Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counterculture in Pulp and Popular Fiction 1950-1980

Sticking it to the Man: Revolution and Counter Culture in Pulp and Popular Fiction, 1950-1980 is out now.

You can get the book direct from our publisher, PM Press, or from Amazon here.

From Civil Rights and Black Power to the New Left and Gay Liberation, the 1960s and 1970s saw a host of movements shake the status quo. With social strictures and political structures challenged at every level, pulp and popular fiction could hardly remain unaffected. Feminist, gay, and black authors broke into areas of crime, porn, and other paperback genres previously dominated by conservative, straight, white males. For their part, pulp hacks struck back with bizarre takes on the revolutionary times, creating vigilante-driven fiction that echoed the Nixonian backlash and the coming conservatism of Thatcherism and Reaganism.

Sticking It to the Man tracks the changing politics and culture of the period and how it was reflected in pulp and popular fiction in the US, UK, and Australia from the late 1950s onward. Featuring more than three hundred full-color covers, the book includes in-depth author interviews, illustrated biographies, articles, and reviews from more than 30 popular culture critics and scholars. Contributors include, Scott Adlerberg, Michael Bronski, Susie Thomas, Alley Hector, Gary Phillips, David Whish-Wilson. Nicolas Tredell, Michael Gonzales, Danae Bosler, Brian Coffey, Kinohi Nishikawa, Molley Grattan, Briane Greene, Bill Mohr, Bill Osgerby, Jenny Pausacker, K Kingston Pierce. Linda Watts, Steve Aldous, Emory Holmes, Maitland McDonagh, and David Foster.

Here’s what people are saying about the book.

From the profane to the sacred, this scholarly, obsessive volume reveals forgotten tribes of Amazons, Soul Brothers, Hustlers, Queers, Vigilantes, Radical Feminists and Revolutionaries – the radical exploitation of gnostic pulp.

Jon Savage, author of 1966: The Year the Decade Exploded

This is the ultimate guide to sixties and the counter culture, of which I was a part. Long hair, bellbottoms, short dresses, and a kiss-my-ass attitude to the powers that be. Real meat on real bone, the stuff of one of the most unique and revolutionary generations ever, baby. You need this.

Joe R. Lansdale

This book is a story about stories—the rough-and-tumble mass fiction of the 1950s to the 80s, written to offend The Establishment and delight the rest of us. In Sticking It to the Man, McIntyre and Nette offer us a fascinating smorgasbord of (un)savory tales—the kind whose covers entice and whose texts compel.

Ann Bannon, author of The Beebo Brinker Chronicles

Oh, the man has been stuck! Get ready for a wild ride through the worlds of groundbreaking novels of gay life, thug life, and working class struggles on three continents, while learning about the social significance of many marginalized works of “pulp fiction.”

Kenneth Wishnia, editor of Jewish Noir, Edgar Allan Poe Award finalist for 23 Shades of Black