Anarchist Toolchest

"Ich habe das Gefühl, dass es zwei Seiten von mir gibt", sagt die als Sunny War bekannte Singer-Songwriterin und Gitarrenvirtuosin aus Nashville.

The story of one of the most infamous books ever written, "The Anarchist Cookbook," and the role it's played in the life of its author, now 65, who wrote it at 19 in the midst of the counterculture upheaval of the late '60s and early '70s.

This is a brutal book-sensual, rude, coarse, and cruel. However, it is timely and well-written, even witty. Professionally and painstakingly, all possible informative instructions for individual actions of destruction having a presumably social effect are detailed here. The book is perhaps the most notorious "How To" manual on the market. Techniques, disciplines, precautions, and warnings pervade what may be the most disquieting "how-to" book of contemporary times.

The Anarchist Cookbook was written during 1968 and part of 1969 soon after I graduated from high school. At the time, I was 19 years old and the Vietnam War and the so-called "counter culture movement" were at their height. I was involved in the anti-war movement and attended numerous peace rallies and demonstrations. The book, in many respects, was a misguided product of my adolescent anger at the prospect of being drafted and sent to Vietnam to fight in a war that I did not believe in.