Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young

My Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground

De: Zayd Ayers Dohrn

Brought to you by Penguin.

The son of the FBI's most wanted woman tells the electrifying, heart-rending story of a childhood on the run – and a half-century of revolutionary struggle in America

We all grapple with a past that defines us: culture, religion, a family story. But what happens when you inherit a revolution?

Zayd Ayers Dohrn was born without a birth certificate. His parents had gone underground after a decade committed to violent revolution against racial injustice and the Vietnam war; his mother co-founded a group called the Weathermen, allies of the Black Panthers, and replaced Angela Davis on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. His parents assured him that his birth marked a clean break with the past, an end to radical action. But, as Dohrn discovers in this explosive memoir, this version of the family story isn’t entirely true.

A masterpiece of personal and social history, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young offers a page-turning account of an infamous family and their life in hiding, as well as the political battles of the ‘60s and ‘70s. At its heart it asks bigger questions: how a child can survive when the place they feel safest – with their family – also puts them in danger? And what does it mean to be a good revolutionary or to want to change the world?

© Zayd Ayers Dohrn 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Reseñas de la Crítica

'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.'

'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.'

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.

'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.'

'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.'