The origins and history of the skinhead movement in the United States are traced, beginning with their links with skinheads in England and focusing on racist skinheads rather than the less-well-known nonracist skinheads. How skinheads have developed within the larger youth group scenes, their ideas and activities, the role of music in their development, and the damage they have done to American society are described. It is suggested that skinheads were originally a minor distraction on the American punk scene but that they have grown into a dangerous and hate-filled, politically engaged source of hate thought and crime. By the end of the 1980s, skinheads were considered the most violent extremist group in the United States. They had become increasingly politicized. In the early 1990s it appears that their growth in numbers is essentially over, but the phenomenon remains a real threat because their racist and violent ideas do not die. (Contains 176 references.) (SLD)