Zayd Ayers Dohrn is an acclaimed playwright and screenwriter. He is also a Professor and Director of the MFA on Writing for the Screen + Stage at Northwestern University. His recent projects include the hit narrative podcast Mother Country Radicals and the punk/metal/hip-hop protest musical Revolutions.
'Riveting as a thriller, this wise and searching memoir about a family, an era, and a movement tells a story about America we’ve never quite heard before... It’s fearless, big-hearted, and profound. I simply couldn’t put it down.' * Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild * 'Stands out as definitive...a meticulously researched history of an explosive time as well as a deeply felt, intimate portrait of a very unusual family.' * Dana Spiotta, New York Times * 'Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s deeply moving Dangerous Dirty Violent & Young swept me away. A mix of memoir, history and journalism, it’s like nothing I’ve ever read. Dohrn isn’t afraid to wrestle with the moral ambiguities of the time and of those at the center of his life. It’s an astonishing story written with such an open heart.' * Alex Kotlowitz, author of There Are No Children Here * Conjured into the present by a genuine literary master, recollecting what he saw as a sensitive child, the oft-told tale of the Weathermen catches fire here, illuminating a strangeness with which we all wrestle: the mysteries of family resentment and filial love. * Rick Perlstein, author of Nixonland * 'What a book! Exhilarating, maddening, contemplative, and mournful. The book arrives at a critical time ...Through deft and exquisite storytelling, Zayd Ayers Dohrn distills a history that shows...how each of us must grapple with the moral and human dimensions of our movements.' * Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, author of How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective * 'Zayd Dohrn’s journey into the past is a rare and profound gift — one that breaks your heart even as it quietly fills it with hope. Each page is at once beautiful, painful, and powerful. It is everything we need right now: deeply moving and urgent.' * Heather Ann Thompson, author of Blood in the Water: the Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and its Legacy. *