[A] riveting and inspiring history of punk’s hard-fought struggle in East Germany. The book chronicles, with cinematic detail, the commitment and defiance required of East German punks as they were forced to navigate constant police harassment and repression.” —The New York Times Book Review Rolling Stone Burning Down the Haus deftly chronicles the formation of East Germany’s punk scene within a fragmented country under constant monitoring by a secret police agency, the Stasi. This is a work that encapsulates a particular musical world but, more crucially, shows how the society around it shaped the scene in idiosyncratic ways.” —Pitchfork Vogue Billboard Burning Down the Haus fastidiously traces the self-discovery of punks in the socialist dictatorship of East Germany, and the violence and repression they endured on the way to freedom.” —NPR “Burning Down the Haus is a gripping, powerful story of self-expression in the face of adversity . . . We can see echoes of the time it describes in groups like Pussy Riot, who risk imprisonment and possible assassination in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. The story of East German punk is one of rock and roll’s greatest unheard tales of courage. Or it was until Tim Mohr came along.” —The Houston Chronicle Longreads The Wall Street Journal —The Hype Magazine “What makes this book such a fascinating read is that Mohr has recreated the period almost as an oral history . . . it also brings the era and the reality of the times to life beautifully. Burning Down the Haus not only dispels the myth that the West and capitalism were responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall, it also provides the example of how the oppressed can effect change from the bottom up – something as pertinent today as it was in East Germany in the 80s. This is a beautifully written and important book about the power of ordinary people to make a difference and how punk is more than just a type of music.” —Blogcritics.com “Mohr pens an inspiring history of a punk scene that literally tore down a symbol of division and oppression.” —Library Journal Publishers Weekly , starred reviewBooklist , starred reviewKirkus Reviews Burning Down the Haus —BookPage “Mohr takes readers on a fascinating trip through the 1980s, focusing on East German teenagers that embraced the punk lifestyle and ultimately would play a role in the fall of the Berlin Wall. Mohr is a great storyteller and manages to make history read like you are there directly witnessing it.”—The Hype Magazine “ Burning Down the Haus stands as a testament to the DIY ethos as a response to oppression, which, in this day and age, may be exactly what American society needs.”—Harvard Crimson “Burning Down the Haus is not just an immersion into the punk rock scene of East Berlin, it’s the story of the cultural and political battles that have shaped the world we live in today. Tim Mohr delivers the soundtrack for the revolution that we’ve all been waiting for.”—DW Gibson, author of The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century “In East Germany, where non-conformity meant jail time, punks’ ripped clothes and spiked hair were a show of courage and defiance. Squatting in derelict apartments and burning their lyrics before the secret police could get ahold of them, these teenagers wrote the soundtrack for a rebellion that helped bring down the Berlin Wall. Tim Mohr tells the story of their DIY revolution with the thoroughness of a historian and the panache of a cultural insider. Burning Down the Haus is a riveting cultural history that also serves as a rallying call against authoritarianism everywhere.”—Ruth Franklin, author of the NBCC Award-winning Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life “Equal parts terrifying and exhilarating, Burning Down the Haus is a fabulously alive history of punk rock behind the Iron Curtain, where simply dressing like a punk could get you hauled in by Stasi, the dreaded East German secret police. Mohr ties the fearless music-driven resistance to authoritarianism and mass surveillance in the 1980s to our current fraught times, showing how even the most formidable forms of oppression can be shaken by highly motivated, creative kids with riotous rage and a driving beat. A thrilling, inspiring read.”—Rob Spillman, editor of Tin House and author of All Tomorrow’s Parties “You say you want a revolution? Tim Mohr’s spellbinding Burning Down the Haus reveals how a bunch of young East German punks in the 1980s made their wild music into a clarion loud enough to topple the Berlin Wall. With a sharp eye for the prosaic brutality of the repressive state and an ear locked on the furies in the music, Mohr has crafted an unforgettable story that is part cultural history, part political thriller and entirely true.”—Peter Ames Carlin, author of Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon “Berlin has always been a crazy city, and a dramatic stage for the epic struggle between powerful ideological forces and the individual desire to be free. In case you weren’t sure just how political music, fashion, and a certain attitude can be: read this book. Burning Down the Haus is wonderful.” —Norman Ohler, author of Blitzed “This is a crazily inspiring, strange, beautiful story that deserves to be remembered, and Mohr is a wonderfully compassionate writer. What a combination!” —Johann Hari, New York Times bestselling author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections “The best punk book since Please Kill Me .”—Legs McNeil, author of Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk “Tim Mohr’s book details a fascinating period of time in the history of punk music. I am so glad he documented that moment in history for punk rock and for the world.” —Greg Graffin, singer/songwriter for Bad Religion and author of Population Wars and Anarchy Evolution “The true story of how teenage kicks turned into political opposition. With meticulous research and impassioned prose, Tim Mohr brings to life the saga of a bunch of East German punk rock kids who broke the state that wanted to break them. A book to warm an old punk’s heart.”—Claire Dederer, author of Love and Trouble PRAISE FOR THE GERMAN EDITION OF BURNING DOWN THE HAUS “A wonderful book.”—Berliner Zeitung —Neustadt-Gefluester (Dresden) “Mohr digs into the subject of East German punk like nobody before.”—Rolling Stone Germany —Falter (Vienna) “You get taken in quickly, and just as quickly you have a lively image of the situation . . . The storytelling style is like having a movie in your head.”—Lutz Schramm (German radio personality) “A wonderful, atmospheric look at a hidden world.”—Classic Rock
…[a] riveting and inspiring history of punk's hard-fought struggle in East Germany…The book chronicles, with cinematic detail, the commitment and defiance required of East German punks as they were forced to navigate constant police harassment and repression.
The New York Times Book Review - Alan Light
★ 07/30/2018
This audiobook is an amazing piece of work. Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies's delivery could only have been made better with snippets of the punk songs that inspired a generation to defy the tyranny of the East Berlin regime in the 1980s. Davies provides a sincere narration. While Americans enjoyed the music of the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, and others, young East Berliners lived it, facing arrest and prison for listening or even for wearing strange clothing. This is a story few have heard, told with with enough authority and outrage to inspire people to fight for what they believe in, as the East Berliners did. Despite persecution, they eventually succeeded in tearing down the Berlin Wall that separated East from West. Punk music truly helped free a nation. M.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
2018-06-27
