eBook

Counterculture kaleidoscope

Zimmerman, Nadya

2008,2010

Overview

Forty years after the fact, 1960s counterculture—personified by hippies, protest, and the Summer of Love—basks in a nostalgic glow in the popular imagination as a turning point in modern American history and the end of the age of innocence. Yet, while the era has come to be synonymous with rebellion and opposition, its truth is much more complex. In a bold reconsideration of the late sixties San Francisco counterculture movement, Counterculture Kaleidoscope takes a close look at the cultural and musical practices of that era. Addressing the conventional wisdom that the movement was grounded in rebellion and opposition, the book exposes two myths: first, that the counterculture was an organized social and political movement of progressives with a shared agenda who opposed the mainstream (dubbed \"hippies\"); and second, that the counterculture was an innocent entity hijacked by commercialism and transformed over time into a vehicle of so-called \"hip consumerism.\" Seeking an alternative to the now common narrative, Nadya Zimmerman examines primary source material including music, artwork, popular literature, personal narratives, and firsthand historical accounts. She reveals that the San Francisco counterculture wasn't interested in commitments to causes and made no association with divisive issues—that it embraced everything in general and nothing in particular.

• Publisher: University of Michigan Press
• Subject: 20th Century / California / Counterculture / Counterculture -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 20th century / Genres & Styles / Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco, Calif.) / Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century / Haight-Ashbury (San Francisco, Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century / HISTORY / History and criticism / Intellectual life / MUSIC / Rock / Rock music / Rock music -- California -- San Francisco -- History and criticism / Rock musicians / Rock musicians -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 20th century / San Francisco / San Francisco (Calif.) / San Francisco (Calif.) -- Intellectual life -- 20th century / San Francisco (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century / Social change / Social change -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 20th century / Social History / Social life and customs / State & Local / United States / West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY) / Youth / Youth -- California -- San Francisco -- Social life and customs -- 20th century
• ISBN: 9780472115587, 0472115588, 9780472035724, 047203572X