Preview

The Hippie Movement That Arose from Vast Political Changes

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3307 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Hippie Movement That Arose from Vast Political Changes
The Hippie Movement That Arose From Vast Political Changes

Massive black rebellions, constant strikes, gigantic anti-war demonstrations, draft resistance, Cuba, Vietnam, Algeria, a cultural revolution of seven hundred million Chinese, occupations, red power, the rising of women, disobedience and sabotage, communes & marijuana: amongst this chaos, there was a generation of youths looking to set their own standard - to fight against the establishment, which was oppressing them, and leave their mark on history. These kids were known as the hippies. There were many stereotypes concerning hippies; they were thought of as being pot smoking, freeloading vagabonds, who were trying to save the world. As this small pocket of teenage rebellion rose out of the suburbs, inner cities, and countryside 's, there was a general feeling that the hippies were a product of drugs, and rock music; this generalization could have never been more wrong. The hippie counterculture was more than just a product of drugs and music, but a result of the change that was sweeping the entire western world.
These changes were brought about by various events in both the fifties and the sixties, such as: the end of the "Golden Years" of the fifties, the changing economical state from the fifties to the sixties, the Black Panther Party, women moving into the work force, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and
John F. Kennedy Jr., the war in Vietnam, the Kent State protest, and finally the
Woodstock festival.

The electric subcurrent of the fifties was, above all, rock 'n 'roll, the live wire that linked bedazzled teenagers around the nation, and quickly around the world, into the common enterprise of being young. Rock was rough, raw, insistent, especially by comparison with the music it replaced; it whooped and groaned, shook, rattled, and rolled. Rock was clamor, the noise of youth submerged by order and prosperity, now frantically clawing their way out.

The winds of change began to sweep



Bibliography: Archer, Jales. The Incredible Sixties. Orlando: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987. Benson, Kathleen, and Haskins, James. The Sixties Reader. New York: Viking Kestrel, 1988. Dickstein, Morris. Gates of Eden: American Culture in the Sixties. New York: Basic Books, 1977. Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. New York: Bantam, 1987. Ingham, John. Sex 'N 'Drugs 'N 'Rock 'N 'Roll. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press, 1988. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1980. Oakley, Ronald. God 's Country: America in the Fifties. New York: Red Dembner, 1986. Roy, Andy. Great Assassinations. New York: Independent Publishing, 1994. Stern, Jane, and Micheal. Sixties People. New York: Knopf, 1990. Weiss, Bill. King And His Struggles. New York: Penny Publishing, 1987.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Music has been a huge part of history since it began back in prehistoric times. As the decades…

    • 1739 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    HIST 117A Syllabus

    • 757 Words
    • 3 Pages

    This is an introduction to the study of history and a foundation for understanding the United States. Rather than emphasizing history as a trivia contest focused on names, dates, and places, this course will concentrate on developing the knowledge and skills to enable you to evaluate historical evidence, to interpret the actions of Americans in the past, and to understand the historical context that underlies the world in which we live. Beyond learning the content of various episodes from…

    • 757 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Medicare, Medicaid, The War on Poverty, The Apollo Program, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, The Civil Rights Act of 1964, Tax Cuts for Economic Growth, Job Corps; National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities; National School Lunch Act; Wilderness Act; Food Stamp Act of 1964; The Voting Rights Act of 1965, The Immigration Act of 1965; the Rolling Stones; the Beatles; Flower Children; Abbie Hoffman and the Chicago Seven; Kent State killings…

    • 580 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organizational and Industrial (I/O) psychology is used to improve different types of organizational functions. When tasks and employee relationships are not working properly within a company production and profit will be compromised. Some of the issues that I/O manages addresses include poor work habits and dysfunctional work relationships. The following will address group and team concepts that could be implemented to improve performance and diversity, leadership theories that can improve the relationship between management and floor workers, the influence and power of the management and how it affects the workplace, and the difference between leadership and management.…

    • 2272 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kent State Shooting Essay

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages

    May 4, 1970 members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of Kent State University demonstrators, killing four and wounding nine Kent State students. protesters launched a protest that setting fire to the ROTC building, prompting the governor of Ohio to dispatch 900 National Guardsmen to the campus. unarmed college students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State University, which led to people dying. 4 people died in the shooting. 9 people got hurt. Thousands of people in American protesting the Vietnam war a part-time photographer put all the pain that was there in one photo of Mary Ann Vecchio crying out and kneeling over a fatally wounded Jeffrey Miller.…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Stormy Sixties bean with heightened Cold War tensions that led to the full-scale eruption of the Vietnam War. President Kennedy's youthful energy brought about a new age of American politics that outlived the assassin's bullet and into President Johnson's administration. From bus boycotts and sit-ins to a March on Washington, the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum in the 1960s and inspired all of America to fight for equal rights.…

    • 1127 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Freedom of expression through music lead to people living their lives with these values. Hippies in the late 60’s and 70’s were very influential in making changes in American culture and living a free and creative lifestyle. Hippies fought for what was wrong with American society. Hippies stood for many things like women’s rights, civil rights, and gay rights. Hippies were most prevalant during the 1960’s and 1970’s during major social changes in…

