The definitive oral history—with a foreword by Lou Reed—of the center of New York’s 1960s and ’70s underground culture. From its opening in December 1965 on Park Avenue South, Max’s Kansas City, a hybrid restaurant, bar, nightclub, and art gallery, was the boisterous meeting spot for famous—or soon-to-be-famous—figures in New York’s underground art, music, literary, film, and fashion scenes. Max’s regulars included Andy Warhol (and his superstars such as Viva, Ultra Violet, Edie Sedgwick, Gerard Malanga, Holly Woodlawn, and Candy Darling), Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Bob Dylan, Jane Fonda, and dozens more. A hotbed of drugs, sex, and creative collaboration, Max’s was the place to see and be seen among the city’s cultural elite for nearly two decades. With reminiscences from the likes of Alice Cooper, Bebe Buell, Betsey Johnson, Leee Black Childers, Holly Woodlawn, and John Chamberlain, along with Max’s owner Mickey Ruskin and several waitresses and bartenders, this vivid oral history evokes an unforgettable place where a spontaneous striptease, a brawl over the meaning of art, and an early performance by the Velvet Underground were all possibilities on any given night. High on Rebellion dazzles with rare photos and other Max’s memorabilia, and firsthand accounts of legendary nights, chance encounters, romances sparked and extinguished, and stars being born.

Anatomy of Rebellion provides an understanding of four rebellions that will make clear the factors that are crucial in the development of other rebellions. Seeking a political pattern in the process of rebellion, Claude Welch, Jr., has investigated four large-scale rural uprisings that came close to becoming revolutions: the Taiping rebellion in China 1850-64, the Telengana uprising in India of 1946-51, the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya of 1952-56, the Kwilu uprising in Zaire of 1963-65. Weaving the facts of these rebellions with theories about political violence, Welch follows the rebellions through the initial stages of discontent to the explosion of violence to the suppression of the uprisings. He then challenges explanations of political violence, both Marxist and non-Marxist, that other scholars have proposed. Rebellions have not been studied as thoroughly as the major successful revolutions, although the frequency of rebellions in the modern world is not likely to diminish. Rural dwellers' discontents are still clashing with central governments' ambitions; Anatomy of Rebellion clarifies how this volatile type of political violence occurs.

Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. The term comes from the Latin verb rebello, "I renew war" + bello . The rebel is the individual that partakes in rebellion or rebellious activities, particularly when armed. Thus, the term rebellion also refers to the ensemble of rebels in a state of revolt.

The volume is made of selections from the writings of Scott, with a biographical and critical introduction.