The 1960's
The decade of the 1960's witnessed enormous upheaval in many areas of American life: civil rights, college campuses, the reaction to the war in Vietnam, cultural changes, and more. To many (especially the young people), it seemed as if what the nation was experiencing was one huge, all-encompassing "revolution." However, the events of the decade can also be seen as a series of separate "movements," with distinct and separate goals, philosophies, and adherents, whose commonality was mainly chronology, i.e., they happened to be taking place at the same time. Examine the documents below (click on the links) and see if you can discern the differences between the "cultural revolution" that was taking place and the "political" movements that were in evidence at the same time. Did the two overlap in any way? How?
*Come to class with at least five observations written on a piece of paper that you will turn in before our discussion.
1. Narrative of Patrick Cosper (born in 1949): www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Stories/Narratives/012story.html
2. 1971 statement of William Crandell (Vietnam Veterans Against the War): www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Winter_Soldier/WS_02_opening.html
3. A Yippie Manifesto (1968): http://faculty.atu.edu/cbrucker/Amst2003/Texts/Yippie.pdf
4. Platform of the Black Panther Party: history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111bppp.html
5. Crowd at Woodstock Festival (1969): lcmedia.typepad.com/photos/our_favorite_pics/123069woodstock.jpg
6. The Port Huron Statement (1962); read the section called "Values:"www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/SDS_Port_Huron.html
7. Student Demonstration (late '60's): www.indiana.edu/%7Elibsalc/1968/stoned.jpg
8. "The Times They Are A-Changing" (Bob Dylan, 1963): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ&list=RDe7qQ6_RV4VQ
9. Preface to Unsafe at Any Speed (Ralph Nader, 1965): www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Design/Gartman/Books/BK_Unsafe_Any_Speed.htm
10. Bob Simpson's Recollections of the 1967 march on the Pentagon: www.uic.edu/orgs/cwluherstory/jofreeman/photos/Pentaremember3.html