Jon Savage's 'England's Dreaming' Reconstructs Punk's Rise in 1970s London

Jon Savage's book 'England's Dreaming' offers a detailed reconstruction of punk's emergence in 1970s London. Drawing on testimonies from key figures like Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, the Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, and Siouxsie Sioux, as well as secondary actors and companions, the work portrays a collective adventure with contradictory aspirations. Savage frames punk as a cultural, social, and eventually political and economic phenomenon, arguing it is a crucial key to recent British history. The book blurs the line between persons and characters in rock, presenting testimonies as part of a collective fiction where postures become life forms. It contrasts a triumphant 19th-century England with a crisis-ridden late 20th-century one, driven by nihilism, nationalism, and cynicism. Christophe Kihm's review positions the book as a passionate rewriting of Dickens' 'Great Expectations' into 'Great Disappointments.'