In this penetrating book analyzing the Situationist movement, Greil Marcus starts by describing the Sex Pistols, a scandalous anti-musical group in London from 1975 to 1977, and their leader, Johnny Rotten. These pop musicians sparked the emergence of punk and were involved with the counterhistory of blasphemy and adventure. Tracing the cultural antecedents. Marcus shows various angry demands on society, art and government, coded in phrases, images and actions passed on invisibly by people unaware of each other. From the Brethren of the Free Spirit in medieval Europe, the Ranters in 17th century England, the dadists in Zurich in 1916 and Berlin in 1918, the Lettriste International in Paris and the Situationist International, he follows a hidden tradition of moments having a tradition of shared utopias, solitary refusals impossible demands and unexplained disappearances. The Situationists were a small group of Paris-based artists and writers surrounding Guy DeBord, who produced blank screen films, prophetic graffiti and provocative social criticism of the 1950s and '60s. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.