The Mammoth Book of Bikers

by Arthur Veno

Book Overview

Drawing on 17 years of studying and participating in biker culture, Arthur Veno has compiled the ultimate collection of original biker writing. Here are insider accounts of landmark incidents in bike... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786720468
• ISBN13: 9780786720460
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 564 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.2" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Hell on Wheels

There is without a doubt that the ones who are the most street savy can try the 1PERCENT that will most likely kill them or put us back where those steel bars and the freedom of America is no longer in are reach.

great read

I bought this book and others as a gift for my husband and he loves it. Supper fast shipping...

Bikers

Great read. Enjoy the first hand accounts of "Milpera Massacre" and undercover stories. Can't wait for a follow up.

If your going to read just one book on bikers this is it.

This book is really just a combination of stories from several other books. I have read many other books on this topic so I found the book to be old news, but still worthy of a read. If your only going to read one book on bikers this would be a good choice.

Peeling Back the Myths

In this impressive tome, Arthur Veno collects 40 first-hand accounts from various biker insiders and observers. In addition to classic reports penned by Daniel Wolf and Sonny Barger, Veno digs deep into biker history and lore, uncovering many gems along the way. Consider this, an excerpt from a 1947 San Francisco Chronicle article detailing efforts by Hollister police to force a "lull in the terrorism" at the town. "Armed with tear gas guns," it reads, "the officers herded the cyclists into a block on San Benito Street, between Fifth and Sixth streets, parked a dance band on a truck and ordered the musicians to play. Hundreds of individuals who invaded the town yesterday for the motorcycle show, about 10 percent of them women, halted their riotous 'play' to dance." In The Mammoth Book Of Bikers, this antagonistic--often-comical-- relationship between bikers and the police is laid bare. Veno deftly shows that this relationship-- fueled by a sensational press-- is symbiotic at its core. As one Hell's Angel put it bluntly to Hunter S. Thompson: "Of course I don't like to read all this... because it brings the heat down on us, but since we got famous we've had more... women come looking for us than we ever had before. Hell, these days we have more action than we can handle." Veno's book goes a long way at deconstructing myths about bikers-- while at the same time adding to the allure of the One Percenter lifestyle.

Bursting The Bikie Myths

A superb and tantalising book that looks at the life of what one reviewer has described as "the last free people in society". Art Veno's collection of first hand accounts of motorcycle gangs both reinforces some myths about them but, at the same time, explodes others. It is not all sex, drugs and rock and roll in bikie land, though, thankfully, there is plenty here about the sexual mores and rather exotic sexual practices of those who defy the conventions of "normal" society. But the book is much more than just a snapshot into the private lifes of the bikie sub-culture. it is also a rivetting account of the politics and social structure of motorcycle gangs. At the same time it shines a torch on our own society and the hypocrisy and cant that we sometimes preach. A rivetting read.