Student Movement & the
Counterculture
Roots
• Booming economy after WWII
– Value conformity over independence & financial gain over
spiritual and social advancement
– College enrollment took off
• Students for a Democratic Society
– “New left”
– Port Huron Statement
• Stop accepting a country run by big corporations and big
government
• Free Speech Movement
– Led by Mario Savio & started at Berkley College
– Faceless administration employing vague rules &
punishments
– Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students
Counterculture
• Mostly white upper & middle–class
– Promoted
•
•
•
•
flamboyant dress
Rock music
Drug use
Free & independent living
– Utopian Ideal
• Full of love, empathy , tolerance & cooperation
– Communes
• Group living arrangements in which members shared
everything
• Haight-Ashbury district
• Decline
– Communes turned dangerous
– Lifestyle was not practical
Culture
• Fashion
– Long hair
• Art/Pop Art
– Andy Warhol
• Up to the observer to give the work meaning
• Music & Dance
– R&R would topple the establishment
• Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix
• Woodstock