Jonathan Rowe was born in 1946 in a small town outside of Boston, Massachusetts. A 1967 graduate of Harvard College, he earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and in the early 1970s was one of Ralph Nader’s original “Raiders.” Later he served on staffs in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, where he was a longtime aide to Senator Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota). He was a contributing editor to the Washington Monthly and YES! magazines, a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, and a contributor to Harper’s, the Atlantic Monthly, the Columbia Journalism Review, and many other publications. In addition, he cofounded the Tomales Bay Institute, On The Commons, and West Marin Commons. He died unexpectedly on March 20, 2011. Hundreds of Jonathan Rowe’s writings—including those incorporated in this book—are collected at www.jonathanrowe. org. The site also includes audio fi les taken from his weekly radio show on KWMR.