Senseless Acts of Beauty :Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties
Senseless Acts of Beauty :Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties
paperback
Published:
17 June, 1996
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Description
George McKay looks back at the hippies of the sixties and punks of the seventies, and shows how their legacies have been transformed into what he calls cultures of resistance. His journey through the undergrounds of the last two decades take us from the Windsor Free Festival of 1972 to the Castlemorton Free Rave Megaparty exactly twenty years later, from the anarchopunk band Crass via Teepee Valley and Glastonbury to today's ever-intensifying anti-road protests, and to the widespread opposition to the Criminal Justice Act.
Drawing on fanzines and free papers, record lyrics, interviews and diaries, Senseless Acts of Beauty gives a vivid, insider account of countercultures, networks and movements that until now have remained largely unrecorded. At the same time, George McKay analyzes their effects, and gives his own answers to the questions they pose: what are their politics, their aspirations, their consequences? One thing is certain, he argues: if there is resistance anywhere in Britain today, then it is here, in the beat-up buses, beleaguered squats and tree-top barricades, that we should start to look for it.
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781859840283 |
| ISBN10 | 1859840280 |
| Number Of Pages | 228 |
| Item Weight | 526 g |
| Product Dimensions | 201 x 221 x 13 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Verso Books |
| Format | paperback |
Media Reviews
The secret history of the last two decades. -- Jon Savage
This is the most authoritative and compelling book on DIY culture I've come across. -- Jeremy Cunningham, The Levellers
A wonderful history of the forgotten counterculture, from the free festivals of the 70s to the Dongas tribe who occupied Twyford Down to halt a bypass. -- Kevin Shrubsole * Guardian *
Author's Bio
George McKay is Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Salford, UK, where he is Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre. He writes on alternative cultures and identities - 'cultural studies with a soundtrack' is how his website puts it - and his books include DiY Culture, Senseless Acts of Beauty, Glastonbury: A Very English Fair, Community Music: A Handbook (co-edited with Pete Moser), Circular Breathing: The Cultural Politics of Jazz in Britain, Radical Gardening: Politics, Idealism & Rebellion in the Garden, and Shakin' All Over: Popular Music and Disability. He maintains his own website at georgemckay.org.