How Outlaws Win Friends and Influence People

This book asks a critical question for our times: why do people today, in increasing numbers, support, admire and aspire to be outlaws? Outlaw motorcycle clubs have grown, spread and matured. Popular culture glamorizes them; law enforcement agencies fight them; the media vilify them. Meanwhile, wealthiest in our society exploit the current cultural and economic climate to attract new members. How Outlaws Win Friends and Influence People argues that the growth of these anti-establishment groups under neo-liberalism is not coincidental, but inevitable. What needs and desires do the clubs satisfy? How do they win support and influence? This book seeks to answer this crucial question, the answers to which will help policy makers and activists successfully fight the social harms caused by these groups, as well as the harms that underlie their proliferation. Unless we understand the cultural dynamic at play, our fight against these organizations will always take the form of a battle against the mythological Hydra: when one head is cut off, two more grow.Tereza Kuldova is a rebel with a cause - her new book is a razor-sharp critique of stereotypical conceptions of the 'outlaw biker' and provides refreshing insights into their subjective life-worlds? - Daniel Briggs, author of the award-winning Dead-End Lives.