History 474B

Devine

Counterculture Study Questions

Lemke-Santangelo, “We Needed to Break Away”

1. Why did so few young people of color take part in the 1960s counterculture? Why did some even express hostility toward the counterculture?

2. Why did female hippies, to an even greater extent than their male peers, come from middle- to upper-middle class families? What did this reveal about class differences in the raising of girls during the 1950s?

3. What kinds of forces – within and beyond their own families – left young women in the 1950s and early 1960s feeling oppressed, out of place, or unsatisfied?

4. What made California’s “psychedelic scene” so appealing to young women? Was going to California to join the “scene” simply an emotional impulse, a reaction to media coverage, or the pursuit of a specific social vision?

5. How did the counterculture’s protests against the “system” differ from those of political activists? What about the “system” most bothered those in the counterculture? What alternative did they offer to the status quo?

6. What gender-specific meaning did “dropping out” have for counterculture women?

7. Numerous women who joined the counterculture spoke joyfully of perceiving and pursuing “endless possibilities.” What, in real terms, were these “possibilities”? What were these women looking for?

8. What did women who became hippies find out about gender roles in the counterculture?

9. Why did working in the kitchen at the Digger commune have more “political meaning and purpose” than working in a suburban kitchen? Or did it?

Stevens, “The Counterculture”

1. What aspects of “the Establishment” did the rebellious minority of 1960s youth find most disturbing? Why did they find traditional sources of authority – both cultural and political – to be illegitimate?

2. Were the rebels more drawn to individual self-actualization or collective action?

3. Why was the rebels’ desire to live a meaningful or “heroic” life very much in keeping with American tradition?

4. Why was the hippies’ revolution a “private” one? Why couldn’t it be a group movement? Is there such a thing as a “private revolution”?

5. What role did LSD have in fueling the “private” revolution? Why was its “hard kick” worth the risk to the early hippies? What benefits did LSD offer?

6. How much intellectual substance was there in the Haight? If the new reality was not grounded in Western thought, what was its foundation?

7. What role – practical and “magical” – did rock music play in the Haight?

8. How did the counterculture and the political activists differ over materialism?

9. Do you agree that LSD can be a “revolutionary tool”?

Didion, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”

1. How does Didion’s first-hand panoramic view of life in the Haight convey a different impression of the counterculture than in the first two readings?

2. How would you describe the people Didion interviews and observes? Were they revolutionaries? What does she seem to think of them?

3. If the counterculture offered “endless possibilities,” how effectively were the residents of the Haight pursuing them?

4. How did the LSD revolution play out In the Haight? Were people attaining new levels of consciousness and expanding their minds to new possibilities? If not, what were they doing?

5. What was the foundation of the counterculture in the Haight? Had a strong communitarian ethos replaced the individualistic and materialistic culture that the hippies were trying to escape?

6. What do Didion’s observations of life in the Haight suggest about the counterculture? Do you think she is a critic or just an observer?