Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s [Anglais] [Broché]

This deep and detailed work examines the many elements of the American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s. Its underlying theme is the rejection by mainly young but also older people of prevailing political, social, and cultural norms through experimentation with drugs, sex, music, and identity to construct alternative ways of life. The 14 essays, written by academics and journalists, are arranged into sections covering cultural politics, racial and sexual identity, the media and popular culture, the deconditioning of the human mind through drugs and feminist consciousness-raising, and alternative visions of society based on technology and communal living. Each section opens with a brief essay covering the major themes appearing in its chapters. Editors Braunstein and Doyle, who are both journalists, open the work with an excellent essay critical of both romantic and conservative views of the 1960s and stressing the need for strict historical analysis for a better understanding of the period. Particularly good essays include David Farber's study of drug use and David E. James's chapter on film. This is not an easy read, but it marks a major reexamination of the period. A good complement to The Sixties: From Meaning to History (Univ. of North Carolina, 1994) and Sights on the Sixties (Rutgers Univ., 1992. reprint); recommended for academic libraries. Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ., Parkersburg
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"This provocative collection helps to reveal the centrality of subcultures in American History since the 1950s." --Ce texte fait référence à l'édition Relié .

The counterculture of the 1960s and '70s remains a highly controversial topic in American society; virtually the only think that can be agreed upon is its enormous impact on American life. Critics on the right complain of the shattering of cherished social norms, while those on the left take many movements to task for not going far enough and selling out.

Amidst the recent flourishing of Sixties scholarship, Imagine Nation is the first collection of essays to focus solely on the counterculture. Its fourteen provocative essays seek to unearth the complexity and rediscover the society-changing power of significant movements and figures. The fascinating constellation of topics covered include feminism, psychedelic drug experimentation, guerilla theatre, the New Left, Jimi Hendrix, communal living, underground comics, and avant-garde film. As a whole, Imagine Nation offers exciting new interpretations of how the counterculture of the 1960s and '70s irrevocably altered American society.

Contributors: Beth Bailey, Peter Braunstein, Philip Deloria, Michael William Doyle, David Farber, Jeff Hale, David James, Andrew Kirk, Robert McCruer, Debra Michals, Timothy Miller, Lauren Onkey, Doug Rossinow, and Marilyn B. Young

Peter Braunstein is a journalist and cultural historian based in New York City. He writes about fashion, film, celebrity, the 1960s, music, technology, and pop culture for such publications as the Village Voice, Forbes, American Heritage, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Women's Wear Daily, W, and culturefront. He received his M.A. from New York University in 1992, having written a thesis on the Haight-Ashbury counterculture.

Michael William Doyle worked in the new-wave food co-op movement during the 1970s while living communally on an organic farm he helped found in Wisconsin. He went on to earn a B.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1989), and a Ph.D. at Cornell University (1997). He is currently Assistant Professor of History at Ball State University at Muncie, Indiana. His revised dissertation, Free Radicals: The Haight-Ashbury Diggers and the American Counterculture in the 1960s, will be published as part of the Culture America series by the University Press of Kansas.