10 th American History Unit V – A Nation Facing Challenges

1. 10th American HistoryUnit V – A Nation Facing Challenges Chapter 20 – Section 3 Culture and Counterculture

2. 1960’s Almanac - :54 min.

3. Overview of the 1960’s – 1:03 min.

4. Culture and Counterculture • The Main Idea • The counterculture that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s left a lasting impact on American life. • Reading Focus • What led to the rise of the counterculture? • What was life like in the counterculture? • How did mainstream American society react to the counterculture? • What legacy did the counterculture leave behind?

5. The Rise of the Counterculture • The counterculture of the 1960s was a rebellion of teens and young adults against mainstream American society. • Young Americans believed that society’s values were hollow and its priorities were misplaced. • They called the mainstream the Establishment. • They wanted to create an alternative culture based on peace and love.

6. "On the Bus": Ken Kesey and the Counterculture of the 1960s - 1:20

7. Where did the counterculture come from? The number of teens and young adults in the United States rose dramatically in the 1960s. These young people were living in turbulent times: threat of nuclear war, racial discrimination and segregation, the Vietnam War, and environmental pollution. Rebellion against the dominant culture was not new. The Beat generation of the 1950s questioned traditional values, challenged authority, and experimented with non-conformist lifestyles.

8. Rising Student Activism • Students on college campuses began rebelling against school policies they considered restrictive, unjust, or not relevant. • At the University of California at Berkeley students protested when school officials banned speech making and political organizing at the entrances to the campus. • The events at Berkeley marked the beginning of the Free Speech Movement, which swept campuses across the nation. • The students used the tactics of civil disobedience to protest injustices. • Mainstream Americans were shocked as they expected young people not to question authority.

9. Life in the counterculture • Counterculture • Thousands of teens and young adults left school, jobs, and traditional home life. • Rejected materialism and the work ethic of the older generation • Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco • Hippie Culture • Sought new experiences • Eastern religions, astrology, the occult, and illegal drugs • Casual and colorful clothes • Men began wearing longer hair, beards, or Afros. • Flower children • Decline • Height of hippie movement was summer of 1967 (Summer of Love) • Freedoms often led to problems with addiction • No means of supporting themselves • Lack of rules led to conflicts

10. Mainstream Reactions to the Counterculture Some observers of the counterculture were put off by the unkempt appearance of hippies. On a deeper level, many mainstream Americans objected to the unconventional values of the counterculture. They saw hippies as disrespectful, uncivilized, and threatening. To many in the Establishment, it appeared that society was unraveling. The television show All in the Family highlighted the older generation’s distrust of the counterculture and the younger generation’s desire to change society.

11. Legacy of the Counterculture • Attitudes • Americans became more casual in the way they dressed and more open-minded about lifestyles and social behavior. • Attitudes about sexual behavior loosened. • People explored topics that were once taboo. • Art and Film • New style called pop art emerged. • Aimed to appeal to popular tastes • Andy Warhol led the movement. • Film broadened its subject matter as censorship rules relaxed. • Film industry adopted a rating system. • Music • The Beatles brought new techniques and ideas to rock and roll. • Bob Dylan wrote political songs and became the spokesperson for his generation. • Woodstock Music and Art Fair was the celebration of an era.

12. The Woodstock Generation - 2:31

13. Woodstock 1969 • No where was counterculture so celebrated as at the mass music festivals of the late sixties, culminating in the Woodstock festival in 1969. A ticket for one day cost $6-$8; a 3-day ticket: $18-24. • Three days of Peace and Music." August 15, 16, and 17, 1969. • 450,000 kids • 100 miles from New York City • In a matter of minutes, the festival became a free event • People parked their cars as far as 20 miles away. Once you arrived, you had to stay; there was nowhere to go. There was no place to sleep, no place to bathe, no place to eat... no place to nothin'.

14. Woodstock 1969 • Woodstock hoped to draw a crowd of 150,000 for a celebration of a communal spirit and to hear some of the most popular rock acts of the day. • The festival started on Friday, August 15, 1969, and the crowds quickly grew to number over 450,000, causing massive traffic jams, logistical nightmares, shortages of food and medical supplies, and potential problems of crowd control. • On Saturday, the gates were opened to accommodate the many thousands who arrived without tickets. The music was almost nonstop, the rains came, drug use was widespread, sanitary conditions were primitive, bad acid trips were a constant problem, yet somehow it all worked out. • Richie Havens; Country Joe McDonald; Jimi Hendrix; John Sebastian; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young; Melanie; Arlo Guthrie; CCR, Janis Joplin; Jefferson Airplane; and the Grateful Dead. • A few months later, a similar gathering was held at a racetrack in Altamont, California, and turned ugly when members of the Hell's Angels attacked and killed a man near the stage where the Rolling Stones were performing.

15. Rebellion and the Counterculture • Problems- escalating war in Vietnam, the incomplete success of the Great Society and the civil rights movement. • The pursuit of sex, drugs, and rock and roll became the preoccupation- “Tune in, turn on and drop out”. Communes arose. • The counter-culture lifestyle stressed:*freedom,*peace,*love & tolerance,*getting back to nature,*the power of the group. “You're either on the bus or off the bus.” “Do your own thing”, “ Tell it like it is”, and experimentation with drugs and more extensive sexual activity. “Better living through chemistry.” • San Francisco was a major hub. Young people across the country emulated aspects of the hippie lifestyle. • The hippie lifestyle appeared on television, in the movies, and on Broadway. • Americans became fascinated with everything from East Asian clothing to Hindu mysticism. Among the most eager consumers of mysticism were the residents of Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco. • The hippie counterculture came with a uniform: long hair, tie-dyed shirts, jeans, protest buttons, long flowered skirts. Just as the hippie look was considerably more relaxed than prevailing standards, hippie sexual mores were generally looser than those of the general populace. Nevertheless, their actions made an impact on the larger society, changing the role of sex in American society. “A hippie is someone who dresses like Tarzan, has hair like Jane, and smells like Cheetah."--California governor Ronald Reagan

16. Rebellion and the Counterculture • The Supreme Court decided in 1962 that prayer in the public schools was unconstitutional. • As the 1960's progressed, many young people turned from mainstream Protestant religions to mystic eastern religions such as Transcendental Meditation (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi) or Zen Buddhism. • Respect for authority declined among the youth, and crime rates soared to nine times the rate of the 1950's. • Marijuana use soared. Respected figures such as Timothy Leary encouraged the use of LSD as a mind-opening drug. • A number dropped out into communal living. One dictionary definition of a classic commune is 'a relatively small, often rural, community whose members share common interests, work and income and often own property collectively'. But the commune idea can take many forms:

17. Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD): Psychedelic Drugs and the Counterculture 3:50