This book illustrates how from Beuys's provocative 'Actions' of the 1960s and 1970s, to his ambitious environmental project 7000 Oaks - which would lead to the mass planting of trees in a series of events that continued after his death - he was never one to shun controversy. His anti-authoritarian approach gained him respect and notoriety in equal measures. As Antliff effectively demonstrates, the ecological and political issues that informed much of Beuys's art can be considered as relevant today as they were in his own lifetime.