“Explores a long-standing social movement, revealing complex relationships with feminism, class and capitalism . . . . Cooper provides both an account of a radical social movement and a consideration of how we might come to a broad but useful understanding of the nature of activism, through an examination of one of the less-prominent struggles of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.”

Counterfire

“Show[s] the diverse ways that people come to fat activism and how they see their experiences in relation to the movement. . . . Fat Activism provides the first critical framework for scholars and activists to examine the dynamics of the movement. . . . [Cooper] raises critical questions that will help to push the movement into new intellectual and activist terrain.”

Women’s Studies

“Cooper creates an arena for a more dynamic, comprehensive discourse that makes space for all types of experiences and voices in fat activist communities. . . . She is making space for fat activists to re-occupy the fat discourse.”

Canadian Food Studies

“An essential reference for those who want to know where the movement started and to get some ideas on where it can go from here. The breadth of Cooper’s research is amazing. Fat Activism is worth owning simply as a resource and a history of the movement.”

Body Impolitic

“Should be required reading for scholars and activists. Cooper draws on extensive interviews with fat activists to render a trenchant analysis of our field of motion. She takes a penetrating look at activist efforts and self-understandings, eschewing easy praise in favor of discernment that ultimately promises to invigorate the movement.”

Kathleen LeBesco, Marymount Manhattan College

“Cooper is once again in the vanguard of radical social change with this book . . . . She has captured the history of the fat rights movements, interviewed fat activists, and demonstrated the extensive and exciting breadth of fat activism in a global setting.”

Esther Rothblum, editor of Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society

“Anyone interested in the epistemology, ontology, and methodology, (not to mention history) of fat activism should make this a central text of their library.”

Cat Pausé, Massey University, coeditor of Queering Fat Embodiment

“Fat Activists need more researchers and writers examining and reflecting on our work from within, and this book stands as an offering and opening in that vein.”

Naima Lowe, Evergreen State College