People's Park

Alan Copeland, ed. Nikki Arai, assoc. ed.

New York: Ballantine Books, 1969. Offset. 9 ¼ x 8 ½ in. Perfect bound in photo illustrated wraps. 125 pp. First edition.

Photobook documenting the struggle in Berkeley, California for People's Park, with work from Stephen Shames, Alan Copeland, Kathryn Bigelow, and many more.

In 1968, lacking funding to develop a property they had purchased a few years earlier, the University of California instead left an ugly, empty lot in the middle of Berkeley. Student activists and community members began a campaign of guerilla gardening in April 1969, building a park and a space for organizing, free food, and demonstrations. Three weeks after the project started, Governor Ronald Reagan and Mayor Wallace J.S. Johnson dispatched state troopers and local police to violently evict the people of the park. Indiscriminately firing buckshot and tear gas and obscuring their badge numbers, the police killed one protester, permanently blinded another, and injured many more. Although disputes continued, the people of Berkeley were ultimately victorious and the park remains today.

A superb photobook documenting the struggle and police repression, undoubtedly full of lessons in the age of temporary autonomous zones like Occupy Wall Street, Occupy City Hall, CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle, and many more.

Previous owner’s inscription dated 1970, to front flyleaf. Otherwise very good.