Skinheads Shaved for Battle: A Cultural History of American Skinheads

Skinheads Shaved for Battle: A Cultural History of American Skinheads. Jack B. Moore. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Press. $14.95 paper; $37.95 cloth.

Contrary to other American media and anti-racist organization accounts, this study argues that the skinhead movement is a cultural rather than a political phenomenon. It attempts to trace the skinhead cult from its onset but focuses on fascist American skinheads in the 1980s, the first decade of their development as a separate and identifiable group.

Using reports by the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, newspaper articles, and skinheads themselves, Moore provides an articulate cultural portrait of fascist skinheads, their links to white supremacist groups, and their violent excursions-many of which resulted in the death of innocent people. One of Moore's most important contributions is his chapter on skinhead media representations, in particular syndicated...