Overview

Straight edge has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy, however, remains ambiguous-often associated with self-righteous macho posturing and conservative puritanism. While certain elements of straight edge culture feed into such perceptions, the movement's political history is far more complex. Since straight edge's origins in Washington, DC, in the early 1980s, it has been linked to radical thought and action by countless individuals, bands, and entire scenes worldwide. Sober Living for the Revolution traces this history. It includes contributions-in the form of in-depth interviews, essays, and manifestos-by numerous artists and activists connected to straight edge, from Ian MacKaye (Minor Threat/Fugazi) and Mark Andersen (Dance of Days/Positive Force DC) to Dennis Lyxzn (Refused/The (International) Noise Conspiracy) and Andy Hurley (Racetraitor/Fall Out Boy), from bands such as ManLiftingBanner and Point of No Return to feminist and queer initiatives, from radical collectives like CrimethInc. and Alpine Anarchist Productions to the Emancypunx project and many others dedicated as much to sober living as to the fight for a better world.

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9781604860511

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Reviews

Kuhn's book can be credited as the first deeply international account of straight edge and perhaps the first to draw from the voices of women and queer folks as central (rather than ornamental) to the subject's history. --www.UppingTheAnti.org

An 'ecstatic sobriety' which combats the dreariness of one and the bleariness of the other--false pleasure and false discretion alike--is analogous to the anarchism that confronts both the false freedom offered by capitalism and the false community offered by communism. --CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective Kuhn's book can be credited as the first deeply international account of straight edge and perhaps the first to draw from the voices of women and queer folks as central (rather than ornamental) to the subject's history. --www.UppingTheAnti.org Less 'get pissed, destroy', more 'use your brain, change the world'. And it's for all ages, too. --Classic Rock Magazine Perhaps the greatest reason I am still committed to [straight edge, also known as sXe] is an unfailing belief that sXe is more than music, that it can be a force of change. I believe in the power of sXe as a bridge to social change, as an opportunity to create a more just and sustainable world. --Ross Haenfler, professor of sociology, University of Mississippi, and author, Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, And Social Change

Perhaps the greatest reason I am still committed to [straight edge, also known as sXe] is an unfailing belief that sXe is more than music, that it can be a force of change. I believe in the power of sXe as a bridge to social change, as an opportunity to create a more just and sustainable world. --Ross Haenfler, professor of sociology, University of Mississippi, and author, Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, And Social Change

An 'ecstatic sobriety' which combats the dreariness of one and the bleariness of the other--false pleasure and false discretion alike--is analogous to the anarchism that confronts both the false freedom offered by capitalism and the false community offered by communism. --CrimethInc. Ex-Workers' Collective Kuhn's book can be credited as the first deeply international account of straight edge and perhaps the first to draw from the voices of women and queer folks as central (rather than ornamental) to the subject's history. --www.UppingTheAnti.org Perhaps the greatest reason I am still committed to [straight edge, also known as sXe] is an unfailing belief that sXe is more than music, that it can be a force of change. I believe in the power of sXe as a bridge to social change, as an opportunity to create a more just and sustainable world. --Ross Haenfler, professor of sociology, University of Mississippi, and author, Straight Edge: Clean-Living Youth, Hardcore Punk, And Social Change Less 'get pissed, destroy', more 'use your brain, change the world'. And it's for all ages, too. --Classic Rock Magazine

Author Information

Gabriel Kuhn is the author of Life Under the Jolly Roger: Reflections on Golden Age Piracy and Women Pirates and the Politics of the Jolly Roger.

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