The counterculture of the 1960s began in the United States as a reaction against the conservative social norms of the 1950s, the political conservatism (and social repression) of the Cold War period, and the US government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam. Shortcut: WP:CU Marking articles for cleanup This page is undergoing a transition to an easier-to-maintain format. ... This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent format — it is a style guide. ... In sociology, counterculture is a term used to describe a cultural group whose values and norms of behavior run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. ... The 1960s decade refers to the years from January 1, 1960 to December 31, 1969, inclusive. ... In sociology, a norm, or social norm, is a pattern of behavior expected within a particular society in a given situation. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Cold War was the period of protracted conflict and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies from the late 1940s until the late 1980s. ...

As the 1960s progressed, widespread tensions developed in American society that tended to flow along generational lines regarding the war in Vietnam, race relations, sexual mores, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, experimentation with psychedelic drugs and a predominantly materialist interpretation of the American dream.

One way of looking at mid-1960s to mid-1970s counterculture development is simply as an upwelling of youth. Another way of viewing the counterculture is as 'the principle of expansion' as applied not to economies or political spheres of influence but to aspects of personal life and to creativity.

New cultural forms emerged, including the pop music of the Beatles, which rapidly evolved to shape and reflect the youth culture's emphasis on change and experimentation. This was accelerated after 1964, when the Beatles were introduced to cannabis in a New York hotel room by Bob Dylan, another youth culture icon. This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Look up Cannabis in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. ...

Social anthropologist Jentri Anders, based in California, has observed that a number of freedoms were endorsed within a countercultural community which she lived in and studied: "freedom to explore one’s potential, freedom to create one’s Self, freedom of personal expression, freedom from scheduling, freedom from rigidly defined roles and hierarchical statuses…" Additionally, Anders believed these people wished to modify childrens' education so that it didn't discourage "aesthetic sense, love of nature, passion for music, desire for reflection, or strongly marked independence…"

Civil Rights Movement

Main article: American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)

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Free Speech Movement

Main article: Free Speech Movement

In one view, the 1960s counterculture largely originated on college campuses. The 1964 Free Speech Movement at the University of California, Berkeley, which had its roots in the Civil Rights Movement of the American South, was one early example. At Berkeley a socially privileged group of students began to identify themselves as having interests as a class that were at odds with the interests and practices of the University and its corporate sponsors. However, other rebellious young people who had never been college students also contributed to counterculture development. The beatnik café and bar scene was a tributary stream. The Free Speech Movement was a student protest which began in 1964 - 1965 on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley under the informal leadership of student Mario Savio and others. ... The Universitätscampus Wien, Austria ( details) Campus (plural: campuses) is derived from the (identical) Latin word for field or open space. English gets the words camp and campus from this origin. ... The University of California, Berkeley (also known as UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, and by other names, see below) is the oldest and flagship campus of the ten-campus University of California system. ... Historically, the civil rights movement was a concentrated period of time around the world of approximately one generation (1924-1980) wherein there was much worldwide civil unrest and popular rebellion. ... Beatnik cartoon The term beatnik was coined by Herb Caen in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle on April 2, 1958. ...

New Left

Main article: New Left

The New Left is a term used in political discourse to refer to radical left-wing movements from the 1960s onwards. ...

LSD

Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters helped shape the developing character of the 1960s counterculture when they embarked on a cross-country voyage during the summer of 1964 in a psychedelic school bus named "Furthur." Beginning in 1959, Kesey had volunteered as a research subject for medical trials financed by the CIA's MK ULTRA project. These trials tested the effects of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and other psychedelic drugs. After the medical trials, Kesey continued experimenting on his own, and involved many close friends; collectively they became known as "The Pranksters." The Pranksters visited Harvard LSD proponent Timothy Leary at his Millbrook, New York retreat, and experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs, primarily as a means for internal reflection and personal growth, became a constant during the Prankster trip. The bus was driven by Beat icon Neal Cassady, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg was onboard for a time, and the Pranksters dropped in on Cassady's friend, Beat author Jack Kerouac, thereby creating a direct link between the 1950s Beat Generation and the 1960's psychedelic scene. After the Pranksters returned to California, they popularized the use of LSD at so-called "Acid Tests," which initially were held at Kesey's home in La Honda, California, and then at many other West Coast venues. Experimentation with LSD and other psychedelic drugs became a major component of 1960s counterculture, influencing philosophy, art, music and styles of dress. Kenneth Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and as a (counter) cultural figure who, some consider, was a link between the beat generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. ... The Merry Pranksters were a circle of people who collected around American novelist Ken Kesey who lived communally at his home in La Honda, California. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... For other uses, see LSD (disambiguation). ... Psilocybin (also known as psilocybine), is a psychedelic alkaloid of the tryptamine family. ... Mescaline (3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine) is a hallucinogenic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class. ... For the American baseball player use Tim Leary (baseball player) Timothy Francis Leary, Ph. ... Millbrook, Bedfordfshire is a village in Bedfordshire, United Kingdom Millbrook, Greater Manchester is an area of Stalybridge in Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Millbrook, New York is a village in the United States Millbrook is a district of Southampton, United Kingdom This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which... For other uses, see LSD (disambiguation). ... The word psychedelic is a neologism coined from the Greek words for mind, ψυχη (psyche), and manifest, δηλειν (delein). ... Neal Cassady, left, with Jack Kerouac, photograph by Carolyn Cassady. ... Irwin Allen Ginsberg (IPA: ) (June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American Beat poet born in Newark, New Jersey. ... Jack Kerouac (pronounced ) (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, artist, and part of the Beat Generation. ... The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ... La Honda is a small California town located in the Santa Cruz Mountains between Silicon Valley and the Pacific coast. ...

