Punk Revolution!: An Oral History of Punk Rock Politics and Activism

The most wide-ranging and provocative look at punk rock as a social change movement told through firsthand accounts. Punk rock has been on the frontlines of activism since exploding on the scene in the 1970’s. Punk Revolution! is the most wide-ranging and provocative look at punk rock as a social change movement over the past forty-five years, told through firsthand accounts of roughly 250 musicians and activists. John Malkin brings together a wide cast of characters that include major punk & post-punk musicians (members of The Ramones, Bad Religion, Crass, Dead Kennedys, Patti Smith’s band, Gang of Four, Sex Pistols, Iggy & the Stooges, Bikini Kill, Talking Heads, The Slits, and more), important figures influenced by the punk movement (Noam Chomsky, Kalle Lasn, Keith McHenry, Marjane Satrapi, Laurie Anderson, Kenneth Jarecke), and underground punk voices. These insightful, radical, and often funny conversations travel through rebellions against Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Donald Trump, and Vladimir Putin and to punk activism that has taken on nuclear war, neoliberalism, modern warfare, patriarchy, white supremacy, the police, settler colonialism, and more. The result is a fresh and unique history of punk throughout the ages.