Nihilism on the Highway with the War Fighters Motorcycle Club Veteran Bikers - The Untold Story

This 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 true story of how and why the veteran motorcycle club subculture came to be. What follows is an ultimately hopeful story of redemption from despair and the salvation of lives that had been all but given up on.

List 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.

Product details

• Authors: Edward Scarr
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 27.09.2018
• EAN: 9781433155062
• ISBN: 978-1-4331-5506-2
• No. of pages: 158
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 14 mm x 225 mm
• Weight: 316 g
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; Highway, Bikers, Club, SOCIAL SCIENCE / General, Australia, Veteran, Story, Edward, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General, Simpson, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Demography, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / Urban, Motorcycle, Social groups: clubs & societies, Motorcycles: general interest, Social groups: clubs and societies, Nihilism, Fighters, Meagan, Untold, Scarr