The 1960s Counterculture Term Ppaer

Alienated from parental values and by the Vietnam War and racism, large numbers of youths, mostly middle class and educated, abandoned mainstream American culture during the late 1960s. Similar in ways to the Beats of the 1950s, these ‘‘hippies,’’ as they were called, turned to rock and folk music, drugs, and promiscuous sex to flaunt society’s and their parents’ teachings. Denouncing materialism and life’s complexities, some established simple urban or rural communes. In August 1969 more than 500,000 peacefully celebrated the counterculture at a huge rock festival in Woodstock, New York, but a similar concert a few months later in Altamont, California, was marred by violence. The counterculture, but not all its values, dwindled rapidly after the early 1970s.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. Compare the Beats and the hippies.
2. Analyze the popularity of a counterculture singer or musical group.
3. Would the counterculture have existed without the war in Vietnam?
4. Compare the Woodstock and Altamont music festivals as symbols of the counterculture.
5. Analyze the legacy of the counterculture to American life.

Suggested Sources: See entries 71, 73, 75, and 77 for related items.

REFERENCE SOURCES

The ABC-CLIO Companion to the 1960s Counterculture in America. Neil A. Hamilton. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1997. Excellent treatment of personalities, events, themes, and issues associated with the counterculture movement; alphabetically arranged.

GENERAL SOURCES

Burner, David. Making Peace with the 60s. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996. Good survey of the troubled decade as the author examines the splintering and breakdown of liberalism; interesting perspective on the counterculture.

Casale, Anthony M., and Philip Lerman. Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The Fall and Rise of the Woodstock Generation. Kansas City: Andrews and McMeel, 1989. Revealing examination of the baby boom generation and social conditions from the 1960s on.

Francese, Carl, and Richard S. Sorrell. From Tupelo to Woodstock: Youth, Race, and Rock-and-Roll in America, 1954–1969. 2d ed. Dubuque, IA: 1995. Interesting survey of social history and popular culture of the 1960s.

Weiner, Rex, and Deanne Stillman. Woodstock Census: The Nationwide Survey of the Sixties Generation. New York: Viking, 1979. Report of the nature of the attitudes, perceived conflicts, and radicalism of the time.
SPECIALIZED SOURCES

Chepesiuk, Ron. Sixties Radicals, Then and Now: Candid Conversations with Those Who Shaped the Era. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1995. Excellent insight into 1960s radicalism provided through conversations with former hippies and protesters some thirty years later.

Goldstein, Richard. Reporting the Counterculture. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1989. Concise account of journalism and mass media coverage of the counterculture during the 1960s and 1970s.

Graubard, Mark. Campustown in the Throes of the Counterculture (1968–1972). Minneapolis, MN: Campus Scope, 1974. Detailed examination of the political activity of students and faculty during the frenzied period.

Guinness, Os. The Dust of Death: The Sixties Counterculture and How It Changed America Forever. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994. Thorough survey of the counterculture and Christianity and their impact on the American character.

Hoffman, Abbie, et al. Vote! New York: Warner Paperback Library, 1972. Written by Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, two of the leading voices of dissent; exposition of social conditions of the time.

Horowitz, David et al., eds. Counterculture and Revolution. New York: Random House, 1972. Compilation of extracts and selections from the works of the major voices (Cleaver, Rubin, Leary, Hayden, and others).

Kaiser, Charles. 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture, and the Shaping of a Generation. New York: Weidenfeld&Nicolson, 1988. Interesting examination of that pivotal year by one of that generation; sees positive aspects of the nonconformity while criticizing Eugene McCarthy.

Laffan, Barry. Communal Organization and Social Transition: A Case Study from the Counterculture of the Sixties and Seventies. New York: P. Lang, 1997. A university study of communal living among adherents of the subculture.

Perry, Paul, et al. On the Bus: The Complete Guide to the Legendary Trip of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and the Birth of the Counterculture. New York: Thunder’s Mouth, 1990. Provides insight into that trip. With forewords by Hunter S. Thompson and Jerry Garcia.

Whitmer, Peter O., and Bruce VanWyngarden. Aquarius Revisited: Seven Who Created the Sixties Counterculture That Changed America. New York : Macmillan, 1987. More of a social history than a biography of the major literary figures: Burroughs, Ginsberg, Kesey, Leary, Mailer, Robbins, and Thompson.