Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young - My Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground

The son of the FBI''s most wanted woman tells the electrifying, heart-rending story of a childhood on the run - and a half-century of revolutionary struggle in America We all grapple with a past that defines us: culture, religion, a family story. But what happens when you inherit a revolution? Zayd Ayers Dohrn was born without a birth certificate. His parents had gone underground after a decade committed to violent revolution against racial injustice and the Vietnam war; his mother co-founded a group called the Weathermen, allies of the Black Panthers, and replaced Angela Davis on the FBI''s Ten Most Wanted List. His parents assured him that his birth marked a clean break with the past, an end to radical action. But, as Dohrn discovers in this explosive memoir, this version of the family story isn''t entirely true. A masterpiece of personal and social history, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young offers a page-turning account of an infamous family and their life in hiding, as well as the political battles of the ''60s and ''70s. At its heart it asks bigger questions: how a child can survive when the place they feel safest - with their family - also puts them in danger? And what does it mean to be a good revolutionary or to want to change the world?

About the author

Zayd Ayers Dohrn is an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter. He is also a Professor and Director of the MFA on Writing for the Screen + Stage at Northwestern University. His recent projects include the hit narrative podcast Mother Country Radicals and the punk/metal/hip-hop protest musical Revolutions.

Product details

• Authors: Zayd Ayers Dohrn
• Publisher: Chatto and Windus
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 11.06.2026
• EAN: 9781784745790
• ISBN: 978-1-78474-579-0
• No. of pages: 352
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 234 mm x 40 mm
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Politics, society, business > Politics; BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Social Activists, HISTORY / Social History, Memoirs, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Radicalism, Revolutions, uprisings, rebellions, Social and cultural history, United States of America, USA, Revolutionary groups and movements, HISTORY / Revolutions, Uprisings & Rebellions, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Memoirs