Customer Reviews

Hippies From A to Z: Their Sex, Drugs, Music and Impact From the Sixties to the Present

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While engagingly written, this book doesn't quite know what it wants to be. If a historical analysis of the hippie generation, it is lacking, with only a few rehashes of well-trod territory: the Summer of Love, Altamont, the 1968 Democratic Convention. If a resource book for present day hippies, it doesn't give enough information: publishers of books and songs, birth and death dates in the biographies, etc. I suppose that spontaneity and informality are the trademark of the hippie lifestyle, but they are sometimes a drawback for people looking for information.

Skip Stone, the author of Hippies From A to Z has spent a considerable effort to bring you a taste and a better understanding of a time, past. His effort has culminated into the definitive (re)source of information on a time, a culture and the people of the hippy generation.

In the first part of the book, Skip covers the movement via the following headings - the way of the hippy, sex, drugs, fashions, lifestyles, activism and many more topics. Frequently, quotes, lyrics, clips, etc.. gently break up the the body of the book. These breaks all seem to relate to the content of the story as you read.

The second part of the book is a detailed reference of the time, (a very nice time line) the musicians and the music, hippy havens, famous hippies, friends, enemies and a very complete hippy glossary. This is a wonderful collection of information about this cool time in history.

The events and personalities and how they influenced the following generations, come to life in this book. Hippies From A to Z is a must have reference for that exciting time in our history.

I found Hippies From A o Z a very enjoyable book with much information that I have never heard about before. I read it at one setting and when I finished it, I felt like I wanted to be a hippy too. Very good book, even for the younger generation.

While writing an undergraduate term paper at Harvard University on the Counterculture of the '60s and '70s, I used this book as a refference. I had a good time with reading it and it was a good start to my research. Stone's own experiences and opinions as an "old hippie" help to give this book a very friendly and personal glow. It truely made me wish that I had been born a few generations earlier (not that I didn't already wish that). The first half of the book is a more in-depth account of hippy philosophies, drugs, sex, fashion, activism etc...and the second half of the book serves as more of a list of events, people, places, music, literature etc... which helped to shape the counterculture. I would suggest this book for pleasure reading purposes rather than as a source of refference mostly because it is a biased perspective (the perspective of a true and full-blown hippy) and because the accounts of people and events (all of which are extremely essential to the understanding of the hippie movement) don't go into great detail...rather they are more like extended summaries. However if you are researching the counterculture, you aren't already very familiar with it, and you need a place to start, this book will serve as a great starting point with every aspect of the counterculture nicely summarized and topped off with the thoughts of a true hippie who was there, lived it, loved it, and wants to share it with the world.

I found Hippies From A to Z a very fasinating book filled with lots of information that I ( a hippie ) was unaware of. The music facts were mind-blowing, showing that Mr. Stone had done his homework on the subject of music during the 60's and 70's. The overall read was easyand everythig flowed like msic itself. I have turned on other friends to Hippies From A to Z and they too are as impressed as I am . I give this a 5 star review and recomend it to all those interested in learning more about the hippies.

Mr. Stone has compiled the most complete handy reference guide to the hippie culture that one could ever expect to find. Past and present, no detail is overlooked. This will be of value to not only the sociologist and student, but also the perrenial flower child and neophyte.

This book changed my life by telling the TRUTH about the hippies. Not only does it offer a complete history of the movement's beginnings (WoW! the stuff I learned that wasn't taught in schools was amazing!), it offers a detailed analysis of why and how the movement began. What is truly amazing about "Hippies From A to Z" is the author's associated website, hippy.com, which has evidently been operating for years with a HUGE family of hippie followers. I really like the way Skip Stone has included information gathered from the site, and the real hippies that support it. This book is full of truth, and really defines the question, what is a hippy? Skip takes it one step further, and offers timely and sage advice to new and old hippies as a reminder of why we are all hippies at heart. The book is well-written and nicely designed, making it a valuable book for your library, or or the dashboard of your VW camper-van.