twenty-first century rather than the dusty seventies. Dan Berger offered the benefit of his experience as an independent scholar writing about the Weather Underground, and also gave me my first taste of peer-reviewed publishing. Krisna Best and Rob O’Dell, who initiated the online archive of STO publications (www.sojournertruth.net) before they knew anything about my project, have been constant reminders that a concern for the legacy of STO is shared more broadly than I initially imagined.

My efforts benefitted immensely from my interactions over the past sixteen years with former members of the Sojourner Truth Organization. Since my research began in earnest in 2005, I have interviewed, corresponded with, or otherwise communicated with the following former members (an asterisk indicates that at least one “formal” interview was conducted): *Hal Adams, *Guillermo Brstovsky, *Leslie Byster, *Jim Carrillo, *Ira Churgin, *Lee (Holstein) Churgin, *Kingsley Clarke, Linc Cohen, *Allison Edwards, Lynn French, Michael Goldfield, *Randy Gould, *Don Hamerquist, *Carol Hayse, *Noel (Ignatin) Ignatiev, *Bill Lamme, *Marcia LaRose, *Ken Lawrence, Caroline Levine, *Lowell May, Mike Morgan, Nick Paretsky, *Janeen (Creamer) Porter, *Dave Ranney, *Alan Rausch, *Marcia Rothenberg, *Mel Rothenberg, *George Schmidt, Cecile Singer, *John Strucker, *Carole Travis, *Ed Voci, *Kathan Zerzan, *Elias Zwierzynski. Thanks to every one of them. Hal Adams, one of the first veterans of STO that I met, and much later one of my first interviewees, was possibly the nicest former member I ever got to know, as well as one of the most dedicated. He died on March 16, 2011, and is sorely missed.

Beyond former members, I also interviewed a small number of people who were contemporaries of STO. Their critical insights into an organization they never joined were essential to my research. Thanks to John Garvey, Macee Halk, Jose Lopez, J. Sakai, and Ethan Young. Sadly, Macee, about whose life and activities an entire book could (and should!) be written, died before this book was finished. When I interviewed him at his home on the south side of Chicago in 2006, his grandchildren Clifton and Kalynn politely requested that I mention them by name in the book I was writing; several years later, I’m happy to oblige.

Most of the archival research for this project was done in the basements, offices, storage closets, and filing cabinets of former members of STO. The book would never have come to be had it not been for the willingness of Janeen Porter and Don Hamerquist to allow me (and many other young anarchists) access to the dusty overstock piles at C&D Printshop in Chicago in the mid-nineties; my initial collection of STO publications came from there. Special thanks to Ed Voci, J. Sakai, and Noel Ignatiev in particular, each of whom gave me access to and/or copies of a large number of documents that would have likely been impossible to obtain anywhere else. Kingsley Clarke, Alan Rausch, and Carole Travis provided additional items, while Dave Ranney and Pat Wright provided most of the photos that appear on the cover. Among non-members, Steve Wright in Australia, Kevin McDonnell in England, and Vic Speedwell in Chicago provided me with copies of documents I did not encounter elsewhere. Certain internal items, including some that former members would perhaps prefer I had never seen, were provided by Alexander Van Zandt Akin at Bolerium Books in San Francisco.

Reference librarians at four libraries were responsive to obscure requests sent via email, often mailing me photocopies of useful documents. Thanks to William Lefevre at Wayne State University (the Detroit Revolutionary Movements Collection), Peter Nelson at Amherst University (the Marshall Bloom Alternative Press Collection), Rukshana Singh at the Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research in Los Angeles (the Mike Conan Collection), and Evan Matthew Daniel of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in New York City. Traci Harris deserves special thanks for spending an entire day off visiting the Southern California Library, looking through folders, summarizing her findings for me over email, and then scanning dozens of documents for me.

One significant area of overlap between STO’s history and my own experience was work done in solidarity with the Puerto Rican independence movement. For many years, I worked at the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos Puerto Rican High School in Chicago, and I still consider my time there to be among the most profound educational experiences of my life. This book, especially Chapter Five, benefitted immensely from years of conversation with Marvin Garcia, Michael Hannan, Jose Lopez, Lourdes Lugo, Alejandro Molina, and Michelle Morales, among many, many others.

During part of the time I worked on this book I was an active member of the Four Star Anarchist Organization, which along with Bring the Ruckus, the First of May Anarchist Alliance, Miami Autonomy and Solidarity, the Kasama Project, the Black Orchid Collective, and Unity and Struggle, reminds me that contemporary revolutionary groups are still learning from the legacy of STO, a quarter-century after its demise.

As my project neared completion, my life as an independent historian came to an end and I entered the PhD program in History at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. A special thanks goes to Dave Roediger for his encouragement of both my independent research and my pursuit of graduate study. Thanks as well to Sundiata Cha-Jua, Zach Sell, and the participants in the Working Class History Reading Group, which gave me great feedback on a draft of Chapter Five.

Beyond those already identified, the list of people who gave me assistance, support, and encouragement during this project is substantial. For every person below there are any number of great stories to tell; each of them deserves my thanks: Aaron Barnhart, Gregor Baszak, Jesse Cohn, Cloee Cooper, Daniel Curtis, Geert Dhondt, Tony Doyle, Ferd Eggan (RIP), Diane Eickhoff, Max Elbaum, Carlos Fernandez, Geoff, Gio, Paul Glavin, Maria Gluzerman, Beau Golwitzer, Sharlyn Grace, Rebecca Harris, Nate Holdren, Bree Johnson, Kieran Knudson Frazier, Peter Little, B. Loewe, Matthew Lyons, Josh MacPhee, Cindy Milstein, Chuck Morse, S. Nappalos, Michael Novick, Danny Postel, Margaret Power, Lauren Ray, Becca Sandor, Jason Serota-Winston, Joe Sexauer, Jaggi Singh, Sprite, John Steele, Kerry Taylor, Brian Tokar, Beverly Tomek, James Tracy, Daniel Tucker, Mabel Constanza Valencia and her partner Juan Diego Castrillon as well as their children Santiago and Adriana, and Adam Weaver.

Charles Weigl, Kate Khatib, and all the folks at AK Press have been wonderful to work with. John Bracey graciously agreed to pen the brief foreword, for which I am extremely grateful. Special thanks to Josh MacPhee for his fantastic cover design, and for being a good friend and comrade for many, many years. Dara Greenwald, Josh’s partner of many years and one of the most gifted cultural organizers I have ever personally known, passed away as the editing process for this book was in its final stages; the legacy of art and activism she has left behind is immense.

Portions of Chapters Two and Five, as well as parts of the Introduction and the Conclusion, appeared in altered form in my essay “Unorthodox Leninism: Workplace Organizing and Anti-Imperialist Solidarity in the Sojourner Truth Organization,” which was included in Dan Berger’s edited anthology on the movements of the seventies, The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism, published by Rutgers University Press in 2010. A small amount of additional material appeared previously in the entry on STO that I authored for inclusion in the International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, edited by Immanuel Ness and published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2009.

I have always been very close to my family. My dad, L. William Staudenmaier, was my first editor, and still one of the toughest I’ve ever had; he is also a big part of the reason I love long bike rides, nice beer, and the Green Bay Packers. My siblings, Ann Marie, Bill, Terry, Peter, and Suzanne, along with their spouses, partners, kids and pets, have always been a source of joy and strength. Finally, my mother, Kathleen Marie Staudenmaier, died before my book was completed. She was an absolute rock in my life, a brilliant and endlessly caring individual. I miss her every day. This book is dedicated to her memory.