Antiwar Movement

Main article: Opposition to the Vietnam War

The Vietnam war became an increasingly high-profile object of criticism, and opposition to the war was exacerbated by the compulsory military draft. Opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War began slowly and in small numbers in 1964 on various college campuses in the United States. ... Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000... The United States has employed conscription (mandatory military service, also called the draft) several times, usually during war but also during the nominal peace of the Cold War. ...

Black Power movement

Main article: Black Power

Tommie Smith (gold medal) and John Carlos (bronze medal) famously performed the Black Power salute on the 200 m winners podium at the 1968 Olympics. ...

Hippies

Main article: Hippies

In 1967 Scott McKenzie's rendition of the song "San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)" brought as many as 75,000 young people from all over the world to celebrate San Francisco's "Summer of Love." While the song had originally been written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas to promote the June, 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, it became an instant hit worldwide (#4 in the United States, #1 in Europe) and quickly transcended its original purpose. San Francisco's Flower Children, also called "hippies" by local newspaper columnist Herb Caen, adopted new styles of dress, experimented with psychedelic drugs, lived communally and developed a vibrant music scene. When people returned home from "The Summer of Love" these styles and behaviors spread quickly from San Francisco and Berkeley to all major U.S. cities and European capitals. A counterculture movement gained momentum in which the younger generation began to define itself as a class that aimed to create a new kind of society. Some hippies formed communes to live as far outside of the established system as possible. This aspect of the counterculture rejected active political engagement with the mainstream and, following the dictate of Timothy Leary to "turn on, tune in, and drop out", hoped to change society by dropping out of it. Looking back on his own life (as a Harvard professor) prior to 1960, Leary interpreted it to have been that of "an anonymous institutional employee who drove to work each morning in a long line of commuter cars and drove home each night and drank martinis .... like several million middle-class, liberal, intellectual robots." Hippies (singular hippie or sometimes hippy) were members of the 1960s counterculture movement who adopted a communal or nomadic lifestyle, renounced corporate nationalism and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Native American religious culture, and were otherwise at odds with traditional middle class Western values. ... Scott McKenzie (b. ... A song is a relatively short musical composition for the human voice (commonly accompanied by other musical instruments), which features words (lyrics). ... San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) is a song, written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, and sung by Scott McKenzie. ... The Summer of Love is a phrase given to the summer of 1967 to try to describe the feeling of being in San Francisco that summer, when the so-called hippie movement came to full fruition. ... Several notable people have been called John Phillips: John Phillips (1935-2001) was a musician and member of The Mamas & the Papas John Phillips (1631-1706) was an author and secretary to John Milton Sir John Phillips (1700-1764) was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1763. ... The Mamas & the Papas (credited as The Mamas and the Papas on the debut album cover) were a leading vocal group of the 1960s. ... Poster promoting the festival The Monterey International Pop Music Festival took place from June 16 to June 18, 1967. ... Flower child or Flower Children originated as a synonym for hippie, especially those who gathered in San Francisco and environs during the summer of 1967, which was called the Summer of Love. ... Hippies (singular hippie or sometimes hippy) were members of the 1960s counterculture movement who adopted a communal or nomadic lifestyle, renounced corporate nationalism and the Vietnam War, embraced aspects of Buddhism, Hinduism, and/or Native American religious culture, and were otherwise at odds with traditional middle class Western values. ... For the American baseball player use Tim Leary (baseball player) Timothy Francis Leary, Ph. ... Dropping out means to withdraw from established society, especially because of disillusion with conventional values. ...

The hippie ethic posed a considerable impediment to the success of alternative movements growing within the counterculture. At the extremes, "doing one's own thing" could lead to rejection of values imposed from without and adamant avoidance of other people's expectations. As a result, the individual tends to be isolated, which may or may not be much of a problem for that individual – but it does threaten collaborative actions or accomplishments.

As members of the hippie movement grew older and moderated their lives and their views, and especially after all US involvement in the Vietnam War ground to a halt in the mid 70s, the counterculture was largely absorbed by the mainstream, leaving a lasting impact on philosophy, morality, music, art, lifestyle and fashion. Combatants Republic of Vietnam United States Republic of Korea Thailand Australia New Zealand The Philippines National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam Democratic Republic of Vietnam People’s Republic of China Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea Strength US 1,000,000 South Korea 300,000 Australia 48,000...

