In search of their own utopia : motives behind the counterculture of the 1960s : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)
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Abstract
Even before the 1960s were over, people were studying the counterculture. In the four decades that have passed since this tumultuous decade, scholars have written numerous books. In this thesis, I evaluate five of those books including: Make Love, Not War by David Allyn; Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond by Martin Lee and Bruce Shlain; Tomorrow Never Knows by Nick Bromell; Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s and 70s edited by Michael Doyle and Peter Braunstein; and Gates of Eden: American Culture in the 1960s by Morris Dickstein. In the historiography of the 1960s, I believe these are the five best books. By evaluating these books I attempt to answer the question of what pushed these individuals to break away from society and form a counter culture. During the 1960s many were unhappy with both society and the government. So what was it that made these individuals break away from the lifestyle they knew and form what was to become known as the counterculture? Also included are reasons as to why the counterculture began to fade and opinions on its successes and failures.