Ploitical, And Social Effents That Shaped The 60s Generation Essay

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 th at 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 across America in the late fifties. The political unrest came with fear of thermo-nuclear war and the shadow that had been cast by Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The civil rights leaders were unhappy with President Eisenhower’s reluctance to use his powers for their cause, in spite of the fact that the nation was becoming more receptive to civil rights reforms. With black organizations becoming more militant, Eisenhower needed to acknowledge the grow... ...mmit, 1989. 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. Kostash, Myrna. Long Way From Home:The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1980. Martin, Elizabeth. 57 Edgemore Dr., Etobicoke, Ontario. Interview, 12 February 1997. Oakley, Ronald. God’s Country: America in the Fifties. New York: Red Dembner, 1986. Rosen, Obst. The Sixties: The Decade Remembered Now, by the People Who Lived Them. Toronto: Random House Publisher, 1977. Roy, Andy. Great Assassinations. New York: Independent Publishing, 1994. Stern, Jane, and Micheal. Sixties People. New York: Knopf, 1990. Tucker, Ken, and Stokes, Geoffrey, and Ward, Ed. Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1986. Weiss, Bill. King And His Struggles. New York: Penny Publishing, 1987. Yinger, Milton. Countercultures: The Promise and Peril of a world Turned Upside Down. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1982. Ploitical, And Social Effents That Shaped The 60s Generation Essay 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 th at 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 across America in the late fifties. The political unrest came with fear of thermo-nuclear war and the shadow that had been cast by Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. The civil rights leaders were unhappy with President Eisenhower’s reluctance to use his powers for their cause, in spite of the fact that the nation was becoming more receptive to civil rights reforms. With black organizations becoming more militant, Eisenhower needed to acknowledge the grow... ...mmit, 1989. 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. Kostash, Myrna. Long Way From Home:The Story of the Sixties Generation in Canada. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1980. Martin, Elizabeth. 57 Edgemore Dr., Etobicoke, Ontario. Interview, 12 February 1997. Oakley, Ronald. God’s Country: America in the Fifties. New York: Red Dembner, 1986. Rosen, Obst. The Sixties: The Decade Remembered Now, by the People Who Lived Them. Toronto: Random House Publisher, 1977. Roy, Andy. Great Assassinations. New York: Independent Publishing, 1994. Stern, Jane, and Micheal. Sixties People. New York: Knopf, 1990. Tucker, Ken, and Stokes, Geoffrey, and Ward, Ed. Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll. New York: Rolling Stone Press, 1986. Weiss, Bill. King And His Struggles. New York: Penny Publishing, 1987. Yinger, Milton. Countercultures: The Promise and Peril of a world Turned Upside Down. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1982.