Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of

Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYÂ Rolling Stone * BookPage * Amazon *Â Rough Trade
Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal for Excellence

â€œ[A] riveting and inspiring history of punkâ€™s hard-fought struggle in East Germany.â€ â€”The New York Times Book Review

â€œA thrilling and essential social history that details the rebellious youth movement that helped change the world.â€ â€”Rolling Stone

â€œOriginal and inspiring . . . Mr. Mohr has writÂten an imÂporÂtant work of Cold War culÂtural hisÂtory.â€ â€”The Wall Street Journal

â€œWildly entertaining . . . A thrilling tale . . . A joy in the way it brings back punkâ€™s fury and high stakes.â€â€”Vogue

It began with a handful of East Berlin teens who heard the Sex Pistols on a British military radio broadcast to troops in West Berlin, and it ended with the collapse of the East German dictatorship. Punk rock was a life-changing discovery. The buzz-saw guitars, the messed-up clothing and hair, the rejection of society and the DIY approach to building a new one: in their gray surroundings, where everyoneâ€™s future was preordained by some communist apparatchik, punk represented a revolutionary philosophyâ€”quite literally, as it turned out.

But as these young kids tried to form bands and became more visible, security forcesâ€”including the dreaded secret police, the Stasiâ€”targeted them. They were spied on by friends and even members of their own families; they were expelled from schools and fired from jobs; they were beaten by police and imprisoned. Instead of conforming, the punks fought back, playing an indispensable role in the underground movements that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

This secret history of East German punk rock is not just about the music; it is a story of extraordinary bravery in the face of one of the most oppressive regimes in history. Rollicking, cinematic, deeply researched, highly readable, and thrillingly topical, Burning Down the Haus brings to life the young men and women who successfully fought authoritarianism three chords at a timeâ€”and is a fiery testament to the irrepressible spirit of revolution.
Country USA
Manufacturer Algonquin Books
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2018-09-11
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Algonquin Books
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2018-09-11
Format	Kindle eBook

Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

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