outlaw motorcycle clubs - book - 1991 - The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers

The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers
Daniel R. Wolf
University of Toronto Press
1991
372 pages


Hi there friendly fellows, I bought my copy of The Rebels from Willow Books, near the St George University of Toronto campus at the corner of St. George and Bloor St. West.
The Rebels were an Alberta based outlaw motorcycle club with a few chapters scattered across western Canada during the 1970s, 80s and 90s.  In 1998 the club (alongside a couple of other western Canadian outlaw biker clubs) were absorbed into the multi-national corporation known as the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club to become that organization’s presence in Canada’s western provinces.  In the mid/late 1980s, a doctoral student of anthropology, and biker, named Daniel R. Wolf, befriended members of the Rebels Edmonton chapter and collected much of the information that made up his doctoral dissertation which was published as The Rebels: A Brotherhood of Outlaw Bikers.

The book contains a statement about the permission Wolf received from The Rebels Motorcycle Club to publish this text.  The statement ends with Wolf noting that a newer generation of Rebels wanted him to NOT publish this book, but because they were not the same Rebels he rode and fought with (and Wolf did ride and fight with the Rebels, otherwise he would not have been permitted to hand around them, according to himself) he chose to proceed with publication.  Now, carrying out field research with outlaw bikers is an impressive achievement, and because of this work, The Rebels is probably one of the best books out on the biker subculture.  I’ve tried to expecting to find Wolf ensconced in a faculty position in a sociology or criminology department somewhere, and the book jacket on my copy states that Wolf works at the University of Prince Edward Island.  Unfortunately I cannot find any information about Wolf’s current status, and its tempting to believe that the publication of this book has something to do with that.  In The Brotherhoods by Arthur Veno, an Australian biker researcher, Wolf is referred to as “the late,” so he has passed at some point between 1991 and The Brotherhoods publication in 2002.

The Rebels covers virtually every aspect of Motorcycle Club operations, from the maintenance of their clubhouse, to their attitudes towards women and outsiders, to their methods for balancing work, family, and a commitment to a biker club.  Everything about a club is closely examined by Wolf, who presents a detailed and comprehensive report on the unique social and cultural formation that is the outlaw biker group.  Wolf’s primary point of contact was the Edmonton Alberta Rebels chapter, and when he uses direct quotations from bikers, they usually come from members of this specific group.  He does, however, discuss anecdotes pertaining to outlaw clubs from elsewhere in Canada including the King’s Crew of Ontario, the Grim Reapers (another Alberta club that was absorbed into the Hells Angels) and the Vagabonds MC of Toronto.  It is important for the reader to recognize that Wolf is dealing in outlaw bikers in the Canadian context, and primarily with a focus on western Canada.  It is my understanding, for example, that the term ‘striker’, used to describe potential incoming club members, is a specifically Canadian biker expression.  It is also important to take note of the time frame, that through the 1990s, as have already been discussed in this post, many of the clubs Wolf writes about were absorbed into larger American clubs and therefore no longer exist.

Wolf’s contribution to the literature is unique as it’s one of two anthropological studies of this particular social phenomena (the other is Arthur Veno’s The Brotherhoods - which investigates the outlaw biker in the Austrailian context).  These texts are a counterweight to the sixteen tons of true crime books and undercover agent and/or biker memoirs, where the author claims some kind of distance to their subject matter.