Description
Book SynopsisThis book tells the untold story of Australia's veteran bikers. Like other motorcycle clubs, the Australian War Fighters (pseudonym) are a fringe-dwelling subculture that provokes strong opinions. Newspaper editors have been salivating over motorcycle club imagery since the subculture emerged in California in the middle of the twentieth century. Motorcycle clubs remain the subject of persisting moral panics' in Australia and have been the subject of successive crackdowns, police operations, and hard-hitting legislation aimed at driving them out of existence. The War Fighters operate on the periphery of the hard-core one percent element of the subculture. While they enjoy the notoriety of looking mean, the War Fighters do significant charity work, and the seemingly bizarre combination of outlaw biker subculture aesthetic with raising money for local hospitals means these men enjoy the paradox of looking bad while doing good. Drawing on sociological research Edward Scarr tells the tru
Table of Contents
Author’s Note – Introduction: The War Fighters – Joining the War Fighters Motorcycle Club – Club Structure and Activities—History of the Subculture – The War Fighter Aesthetic—Origins of the Biker Aesthetic – Harley Davidson—From Obscure Cult Classic to the Mainstream – Subjectivity in Crisis—A Three-Phase Model – Phase One—Rupture – Phase Two—Disconnection – Phase Three—Reconnection.
