49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Suprising Legacy, April 25, 2000
This review is from: Hippies American Values (Paperback)
Although it has become fashionable to denigrate the whole hippie era as ineffective and counterproductive, Timothy Miller does much in this book to set the record straight about the considerable legacy of the Counter Culture -- for better or for worse.
From the ethics of sex, dope and rock and roll, to the questioning of property rights and greater latitude in daily speech, from New Age spirituality to more ethical investments in the market place - to the very food we eat - hippie culture has had a tremendous and continuing impact on American society.
*The Hippies and American Values* appears to pick up where Theodore Roszak's book, *The Making of a Counter Culture* left off. More than 20 years ago, Roszak showed how an alienated generation undermined the foundations of the prevailing technocracy. Miller acknowledges this but goes on to point out how the Counter Culture gave free press and credence to right-brain values that they saw as much neglected -- this before "right-brain, left-brain" became buzz words.
"Peace, love and flower power are no longer standard argot," observes Miller, "...Hip culture has bloomed and died like a centuryplant..." But the "new ethics" of the hippies are here to stay nevertheless. They are a potpourri of traditional values, untried social experiments, and a few truly original ideas for an American setting. Hippies attacked new icons such as technocracy while honoring agrarian values coupled with a new hip Eco-consciousness. The Counter Culture dropped out, disaffiliated from the prevailing society and changed themselves in order to change the world.
What I like most about this book is that it is a resource. It belongs right up there on my bookshelf with Roszak's classic study and with *Sleeping Where I Fall* by Peter Coyote, for starters. It's no dry old bone, however. There are marvelous pictures of Be-Ins and Drop City, and rock groups and posters. There is a bibliography of both well-known and obscure underground newspapers (from which the author quotes extensively). Where and when was the first Earth Day, the first Human Be-In, that Death-of-Hip coffin? They're all here. And more. Miller points us to where and how the legacy continues even to this day. If you never read another book about hippies, read this one. pamhan99@aol.com
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great insight into the 60's counter-culture, July 27, 2007
This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.
The 1960's was a time of radical change in American history. Timothy Miller's The Hippies and American Values looks into the controversial subject of the effect the hippies had on American society and its values. Since post World War II American society had seen so many changes in just a few decades. "Hippiedom" was another new change the nation had to deal with in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
The "Hippiedom" movement in the 1960's became known as the counterculture. This movement was composed of teenagers and persons in their early twenties who chose to separate themselves from the traditional American lifestyle. Hippies were usually young, white and came from the upper middle class. The hippie culture's basic beliefs were in peace, racial harmony, and equality. Their culture condoned smoking marijuana, engaging in liberated sex, and living communally they felt that as long as no one was hurting anyone else or themselves it was okay.
The main characteristic of the hippies was dope, and the majority of the hippies used it. Dope was one of the main elements that separated the counterculture from the mainstream. Hippies looked upon dope as good, and approved the use of any drug that was perceived as being able to expand consciousness. Drugs that made people "dumb" were bad (25). The main elements of hip ethics of dope looked something like this:
Use it positively. Use it sanely. Know what you're doing. Avoid bad drugs. Avoid misuse of (good) dope. Don't use dope to hurt others. Assert your freedom to make your own decisions
about dope. And have a good trip (27).
Hippies believed that dope was about fun, revolution and was good for their body and soul. They lived by the creed: "If it feels good, then do it so long as it doesn't hurt anyone else." (29) Dope was believed to be useful in many different ways. One specific use of dope was to heighten intimacy and interpersonal interaction.
In the counterculture movement dope and sex were often intertwined. Hippies believed that people should be free to express their sexuality as they chose and use dope to boost the sexual experience. Hippies had extensive reasoning as to why they should enjoy sex. They used the same credo for sex as they did for dope.
Homosexuality and nudity developed a consciousness within the Hippiedom as well and became part of the new sexuality. It was not long before the consequences of this life-style forced the counterculture to deal with issues such as social diseases, birth control and abortion. These new obstacles did not deter them from participating in orgies and organized free sex which they believed was harmless, helped break down social barriers, created community spirit and was beneficial to one's private sex life (65).
While dope and sex were major elements of the counterculture movement in the late 1960's and early 1970's the movement was not complete without rock and roll. Rock and roll was believed to have been a major influence on the feelings and beliefs of the counterculture. It became a way of life and a means of communication. The lyrics reflected the counterculture's values and in turn helped shape them (78). Rock and roll festivals and concerts were considered sacramental gatherings by the counterculture. They provided opportunities for massive indulgence in dope, nudity, sex, rock and community. Woodstock was one such example of a sacramental gathering to hippies.
