The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond (Peace and Conflict Resolution) [Paperback]

Timothy Miller (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

As a historian of both the counterculture and non-mainline spirituality, Miller (religious studies, Univ. of Kansas; The Hippies and American Values) has a properly broad perspective from which to view U.S. communalism. In this sequel to The Quest for Utopia in 20th-Century America (Syracuse Univ., 1998), he examines the communes' brief zenith. But while Miller's surveying skills are, indeed, considerable--his appendixes identify 1600-plus communes extant in 1960-75--the body of his text occasionally reads like an annotated list of historic sites. He mentions each site at least once but reveals little that is new. Communes were places where sexual openness and drug use were rampant but not all-pervading, he (unsurprisingly) finds. What is surprising is that he mentions neither the Quakers of Pendle Hill nor Scott and Helen Nearing, the most prominent of the back-to-nature advocates. And he gives communal dwellers excessive credit for spreading an environmental ethos and appetite for whole foods--phenomena that are surely the legacy, more generally, of a wide range of events of the 1960s. The book's most interesting sections deal with the Jesus Freak phenomenon and young Christians' experiments with intentional community. On balance, however, Miller has done a great service: there are precious few scholarly treatments of the movement--nearly all the existing material on 1960s communalism was published before 1975. An important acquisition; recommended for academic and theological libraries.
-Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., PA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 329 pages
• Publisher: Syracuse Univ Pr (Sd) (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081560601X
• ISBN-13: 978-0815606017
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,228 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arks to Lighthouses, April 18, 2000

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Pam Hanna "wind star" (Thoreau, New Mexico United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond (Peace and Conflict Resolution) (Paperback)

If you've ever lived on a commune or if you're interested in studying intentional communities from roughly 1967 to 1975, this book is a page turner.

Having lived through the '60s era and having participated in the communal scene, I often find myself irritated by inaccurate reporting by authors who only seem interested in sensationalism (such as Robert Houriet's *Getting Back Together*, 1971), but Timothy Miller does his homework carefully, and I don't find such inaccuracies or biases in his work.

*The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond* is not a glib dismissal of a blip on the screen of American community. Miller makes it clear that this is an ongoing phenomenon. Many of these communities still exist (such as The Farm in Tennessee) even though many have gone through countless evolutions and restructuring.

Miller compares land and food arrangements, architecture, parenting, and social interaction of diverse communities across this country along with their philosophies, ideologies and spiritual perspectives. He doesn't unrealistically romanticize and neither does he condemn. He just tells it like it is--and was. And he bakes it into a cake.

The book illustrates the profound effect that these communities have had on our society. It doesn't pretend to include in-depth personal reminiscences or ideological transformations (such as those chronicled in Peter Coyote's excellent *Sleeping Where I Fall*), but it brings all elements together in an informative Big Picture of what was, what is, and what may follow from this movement. While the communes of the American past were primarily arks, says Miller, those of the 60s were lighthouses. I agree. This is one good read. I recommend it. [e-mail]

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's like going home again., June 18, 2003

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Jedidiah Palosaari "Not My Real Name" (Fes, Morocco) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond (Peace and Conflict Resolution) (Paperback)

I grew up in a Jesus Freak commune, the Highway Missionaries, one of five communes I've lived in my life. The first commune I was born into, Jesus People Milwaukee, is actually mentioned (though not by name) as the precursor of Jesus People USA, JePUSA, in this book. So I came into this book with a high degree of interest, hoping to see something familiar, and learn new insights into myself, and how we were.

I was not disappointed. This is a top-notch book, well-written, scrupulously researched, sociological and anthropological, a wealth of information. Miller's primary purpose is to look at 60's communes in general, of which he says the Jesus People were perhaps the largest single contingent, but still a minority overall. The book not only mentions many different groups, giving a brief blurb on them, but ties them together in genuine scholarly treatment, so that we learn how the different aspects of various groups fit in an overall framework.

Miller's treatment of daily life in community and children from communes was very on-target, as was his look at the eventual dissolution of the communal movement, and what happened to the millions involved in it afterward. This is not an easy topic, as there was a wide variety of communes: Jesus People, environmental, anarchist, LSD, Sufi, Jewish , Hindu, Krishna, and middle-class communes, to name a few. Yet he is able to combine all these diverse elements into an overall thesis, while still treating each type unique. He makes a strong point that many communes are not covered in his treatment, and of the 1000's that existed in this time period, many don't even have any written record any longer.

I think I'd bring up only one minor flaw- his discussion of us, Jesus People Milwaukee, was not entirely correct, as we were neither fundamentalist (but more in line in thinking with Sojourners), nor reaching out to youth, but a Discipleship Training School for young adults.

It is true, as Miller says, most of us in the communes were unaware of what was going on in other communes. It seemed to be just a spontaneous move all around the nation, and to those within the Jesus Movement, a spontaneous move of the Holy Spirit. It was something that had a huge impact on our lives, as Miller describes, and something that continues to highly impact the culture today.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Those were interesting times..., January 11, 2007

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A Reader (Arlington, Tn. USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The 60's Communes: Hippies and Beyond (Peace and Conflict Resolution) (Paperback)

An interesting overview of the 60's commune phenomenon. I was part of a Christian community in the 70's to early 80's. I like the appendix which lists several hundred of the known communes here in America. There is a resurgence of the phenomenon in that many folks from the era who are retiring now are going back to commune life. This is the second book of what will be a trilogy when it is finished. The first covers communes from 1900 till the 60's, the last book will cover the commune movement from the late 70's to the present.