Sober Living for the Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge, andRadical Politics

STRAIGHT EDGE has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy, however, remains ambiguous-often associated with self-righteous macho posturing and conservative puritanism. While certain elements of straight edge culture feed into such perception, the movement's political history is far more complex.

Since straight edge's origins in Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, it has been linked to radical thought and action by countless individuals, bands, a...