Tear Gas

“A vivid history of the time and also—as good radical accounts should be—a source of encouragement to those fighting all too similar battles today.”
—Hilary Rose

“It is this violence that comes through most clearly in Tear Gas—the psychological factors, the sheer unfairness and dismissiveness that accompany the use of chemicals against demonstrators and ordinary citizens, all come through brilliantly. Tear gas not only affects protesters and bystanders indiscriminately; it relegates the status of a dissenting citizen to that of a mere irritant.”
—Yiannis Baboulias, Times Literary Supplement

“There is something epic about Anna Feigenbaum’s Tear Gas, its scope and intensity, the way that chemistry—the orienting science of the industrial revolution—provides the material to manage that revolution’s epic collapse … There is crucial knowledge to be found here.”
—Joshua Clover, author of Riot.Strike.Riot

“A passionately argued history of the development and gradual spread of tear gas around the world … a clarion call for reassessment of the widespread availability and misuse of tear gas.”
—Patrick Wicklen, Researcher on Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International

“Fascinating, deeply researched and lucid … We have become so accustomed to the use of tear gas during protests that it comes as a shock when we realize, in reading this book, how little we know about the longer-term effects of what is in some ways a chemical weapon.”
—Laleh Khalili, author of Time in the Shadows

“Read Feigenbaum’s book. It’s timely, well-written, and very important.”
—Evaggelos Vallianatos, Independent Science News

“Feigenbaum integrates science and history with a compelling discussion of tear gas’s history and its present role in the civilian arena.”
—Choice