Dangerous Memory

A bold book of rage, hope, and challenge exposing how the political decisions of the 1980s continue to haunt us today.

The 1980s is remembered with nostalgia as a harmless decade of big hair, colourful clothes, and catchy pop songs. It was anything but. In Dangerous Memory, Charlie Angus undertakes a major rethink of the cultural and political shifts of an era that unleashed an unprecedented looting of the economy, the environment, and the common good that continue to haunt North Americans today.

But the 1980s was also a time of resistance, creativity, and hope. In a world that stood on the brink of global annihilation, millions of ordinary people stepped up to save the planet and fight for human rights. As an idealistic eighteen-year-old, Charlie Angus quit school to play in a punk band and work with the homeless and refugees in Toronto's east end.

Expertly weaving his story within the larger narrative of the times, Angus traces today's economic, environmental, and social problems to their roots in the 1980s. Planting the seeds of change, he challenges us to take action to confront widespread injustice and massive systemic inequity to create a better world.