Hippies: The US Counterculture of the 1960s

Module title	Hippies: The US Counterculture of the 1960s
Module code	HIC3004
Academic year	2024/5
Credits	30
Module staff	Professor Kristofer Allerfeldt (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	10

Number students taking module (anticipated)	32

Module description

Who isn’t interested in Hippies?

On this module you will look at the history of the counter-culture in America over one of the pivotal decades of the twentieth century. These were times in which so much of our modern thinking was born and so many of our modern battle lines drawn. From environmentalism to new freedoms to choose and protect our sexual, gender and spiritual identities, so much of our modern world – for good or ill – draws on the struggles, beliefs and legacy of these controversial counter-cultures, grouped together as Hippies.

Module aims - intentions of the module

Through thematic lectures and related seminars this module will look at the roots, reception, fate and legacy of the leading counter-culture of the 1960s.
You will examine film, TV, literature, newspaper, music and other sources to analyse why the youth of the most affluent and (self-declared) liberal society should have chosen to reject many of the strictures and beliefs of their parents, abandoning wealth and luxuries and condemning comfort.
You will look at who led and who followed: the triumphs, discrepancies and hypocrisies, and the successes and failures of the movement.
You will examine who opposed the movement and how – the threats it was seen as representing, how they were communicated and to whom.
Running through the historical narrative are investigations of race, environmentalism, protest, sexuality, identity and philosophy – themes which make this module central to a modern education in the humanities.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate understanding of the emergence, evolution and continuity of this most iconic and influential of social movements and its legacy.
2. Evaluate a variety of primary and secondary sources in a field of history dominated by non-academic interpretations

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

3. Formulate appropriate questions relating to a body of source material and utilize that material to answer these questions
4. Evaluate critically the reasoning of discourses current in the period under study

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

5. Set tasks independently and solve problems, formulating appropriate questions and marshalling relevant evidence to answer them
6. With minimum guidance, digest, select and synthesize evidence and arguments to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument

Syllabus plan

The module will cover a range of topics which may include the following:

Origins - The 1950s-1960s: optimism, prosperity, tedium, prejudice and youth culture

Poets, Revolutionaries, Jokers and Gurus– From the Beats through The Black Panthers, The Weathermen and The Merry Pranksters to The Hare Krishnas and The Family

Drugs and Perception: Western psychology, Eastern spirituality – psychedelics, oblivion and condemnation

Rock and Roll: Music as lifestyle for education, protest and emancipation

Vietnam: the un-winnable war and the devastating peace

Sexual and Civil Rights: from feminism and race relations, through the Summer of Love to gay rights and disability recognition

Environmentalism: from DDT and Silent Spring to Small is Beautiful, self-reliance, organics and bio-diversity

Demonizing the Flower Children: from the CIA’s CHAOS, Nixon and COINTELPRO to Reagan and the War on Drugs

Commercialisation, Corruption, Cults and Collapse: Haight-Ashbury, Project MK Ultra, Altamont, Charles Manson and the end of innocence

Globalisation: Global spread and its influence on subcultures that followed

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
30	270	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	10	10 x 1 hour lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	20	10 x 2 hour seminars
Guided Independent Study	270	Private study and preparation

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Student Participation and Engagement	Continuous assessment	1, 3, 5-6	Peer, Tutor verbal feedback and end of course graded feedback

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
55	0	45

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Group presentation	45	One hour	1-6	Immediate verbal feedback from peers and tutor. Written feedback on submission of material on BART
Essay	45	3,500 words	1-6	Written comments and verbal feedback on formal submission
Participation and engagement	10	Continuous assessment	1-6	Verbal feedback and grade
	0
	0
	0
	0

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay 3,500 words	Essay (3,500 words)	1-6	Referral/Deferral period
Group presentation	Production of PPT	1-6	Referral/Deferral period
Participation and engagement	Production of a 500-word report	1-6	Referral/Deferral period

Re-assessment notes

This will take place during the preferment, deferment period

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Peter Braunstein and Michael W Doyle (eds), Imagine Nation: The American Counterculture of the 1960s &‘70s (Routledge, New York, 2003)
Bryan Burrough, Days of Rage: American Radical Underground, The FBI and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence (Penguin Books, New York, 2015)
David Cunningham, “The Patterning of Repression: FBI Counterintelligence and the New Left” Social Forces 82:1 (Sept., 2003) 209-240
Joan Didion, The White Album (Fourth Estate, London, 2017)
Peter Dreier, “The Political Bob Dylan” Dissent May 24, 2011
Judson Jeffries, “From Gang-bangers to Urban Revolutionaries: The Young Lords of Chicago” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 96:3 (Autumn, 2003) 288–304
Gretchen Lemke-Santangelo, Daughters of Aquarius: Women of the Sixties Counterculture (Kansas University Press, Lawrence, 2009)
Tom O’Neal and Dan Piepenbring, Chaos: The Truth Behind the Manson Murders (Windmill Books, London, 2020)
Adam Rome, “Give Earth a Chance”: The Environmental Movement and the Sixties” Journal of American History 90:2 (Sept, 2003) 525-554
Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (Bantam Books, New York, 1968)
Wild, Wild Country Netflix (2018)
Easy Rider Columbia Pictures (1969)

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

ELE page

Key words search

US History, Counterculture, Hippies, Feminism, Environmentalism, Protest, 1960s

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	6
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	10/02/2023
Last revision date	13/03/2023