Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town (Princeton University Press, April 2021), is an intimate ethnographic account of what happens when one of the most momentous decisions about the well-being of our communities and our planet—whether or not to extract shale gas and oil from the very land beneath our feet—is largely a private choice that millions of ordinary people make without the public’s consent. Based on time I spent living in a rural Pennsylvania community, the book documents the dramatic confrontation between personal sovereignty and the public good that unfolds from the fact that landowners have the right to lease the subsurface of their property for oil and gas development. This "deeply reported" (Publisher's Weekly) community study reveals "the tradeoffs that follow from America's liberty-loving ways" (Sarah Smarsh [author of Heartland], the Atlantic). What's more, it serves as a lens through which to understand the cultural polarization that drives so much of contemporary American politics and stymies efforts to combat climate change.
*A PROSE award finalist
Click here to purchase the book.
CLick here to download and read the introduction for free.
NOTE: THIS PAGE IS CONSTANTLY UPDATED; MANY EVENTS, REVIEWS, ETC. HAVEN'T BEEN ANNOUNCED.
REVIEWS
The Atlantic [reviewer: Sarah Smarsh, author of Heartland]
Commonweal [reviewer: Grace Olmstead, author of Uprooted]
Los Angeles Review of Books [reviewer: Abraham Gutman, Philadelphia Inquirer]
Los Angeles Review of Books [reviewer: Jonah Walters, Jacobin]
Public Books [review: Rebecca Elliott, author of Underwater]
Geographical [reviewer: Alice Bloch]
The Cleveland Review of Books [reviewer: Sheila Liming, author of Office]
The Arts Fuse [reviewer: Ed Meek, author of High Tide and Luck]
Front Porch Republic [reviewer: Megan Fowler]
American Journal of Sociology [reviewer: Ann R. Tickamyer]
Social Forces [reviewer: Fedor Dokshin]
Journal of World Energy Law and Business [reviewer: Samuel Carmalt]
International Journal of Environmental Studies [reviewer: David Dent]
Sociology [reviewer: Gabriel Lévesque]
David Givens [Energy analyst and reporter]
ESSAYS AND EXCERPTS
"They Couldn't Drink Their Water. And Still, They Stayed Quiet." September 19, 2021. New York Times.
"Fracking Poisoned This Town's Water. Now Frackers are Being Allowed Back in." January 9, 2023. The New Republic.
"A Tiny Pennsylvania Town of 700 Declared War on the Fracking Industry in 2014. They're Finally Getting Their Day in Court." July 26, 2022. The New Republic.
"The Enduring Myth of America's 'Molecules of Freedom.'" (with Amy Westervelt) April 11, 2022. Slate.
"How Fracking Collides with Civics in Rural Pennsylvania." December 6, 2021. American Communities Project.
"Conservation is One of the Easiest Things to Greenwash." July 7, 2021. Slate.
"The Fracking Boom is Over. Where Did All the Jobs Go?" July 1, 2021. MIT Technology Review.
"In the U.S., Private Landowners Can Decide Where Fracking is Allowed. It Shouldn't Be Up to Them." June 24, 2021. Grist.
"This Could be the Start of a Rural Anti-fracking Coalition." May 17, 2021. The New Republic.
"Pennsylvania's Public Lands Should be Protected for Everyone, not Drilled into Oblivion." May 16, 2021. Philadelphia Inquirer.
"The Fracking Lottery." Longreads.
"Fracking, Freedom, and the Tragedy of the Commons." Ideas, Princeton University Press.
"Up to Heaven and Down to Hell." Public Seminar.
"Fighting Climate Change is Hard When You Live on a Natural Gas Field." Slate.
MEDIA
Leonard Lopate at Large. WBAI Radio [NYC]. April 9, 2021. Listen.
Counterpunch. Interview with Eve Ottenberg. April 11, 2021. Read.
Tom Sumner Program. WFOV [Flint, MI]. April 20. Listen.
Allegheny Front. April 20, 2021. Listen
Stand Up! Podcast with Pete Dominick. April 26. Listen.
Future Hindsight Podcast. May 12. Listen.
The Taylored Word. WTBQ [Orange County, NY]. May 21.
Stand Up! Podcast with Pete Dominick. May 24. Listen.
KZYX Radio's Politics: A Love Story [Mendocino County, CA]. June 4. Listen.
Radio with a View. WMBR [Cambridge, MA]. June 20. Listen.
