The Roots of the 1960s Counterculture

Wednesday, March 13, 2013
10:00 am - 11:30 m (EST) Enter Classroom Enter Forum

Leader

Franny Nudelman
Associate Professor of English, Carleton University

About the Seminar

What created the counterculture of the 1960s? Was it the coming of age of the baby-boomers and with that the swelling of college enrollments? Or perhaps the rise of generational consciousness? Certainly, post-War affluence had something to do with it. And what about the maturation of TV, especially TV news? The Sixties would not be the Sixties without the antiwar movement, and, of course, the civil rights movement set much of the tone for the entire period. Find out how these and other forces came together to create one of the most tumultuous decades in American history.

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Assigned Readings

  1. “Hershey's 'Hiroshima,'” Mary McCarthy, politics, 1946.
  2. Doors of Perception, Aldous Huxley, 1954. (excerpt)
  3. US Supreme Court, Brown v. Board of Education, 1954.
  4. "America," Allen Ginsberg. Includes audio.
  5. "Farewell Address," President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961.
  6. "'I Have a Dream...," Martin Luther King, Jr., 1963.  Audio  Video
  7. "Lady Lazarus,", Sylvia Plath, 1962.
  8. "Television’s War," Michael Arlen, The New Yorker, 1967.
  9. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe, 1968. Excerpt.
  10. Fugitive Days, Bill Ayers, 2001. Excerpt.

    11. Videos
  11. "Jackson Pollack 51." Video, 1951.
  12. "Bewitched,” the first episode. Video, 1964.
  13. "Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock,” Video, 1969.

    14. Images
  14. Nagasaki, August 9, 1945. Photograph. National Archives image (208-N-43888).
  15. Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Photograph. National Archives image (542192).
  16. "Number 1A,” Jackson Pollock, painting, 1948.
  17. "Full Fathom Five,” Jackson Pollock, painting, 1947.
  18. Emmett Till at Christmas 1954 taken by Mamie Till Bradley. Photograph.
  19. View of the crowd inside the Lincoln Memorial during the Martin Luther King, Jr., "I have a Dream ", speech. Civil Rights March on Washington, 1963. Photograph.
  20. Marchers with "I AM A MAN" Sign 1968. Photograph. University of Memphis Libraries.
  21. I Am A Man: Sanitation workers assemble for a solidarity march, Memphis, Tennessee, 1968. Photograph. Ernest Withers. (Copyright Ernest C. Withers Trust.)
  22. "Red Stripe Kitchen,” from the series Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, 1967–72. Photomontage. Martha Rosler.
  23. "Makeup/Hands Up,” from the series Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful, 1967–72. Photomontage. Martha Rosler.