In Europe

The counterculture movement took hold in Western Europe, with London, Amsterdam, Paris, Berlin and Rome rivaling San Francisco and New York as counterculture centers. One manifestation of this was the general strike that took place in Paris in May 1968, which nearly toppled the French government. A May 1968 poster: Be young and shut up, with the stereotypical silhouette of the General de Gaulle. ...

In Eastern Europe, young people adopted the song "San Francisco" as an anthem for freedom, and it was widely played during Czechoslovakia's 1968 "Prague Spring," a premature attempt to break away from Soviet repression. People in a café watch Soviet tanks roll past The Prague Spring (Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar, Russian: пражская весна) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia starting January 5, 1968 when Alexander Dubček came to power, and running until August 20 of that year when the...

As this newly emergent youth class began to criticize the established social order, new theories about cultural and personal identity began to spread, and traditional non-Western ideas – particularly with regard to religion, social organization and spiritual enlightenment – were more frequently embraced.

Second-wave feminism

Main article: Second-wave feminism

Second-wave feminism refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the mid- 1960s. ...

Alternative media

Main article: Alternative media

Underground newspapers sprang up in most cities and college towns, serving to define and communicate the range of phenomena that defined the counterculture: radical political opposition to "the establishment," colorful experimental (and often explicitly drug-influenced) approaches to art, music and cinema, and uninhibited indulgence in sex and drugs as a symbol of freedom. Alternative media are defined most broadly as those media practices falling outside the mainstreams of corporate communication. ... Underground newspapers reached their hey-day in the late 1960s - mid 1970s in the US. Examples Berkeley Barb, Berkeley, California Black Panther The East Village Other, New York City LA Free Press The Last Whole Earth Catalog The Oracle San Francisco The Paper, East Lansing, Michigan Great Speckled...

Music

Musical and other performing groups formed within the counterculture. Many had a far shorter active existence than, say, the Grateful Dead (a rather unusual example of countercultural longevity). Of course, ephemerality has long been the case in the performing arts, and a short lifespan does not in itself indicate failure. The Grateful Dead were an American psychedelia-influenced rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. ...

Environmentalism

Main article: Environmentalism

Counterculture's environmentalist component was quick to grasp the early (i.e., 1970s) analyses of the reality and the import of the Hubbert "peak oil" prediction — more broadly that the dilemmas of energy derivation would have implications for geo politics, lifestyle, environment, and other dimensions of the life of modern society. The historic Blue Marble photograph, which helped bring environmentalism to the public eye. ... The Hubbert peak theory, also known as peak oil, is an influential theory concerning the long-term rate of conventional oil production and depletion. ...

Technology

In his 1986 essay From Satori to Silicon Valley, cultural historian Theodore Roszak pointed out that Apple Computer emerged from within the West Coast counterculture. Roszak outlines the Apple computer's development, and the evolution of 'the two Steves' (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, the Apple's developers) into businessmen. Like them, many early computing and networking pioneers – after discovering LSD and roaming the campuses of UC Berkeley, Stanford, and MIT in the late 60s and early 70s – would emerge from this caste of social "misfits" to shape the modern world. Theodore Roszak (born 1933) is an American professor, social thinker, writer, and critic. ... Apple Computer, Inc. ... Stephen Gary Woz Wozniak (born August 11, 1950 in San Jose, California) is an American computer engineer turned philanthropist. ... Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple Computer and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney [2], and he is currently the largest shareholder at Disney. ... For other uses, see LSD (disambiguation). ...

The counterculture had representatives in the sciences, the trades, business, and law. Many counterculture participants were stable, dedicated, and persistent. Much was done in the area of the human interface with the natural environment (in connection with science, technologies, community planning, parks, and other spheres). While ad hoc action groups sprang up frequently, usually fading away just as quickly, some established themselves as ongoing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dedicated to working toward particular goals. The counterculture gave rise to many lasting NGOs. The term non-governmental organization (NGO) is used in a variety of ways all over the world and, depending on the context in which it is used, can refer to many different types of organizations. ...

Legacy

The legacy of the 1960s Counterculture is still actively contested in debates that are sometimes framed, in the U.S., in terms of a "culture war." Jay Walljasper, a commentator and the editor of Utne Reader — though not himself from the so-called '60s Generation, and having grown up in American-Heartland farming country — has written, "From the great gyrations of the counterculture would come a movement dedicated to the greening of America. While many once-ardent advocates of radical ideas now live in the suburbs and vote Republican, others have held fast to the dream of creating a new kind of American society and they've been joined by fresh streams of younger idealists." The term culture war (sometimes pluralized as the culture wars) has been used to describe ideologically-driven and often strident confrontations typical of American public culture and politics since the 1960s, but especially beginning in the 1980s. ... The Utne Reader is a periodical founded in 1984 by Eric Utne. ...

References