Counterculture of the Sixties in America: Aspects of Lifestyle and Intellectual Background

The sixties was a particularly exciting period in the social and cultural history of the United States. There was a unique constellation of several factors which facilitated the emergence of the counterculture of the youth. Followers of counter-cultural views had the dream of totally transforming the underlying money and possession driven mentality of advanced society together with its rigid mores and power structure. At the forefront stood a particularly distinctive group called hippies, whose most-known slogans Make love not war" and "Turn on tune in and drop out" succinctly characterize thier views and attitude. What were the most typical features of the lifestyle of hippies? How were they connected to the Beat generation? What were the deeper intellectual and spiritual concepts behind the three pillars of sex drugs and rock & roll which were the most obvious and controversial in the eye of mainstream society? What were the achievements of the movement and in what ways are their aims still relevant? Anybody who is interested in the answer to these questions and/or wishes to explore the special milieu of the time can make excellent use of this book. "