Table of Contents
Introduction: “Gotta Look This Life in the Eye” viii
Acknowledgments: Thanks to the Reaper Crew x
Part I “An Equal Mix of Might and Right”: Ethics at 92 mph 1
1 Virtue and Vice in the SAMCROpolis: Aristotle Views Sons of Anarchy 3 Jason T. Eberl
2 A Prospect’s Guide to Nietzsche 16 Tim Jung and Minerva Ahumada
3 Tig Needs an Escort Home: Is Loyalty a Virtue? 29 James Edwin Mahon
4 A Saint among the Sons: Aquinas on Murder and the Men of Mayhem 38 Randall M. Jensen
Part II “Off the Social Grid”: The Politics of Mayhem 51
5 SAMCRO versus the Leviathan: Laying Down the (Motor)Cycle of Violence 53 George A. Dunn
6 “The Rat Prince” and The Prince: The Machiavellian Politics of the MC 65 Timothy M. Dale and Joseph J. Foy
7 Chaos and Order: Anarchy in the MC 73 Bruno de Brito Serra
8 “Another Fun-Filled Day in the Six Counties”: The Real IRA—Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? 85 Philip Smolenski
9 SAMCRO Goes to War 94 Alex Leveringhaus
Part III “The Concept Was Pure, Simple, True”: Biker Identity and Meaning 105
10 My Skin, My Self: SAMCRO’s Ink and Personal Identity 107 Charlene Elsby
11 The Faith of Our Sons and the Tragic Quest 117 Kevin Corn
12 Once a Biker Slut, Always a Biker Slut: Narrative Identity in Charming 128 Minerva Ahumada and Tim Jung
13 SAMCRO and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance 139 Massimiliano L. Cappuccio
Part IV “The Passion in His Heart and the Reason in His Mind”: Sex, Love, and Gender 151
14 Sometimes a Motorcycle Is Just a Motorcycle: Freud and Hamlet Come to Charming 153 Andrea Zanin
15 When a Charming Woman Speaks 165 Leslie A. Aarons
16 Mothers of Anarchy: Power, Control, and Care in the Feminine Sphere 175 Leigh C. Kolb
Part V “Each Savage Event Was a Catalyst for the Next”: The Historic and the Homeric 187
17 Sons of History: How SAMCRO Lost and Found Its Way 189 Peter S. Fosl
18 Anarchism and Authenticity, or Why SAMCRO Shouldn’t Fight History 201 Peter S. Fosl
19 Good Old Fashioned Mayhem 214 Greg Littmann
20 The Road Out of Mayhem 225 Greg Littmann
Contributors: Philosophers of Mayhem 237
List of Episodes: The Life (and Death?) of Sam Crow 243
Index 246