This collection of writings and images documents the political history of NYC’s Lower East Side, describing the lives and struggles of the radicals, artists, and immigrants that populated and politicized one of America’s strangest and most beloved neighborhoods. Current and former residents of the neighborhood explore the social, political, and human landscape of one of America’s most storied bohemias. In over fifty chapters, Emma Goldman, Dorothy Day, Christopher Mele, John Macmillan, Jim Feast, Al Orensanz, Allan Antliff, Lynn Stewart, Thomas McEvilly, Frank Morales,and many others cover topics ranging from the early settlement houses and sweatshops to squatters, rioters, artists, activists and organizers. Resistance is jam-packed with fascinating first-person accounts of the battles, triumphs, failures, and lives of a neighborhood that is rapidly being lost to gentrification.

Canadian-born CLAYTON PATTERSON is a prolific photographer, artist,outlaw historian and community activist. He lives and works on the Lower East Side of New York City. Patterson is the frequent subject ofmedia attention for his archival and activist efforts.