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Easily Abbey's most famous non-fiction work, the book's four main characters are ecologically-minded misfits — a jack Mormon, a surgeon, a nurse and a crazed Vietnam veteran and Green Beret. Together, though not always working as a tightly-knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of the system that pollutes and destroys their environs, the American West. As their attacks on deserted bulldozers and trains continue, the law's net closes in.
The book was praised for its erudition, flair, down-home wit, and the accuracy of its descriptions of life away from civilization (Abbey made the West his home and practiced wilderness survival).
Interestingly from a 21st-century viewpoint, the Gang in some ways bears little resemblance to the modern media's portrayal of as eco-fanatics — they eat lots of red meat, drink beer and litter the roadside with cans, drive big cars, and so forth. Also, Abbey's politics are not "bleeding heart" (as the characters dismiss liberalism): they attack Indians as well as whites for their consumerism, hold little regard for the Sierra Club, etc.