From 1972 to 1989 the North Country Anvil was a bellwether of the alternative press and the Midwestern left, reporting with anger, eloquence, and candor on issues that ranged from communes and co-ops and the crisis in agriculture, to Wounded Knee, the rise of feminism, and rural activism.

This wide-ranging collection from its pages - essays, articles, stories, poetry, and artwork - constitutes a compelling social history, from post-1960s protest about Vietnam, through the quest for personal liberation via drugs and sex, to the hope for collective and rural solutions to society's urban-based ills.

Included here are such diverse voices as Robert Bly, Thomas McGrath, Gerald Vizenor, Barton Sutter and Linda Hasselstrom, as well as extended excerpts from founding editor Jack Miller's long-running columns.