Counterculture of the 1960s

The counterculture of the 1960s was an anti-establishment cultural phenomenon. This happened in most parts of the Western world between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s.^[1] The movement became popular as the U.S. Civil Rights Movement continued to grow and the United States's involvement in the Vietnam War.^[2][3][4]

During this time, there were social tensions about the change in human sexuality, women's rights, traditional modes of authority, rights of the non-white people, end of the racial segregation, experimentation with psychoactive drugs and what the American Dream meant. Many key movements related to these issues were born or grew from the counterculture of the 1960s.^[5]

1. ↑ "Where Have All the Rebels Gone?" Ep. 125 of Assignment America. Buffalo, NY: WNET. 1975. (Transcript available via American Archive of Public Broadcasting.)
2. ↑ Hirsch, Eric D. 1993. The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-65597-9. p. 419. "Members of a cultural protest that began in the U.S. in the 1960s and affected Europe before fading in the 1970s ... fundamentally a cultural rather than a political protest."
3. ↑ Anderson, Terry H. (1995). The Movement and the Sixties. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-510457-8.
4. ↑ Landis, Judson R., ed. (1973). Current Perspectives on Social Problems (Third ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Co. p. 2. ISBN 978-0-534-00289-3. Culture is the "social heritage" of society. It includes the complex set of learned and shared beliefs, customs, skills, habits, traditions, and knowledge common to the members of society. Within a culture, there may be subcultures made up of specific groups that are somewhat separate from the rest of society because of distinct traits, beliefs, or interests.
5. ↑ "Counterculture." POLSC301. Saylor Academy.