This Green Earth. KPCW [Utah]. June 22. Listen.
Book Q & As with Deborah Kalb. Read.
"Fracking and a Community Turned Upside Down." Sierra Club Pennsylvania newsletter. June 26. Read.
"Supreme Court Allows Fracked Gas Pipeline's Use of Eminent Domain. But the Pipeline's Victory Comes with Some Big Caveats." DeSmog. July 21. By Nick Cunningham.
It's the Economy. KGNU [Colorado]. July 8. Listen.
Wild Connection Podcast. July 18. Listen.
What Matters Most Podcast. July 22. Listen.
"Water at Risk: Lycoming Creek Watershed Digital Atlas." Fractracker Alliance. August 1. Read.
"Virtual Book Talk Explores the Human and Environmental Costs of Fracking in Appalachia." Pittsburgh City Paper. August 3. By Kimberley Rooney.
Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Podcast. September 2. Listen.
"How Depoliticized White Rural Communities Allow Themselves to be Taken Advantage of by Corporations." Lawyers, Guns, & Money Blog. September 19, 2021. Read.
"On Prioritizing Rural Community, in the Context of an Extractive Economy." September 22, 2021. Legal Ruralism Blog. Read.
"Up to Heaven and Down to Hell." Scene on Radio Podcast. October 6, 2021. Listen.
Green Radio Hour. WKNY Radio Kingston [NY]. October 10, 2021. Listen.
Holiday Gift Guide: 12 Books by Graduate Center Faculty, Students, and Alumnia That Bend Genres and Offer Compelling Takes on Cultural Issues. CUNY Graduate Center.
PA Books. PCN TV. December 5, 2021. Watch.
Holiday Gift Guide: A Short List of Books We Loved (and Featured) This Year. December 6, 2021. Longreads.
Resources Radio Podcast. December 7, 2021. Listen.
"Friends of the Library to Host Book Review Talk." Williamsport Sun-Gazette. January 15, 2022. Read.
New Books Network Podcast. January 19, 2022. Listen.
"Who Speaks for the Trees?" Damages Podcast. Feb 24, 2022. Listen.
"Rethinking Property Rights." Sojourners Magazine. April 2022. Read.
"Stand Up! Podcast with Pete Dominick. January 13, 2023. Listen.
"Who Owns the Sky?" New Hampshire Public Radio. February 23, 2023. Listen.
"System Reboot." Orion Magazine. March 16, 2023. By Amy Westervelt.
"In Gas We Trust." Focus Magazine. August 24, 2023. By Sabastian Moll.
SPEAKING EVENTS
Unitarian Universalist Justice of Pennsylvania. December 3, 2020, 7:00pm EST. Watch.
Institute for Public Knowledge, NYU. April 13, 2021, 5:00 EST. Register.
Town Hall Seattle. In conversation with Ralph Kisberg. April 15, 2021, 7:30pm EST [10:30 Pacific]. Watch.
SUNY Oneonta. April 19, 2021, 5:00pm EST.
"Tackling the A-Z of Plastic: Protecting Democracy." Halt the Harm Network. June 24. Watch.
White Whale Bookstore, Pittsburgh PA. In conversation with Seamus McGraw. August 4, 2021, 7:00pm EST. Watch.
Protect PT. In conversation with Ralph Kisberg. August 31, 2021, 6:30pm.
Community Arts Center [co-hosted by Otto's Bookstore], Williamsport PA. September 23, 2021, 7:30pm EST. Tickets.
Willow Valley Communities, Lancaster PA. September 23, 2021, 1:30pm EST.
The Quadrangle, Haverford PA. September 30, 2021, 7:30pm EST.
London School of Economics. Dept. of Sociology Research Seminar Series. November 23, 2021.
Swarthmore Discussion Group, Swarthmore College. January 19, 2022.
Protect Our Water, Heriage, Rights. April 20, 2022.
Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association. September 26, 2022.
Rutgers University Dept. of Human Ecology Seminar Series. October 5, 2022.
City University of New York, Graduate Center Dept. of Sociology Colloquium Series. October 14, 2022.
Kendal Crosslands, Kennett Square, PA. November 1, 2022.
"Peak Natural Gas and the Economic Implications for Appalachia." Ohio River Valley Institute. August 22, 2023.
University of Delaware. Dept. of Geography and Spatial Sciences. September 15, 2023.