This is a fascinating guide to a critical time in music and cultural history.

A Cultural Dictionary of Punk is a bold book that examines punk as a movement that is best understood by placing it in its cultural field. It contains myriad descriptions of the sounds of the time, but also places those sounds in the context of history. Drawing on hundreds of fanzines, magazines, and newspapers, the book is — in the spirit of punk — an obsessive, exhaustively researched and sometimes deeply personal portrait of the many ways in which punk was an expression of defiance. The format consists of distinct entries on everything from Lester Bangs to The Slits, from Jimmy Carter to Minimalism, from 'Dot Dash' to Bad Brains.

Both highly informative and thrillingly idiosyncratic, the book takes a fresh look at how the malaise of the 1970s offered fertile ground for punk — as well as the new wave, post-punk, and hardcore — to emerge as a rejection of the easy platitudes of the dying counter-culture. The organization is accessible and entertaining. Rombes upends notions that the story of punk can be told in a chronological, linear fashion. Meant to be read straight through or opened up and experienced at random, A Cultural Dictionary of Punk covers not only many of the well-known, now-legendary punk bands, but the obscure, forgotten ones as well.

"At a cursory glance, Rombes's compendium has the form of a dictionary, covering punk bands from the Adolescents to the Zeroes, but scratch the surface and you'll discover a profoundly weird document, where the notion of 'punk' expands to include discussions of Angela Carter, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and Barry Hannah — although even Rombes (Ramones) admits the last is stretching the point. The tone veers from the academic to the confessional: 'How can you hesitate about a song that has saved you more than once from the black depths you are prone to fall into?' Rombes asks in an entry concerning the British band Wire. There are several forays into the fictional, including stories about imagined versions of Patti Smith and Joey Ramone, as well as entries written by 'Ephraim P. Noble,' who is almost certainly a fictional alter ego. If it were touted as a definitive guide to punk culture, the dictionary's omissions would be glaring — but this is something altogether different: a personal investigation into the significance of punk rock, an attempt to inject critical studies with 'a big dose of chaos and anarchy' and thereby create a compelling cultural narrative. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"There are several other books on punk, but this one's focus on the general historical and cultural perspective of the movement, as well as its accessible and informal style, makes it a worthy addition to the literature. An excellent overview..." Library Journal

"An expansive, erudite, and hugely entertaining guide through the dark alleys and glittering byways of punk in music, film, literature, politics, fashion. A Cultural Dictionary of Punk is essential reading for anyone fascinated by one of the most influential artistic movements of our time." Liz Hand, author of Generation Loss

A Cultural Dictionary of Punk: 1974-1982 is a bold book that examines punk as a movement that is best understood by placing it in its cultural field.

Nicholas Rombes is a professor of English at the University of Detroit Mercy. His books include Ramones (Continuum), New Punk Cinema, and the forthcoming Cinema in the Digital Age. He has written for Exquisite Corpse, McSweeney's online, and CTheory.