    • 1793 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Music in America has changed and grown over the years to accommodate a changing culture. Not only does music provide an emotional outlet for the musician but also for their audience. It gives the listener a creative outlet in the form of dance as well as bringing like-minded people together. With the emergence of film, however, Americans had an exciting new form of visual entertainment. “Because they showed silent films that transcended language barriers, nickelodeons flourished during the great European immigration at the turn of the twentieth century” (Campbell, Martin & Fabos, 2012, p. 192). Film provided (and continues to provide) an “anything is possible” attitude. Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it” and that idea pushes people to think about what else might be out there. It has made society want to learn more, do more, and be more. Television changed everything, in that Americans did not have to leave their homes to have access to visual media. Whereas film showed fantasy and fictional events, television provided a window into real life with local, national, and eventually global news. Families gathered around their televisions at night, just as they used to do with radio. “It was the TV that exposed us to Civil Rights violations in the South, to the shared pain and healing rituals after the Kennedy and King assassinations in the 1960s, and to the political turmoil of Watergate in the 1970s” (Campbell, Martin & Fabos,…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    1960s drugs and music

    • 1923 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The decade of the 1960s is most likely talked about because of the Vietnam War, but most over look what was going on in America. Back in the states the faces of angry anti- war activists were on every major street corner you looked, they protested for peace and to get their brothers out of the jungles where the vicious war took place. The sixties were also the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement for Black Americans to receive racial dignity, economic and political self-sufficiency: with voting rights, and also freedom from white Americans. Lastly the four major political assassinations of John F Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy all took place one after another in this decade leaving the Americans in heartbreak and turmoil. Politically leaving the United States at a standpoint on what the hell is there to do next. To get away from the mess, the most effective escape of the time was the music. It changed the depressing feeling to help make the people somewhat forget what harsh realities are happening around them and give them hope. “With the music so empowering to some this brought to us what we now know as the Hippie Movement.” (Yapp). Most were fed up with the United States leading to thousands of carefree people to hard drugs and rock and roll. During the hard ships in the sixties people used music to find the glass half full instead of half empty. All of the events of the sixties had an effect on the way the people dressed then and still to this day. Self-expression of the 1960s led men and women to grow their hair long and dress freely in bright colors and daring prints that were outrageous and had never been seen before.…

    • 1923 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Progressive Movement

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Progressivism implies a philosophy that welcomes innovations and reforms in the political, economic, and social order. The Progressive movement, 1901 to 1917, was ultimately the triumph of conservatism rather than a victory for liberalism. In a general sense, the conservative goals of this period justified the Liberal reforms enacted by Progressive leaders. Deviating from the traditional definition of conservatism (a resistance to change and a disposition of hostility to innovations in the political, social, and economic order), the…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Counterculture Movement

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Life in the United States has not always been as tolerant as people know it as today. The 1960’s was a period of time which brought about radical changes for the country. Counterculture movements, such as the Civil Rights movement, the gay liberation movement and the feminist movement flooded the United States. These movements were intended to defy societal norms and create new perspectives on pre-established conventions. One of these movements, known as the Psychedelic Movement, was especially important in shaping the culture of the country, as well as that of the world. In 1965-1969, the exploration of psychedelics and hallucinogenic drugs positively affected the development of the United States by generating new perspectives on religion,…

    • 889 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Hippie Movement

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The three most important events in California history is woman suffrage, the hippie movement, and black radicalism.…

    • 967 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Progressive Movement

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages

    History 104 The initial progressive movement arose as an alternative to the conservative response to the vast changes brought by the industrial revolution. Contemporary progressives continue to embrace concepts such as environmentalism and social justice. Social progressivism, which states that societal practices ought to be adjusted as society evolves, form the ideological basis for many American progressives. Progressives like Robert La Follette argued that the average person should have more control over their government. Many progressives, such as George M. Forbes—president of Rochester’s Board of Education—hoped to make government in the U.S. more responsive to the direct voice of the American people. Forbes stated that progressives were now intensely occupied in forging the tools of democracy, the direct primary, the initiative, the referendum, the recall, the short ballot, commission government. But in our enthusiasm we do not seem to be aware that these tools will be worthless unless they are used by those who are aflame with the sense of brotherhood. The idea of the social centers movement is to establish in each community an institution having a direct and vital relation to the welfare of the neighborhood, ward, or district, and also to the city as a whole. Many progressives such as Louis Brandeis hoped to make American governments better able to serve the people’s needs by making governmental operations and services more efficient and rational. Rather than making legal arguments against ten hour workdays for women, he used “scientific principles: and “data produced by social scientists documenting the high costs of long working hours for both individual society.” Reforms included professional administrators, centralization of decision-making process, and movements to eliminate governmental corruption. The progressives’ quest for efficiency was sometimes at odds with the progressives’ quest for democracy. Taking power out of the hands of elected…

    • 504 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Progressive Movement

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages

    During the Progressive Era from 1890 to 1920, Progressives (people in support of the movement) made the most significant reforms in the political area. Before changes were made in politics, the government was not believed to be strong enough in order to solve the problems including poverty, unfair working conditions, corruption in the economy, etc. So, the Progressive Movement was based on the idea of making the government stronger and more active in the solving of issues in society. Many progressives believed that more democracy was the key of fixing society in the forms of electoral changes, direct election of senators, and, although mostly women, many believed in the equality of voting rights between men and women. So, during the Progressive…

    • 902 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ole Miss Riot

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    On September 30, 1962, President John F. Kennedy went on television and spoke to the students of the University of Mississippi. “The eyes of the nation and all the world are upon you.” he said, “and upon all of us.” For the first time in the history of the United States, a young black man was trying to enroll in an all white school. Protesters had come out in full force on the university campus in the southern town of Oxford. By the time Kennedy gave his speech, rioting had began. Federal marshals were called in to keep the peace. The used tear gas in an attempt to calm the angry crowd.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics