This memoir by one of the famed Chicago Seven “chronicles the moments from [his] life that forged him as someone willing to jump atop cars with a bullhorn” (South Side Weekly).
In March 1969, eight young men were indicted by the federal government for conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. First dubbed the “Conspiracy 8” and later the “Chicago 7,” the group included firebrands like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Bobby Seale. But it also included a little-known community activist and social worker from the South Side of Chicago named Lee Weiner, who was just as surprised as the rest of the country when his name was included in the indictment. The ensuing trial became a media sensation, and it changed Weiner’s life forever.
An irreverent, freewheeling memoir of an indelible moment in history—which Kirkus Reviews calls “a welcome addition to the library of the countercultural 1960s left”—Conspiracy to Riot is startlingly relevant to today’s polarized political climate, reflecting on the power of activism to create a better, more just world and offering a blueprint for making it happen.
