Provo

Book excerpt: This is the first book-length English-language study of Holland's legendary insurrectional movement. In an introduction and eight chapters, Richard Kempton narrates the rise and fall of Provo from early Dutch "Happenings" staged in 1962 through to the so-called "Death of Provo" in 1967, including Robert Jasper Grootveld'sanarchist anti-cancer campaigns, the riots against Princess Beatrix's marriage to an ex-Nazi, and the famous White Bicycle program. Then, in seven appendices, he comments on parallel contemporary and near-contemporary movements, including Dada and Situationism; studies Amsterdam's previous anarchist traditions; chronicles the spread of Provo through the Netherlands and the development of the Kabouter(Gnome) party; and offers an existentialist critique of Provo and other anarchist movements of the '60s. This unique book is based on extensive primary research and includes a selective bibliography of the Dutch-language sources.