Rock and roll and dope played a major role in developing communal living arrangements within the hippie countercultural movement. Those who lived in the communes believed they were rejecting mainstream society. The communes were usually located in the country so that the communards could "get back to the basics", by living off the land."
Hippies created their own "love" generation (104). Although the counter-culture movement attempted to stay free of the mainstream, they were not immune to opposition from the traditional society. Conventional society was opposed to dope, sex, rock and roll and hippies' sense of community. Hippies believed love was the only answer to major problems afflicting the world (105). As a result of their beliefs on love, they had some political implications.
Hippies believed in disinvolvement and felt that voting was useless and politics were not a concern of "free" people. This resulted in hippies "dropping out" as they fell out of the mainstream society and into a New Age (110). Despite "dropping out" they had to keep one
foot in the mainstream door because they had to work. While hippies worked by necessity they believed money was meaningless and just a necessary evil. They considered play to be much more important in their value system. In order to stay true to their beliefs they would only play games, such as Frisbee, that did not require score keeping, competition and rules. If people did not incorporate play into their day, hippies believed they were missing out.
By all accounts hippies did their own thing and believed they were starting something new with the "sexual" revolution, the drugs and the rock and roll. However, while they were "loving" everyone and "getting back to the basics" they were just repeating history; but their movement is probably the most substantial remnant of hip culture we have (136). They did not look at the past to see how wrong they were. For example, they were iconoclasts. However, iconoclasm is another classic American virtue. They were different in that new issues were under attack. They chose to confront rationality, technocracy, and materialism (126).
The hippies' idea of living in the country in their communes was also not a new idea. The establishment of thousands of communes in rural areas was a replay of the agrarian ideal not
to mention a communal vision - which was well established in the nineteenth century. Sexual freedom was another case in point. For years there have been groups who deviate from the norm when it comes to patterns of heterosexuality, monogamy, marriage and wearing clothes (127).
In the counterculture movement women were referred to as "chicks" or if they were in a relationship they were "old ladies" (16). Women withdrew from the "sexual" revolution
because it involved male predominance. "Free" sexuality, like any other kind, "carries with it an
unwarranted domination by the man, of the woman, which injures both," a hip southern female wrote.
Another woman was more blunt: ''The talk of love is profuse but the quality of
relationships is otherwise ...The idea of sexual liberation for the woman means she is not so much free to f*** as to get f***ed over ...Our mothers could get a home and security, a prostitute money, but a hippie woman is bereft of all that "(67).
The question will forever remain as to whether the hippies had a lasting effect on American society and its values. They certainly attracted public awareness during their time with the popularization of recreational drugs and the new attitudes toward sex. They believed with all their heart, at the time that they were making a huge impact on the world. Although after their "heyday" it is questionable if what they thought they were working towards was ever accomplished.
Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, counter-culture history.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent academic work for all readers, March 3, 2011
This review is from: Hippies American Values (Paperback)
This book is very well researched. I think one of the best things Miller did is in his research phase, he hung out and talked with a lot of people who were (still are?) hippies; he went there, he listened. He returned and developed relationships with the people he wanted to understand. This book also provides good distinction between two of the many civil rights movements going on simultaneously in the 60s: the New Left--political activists, and the counter-culture hippies. Two wings on the same bird, but both having ideological differences that kept the two camps from becoming a united force. This is where the nickname "Fists" and "Heads" came from. Fists being the political activists, and Heads clearly wanted to drop out and disengage from mainstream culture. Clarifications like this are very helpful to understanding the era and all the divergent activity that ultimately had the same goals: human rights, freedom, peace. Thing is, reading this book brings me to realize things have not really changed for all the effort that the Fists and the Heads spent their youth on. Americans are still repressed, stressed, consumers--and it's magnified since the Sixties. In the 60s, though, seems like people may have had time to stop and realize their life had no meaning besides work, bills, keeping up with Jones. Today, so many people don't even have time to stop and realize how insane our great American lifestyle has become.
I grew up as a hippie kid. Miller's book has helped me to understand better what my parents and their friends were trying to do, and why. Today, as an adult, having for many years shared my zany childhood stories, it's clear that mine was not a mainstream childhood. I have long sought to understand my parents motivations. I am aware of everything Miller writes about, so what I appreciate is how he he has put it all into perspective. He shows clearly how the different aspects of the Sixties movements all worked together and defines the weaknesses where these movements fell apart.
If you're interested in this era in American History, I highly recommend this book. It's got the crediblity and standing of good scholarship, but is written in a way that anyone can enjoy reading this fascinating book. Thank you, Timothy Miller.
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