The Crazies

The Cattleman, the Wind Prospector, and a War Out West

De: Amy Gamerman

Narrado por: Anna Sale

A dazzling piece of narrative nonfiction about land lust and the American West, The Crazies tells the story of a wind farm that triggers a 21st century range war between a struggling fifth-generation rancher and the billionaires next door.

Most locals in Big Timber, Montana learn to live with the wind. Rick Jarrett sought his fortune in it. Like his pioneer ancestors who staked their claims in the Treasure State, he believed in his right to make a living off the land—and its newest precious resource, million-dollar wind.

Trouble was, Jarrett’s neighbors were some of the wealthiest and most influential men in America, trophy ranchers who’d come West to enjoy magnificent mountain views, not stare at 500-foot wind turbines.

And so began an epic showdown that would pull in an ever-widening cast of larger-than-life characters, including a Texas oil and gas tycoon, a roguish wind prospector, a Crow activist fighting for his tribe’s rights to the mountains they hold sacred, and an Olympic athlete-turned-attorney whose path to redemption would lead to Jarrett’s wind farm. A wildly entertaining yarn, the brawl over Crazy Mountain Wind would become a fight over the values that define us as Americans—and a window into how this country actually works. All the while, the most coveted rangeland in the West was being threatened by forces more powerful than anything one man could muster: dwindling snowpack, record drought, raging wildfires.

The Crazies is a Western for a warming planet, full of cowboys and billionaires and billionaire cowboys. But it’s also so much more. It’s an exquisitely reported, ruggedly beautiful elegy for a vanishing way of life and a bighearted inquiry into how you can love a place so much you risk destroying it.

©2025 Amy Gamerman (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Gamerman's captivating account of the struggle over private property, conservation, renewable energy and greed in a small corner of Montana is a gripping parable for our times.”—BookPage

“A fascinating story about the new energy economy. If you want to understand why change does—or doesn't—happen in America, read The Crazies.”—Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinctio

“The Crazies has the sweep of The Grapes of Wrath and the storytelling power of Wallace Stegner’s The Big Rock Candy Mountain.”—Rinker Buck, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Oregon Trail

Cohesive and unbiased storytelling + superb reader!

Excellent explanation of the dilemma facing small ranch and farm owners in America. The irony of several ranchers being directly impacted by climate change, trying to implement a solution which would have saved their operations while benefiting society and being threatened with forfeiting that opportunity by non-resident landowners will not be lost on the reader.

Oligarchs win again and again with

Heartbreaking story of American inequality. Judicial system is just another tool of the wealthy to suppress.

Brilliantly researched!

The author was very thorough, fairly portraying all of the characters involved, additionally she exhaustively researched Montana’s intent to include clean energy within its public power infrastructure, and the oligarchs who fought against it.

A glimpse behind the curtain of wealth and outside interests in Montana

Well written, thorough and engaging. The author incorporated history and science and lots of other general information to explain how Montana got from where it was to where it is, at least within the framework of the Crazies and the communities that surround them.

Way longer than it needs to be.

Droning on and on with irrelevant details and history. Not at all the dramatic legal battle book it’s advertised to be.
Save your time and just google a summary of the events.

lunatic

Could have been a great story. Be forwarned the author is a obvious climate lunatic who is so stupid she believes wind is the answer. There are many studies fom around the world proving wind is not a viable option. The bias in writing is disgusting, how about just facts? Oh and ofcourse, rich man bad. So guessing she is a socialist as well.