Unformatted text preview:

Pick a social movement and discuss the implications that the Vietnam War had within that movement i e Civil Rights and the impact of the Vietnam War Counterculture Movement Emerged late 1960s Many young Americans Rejection of mainstream culture rebelliousness style that deviated from the norm use of psychedelic drug use rock environmental pro peace and anti war Spiritual exploration through drugs Against normal standards Descended from the Beat Generation 1940s and 1950s Rejection of consumerism capitalism materialism Eastern religions looser sexuality drugs Grew in every major city across the U S Suspicious of mainstream authority Joined in support of Civil Rights Movement and opposed the Vietnam War 1969 growing war opposition greatest anti war demonstration in all of U S history Washington D C other smaller protests Love generation violence at hippie gatherings Altamont Music Festival Manson Murders of 1969 National Guard shootings of students at Kent State in 1970 Romanticized lifestyle vs sordid reality U S participation in Vietnam War ended 1973 hippie movement declined and interest dwindled although certain aspects of the movement such as style and environmental practices had become enveloped into American culture Some later assimilated into mainstream culture Movement reached its height during escalation of U S involvement and dwindled as the war ended Vietnam War powered counterculture movement Source https www history com news vietnam war hippies counter culture One of the most powerful movements in the sea of anti war sentiments Burning of draft cards student protests music the peak years were between 1966 and 1969 and included milestone events like the 1967 Summer of Love and 1969 s Woodstock Music Festival Source https digilab libs uga edu exhibits exhibits show civil rights digital history p coun terculture Pick a social movement and discuss the implications that the Vietnam War had within that movement i e Civil Rights and the impact of the Vietnam War Powerful student movement challenged inequality in society Pervasive fusion of New Left protest and countercultural practices The underground press pioneered new alternative forms of communication publicizing previously unreported information popularizing a new language and challenging the journalistic conventions and business practices of the mainstream press At the same time underground papers became the major forums for political protest advertising demonstrations challenging the numbers and reportage of the traditional media editorializing against the war in Vietnam For radical arts collectives such as the Diggers Teatro Campesino the Art Workers Coalition and the Public Theater aesthetic experimentation alternative life styles and political activism went hand in hand An intimate connection between self expression and political protest informed all sorts of youth activism in the 1960s What David Farber calls the politics of style the demand that one must live in the revolution formed a fundamental component of radical cultural politics be it the Resistance s assault on an Oakland draft center the Yippie festival in Chicago or the 1967 march on the Pentagon The most earnest New Left radicals and the most flippant hippies shared a faith in the transformative powers of music and drugs They both saw enormous political consequences in mundane choices about food shelter and clothing Even antiwar activists who distrusted the hippie scene understood the search for authenticity that underlay what all sorts of sixties rebels routinely referred to as the Movement In the words of the Resistance leader David Harris We all to one degree or another found a discredited America impossible to reconcile with who we wanted to be In 1962 the Port Huron Statement had linked personal liberation and political revolution and they remained firmly yoked throughout the history of sixties youth protest The standard textbook accounts simply miss this fundamental connection In so doing the texts underrate some of the most important and most enduring implications of the movement Together the New Left and counterculture adumbrated a new politics more ideological and national less instrumental and parochial than the practical liberalism that had dominated the postwar United States The new politics featured symbolic acts demonstrations of principle on an international stage and it cared little about the votes patronage loyalty and compromises of politics in the Pick a social movement and discuss the implications that the Vietnam War had within that movement i e Civil Rights and the impact of the Vietnam War precincts That style would outlive the movement informing not only the rump Left of the 1970s but the politics of the New Right neoconservatives and neoliberals as well The New Left and counterculture altered more than the nation s political style they developed and popularized a far reaching ethic of authenticity Emerging from the fusion of cultural and political protest that survey texts largely ignore this ethic promoted revised notions of obscenity and established an alternative model of politeness based not on the emotional restraint of traditional civility but on the expressive individualism of liberated human beings The result was in Kenneth Cmiel s terms a thoroughgoing informalization of American society Source Schulman Bruce J Out of the Streets and into the Classroom The New Left and the Counterculture in United States History Textbooks The Journal of American History vol 85 no 4 1999 pp 1527 1534 JSTOR www jstor org stable 2568271 More widespread during the 1960s Political turmoil massive cultural upheaval and rebirth Source https www michigandaily com section arts stop what E2 80 99s sound how vietnam war changed american music Heart of counterculture authenticity individualism community Source https historynewsnetwork org article 160407 A collective attitude through music was expressed in national unity which created an instrumental consensus amongst the American youth There was a period when songs were riddled with patriotic lyrics but contradiction prevailed in the anti war music of 1960s era In a way more pragmatic approach was adapted for using music as a pacifist tool for large scale communication between different communities which was moving beyond domestic belief of injustice This period in the American history music itself came as a strong wave and from the genre of rock It was the sultans of rock who would use their


View Full Document

UGA HIST 2112 - Notes Vietnam Wars and the US-2

Documents in this Course
Load more
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view Notes Vietnam Wars and the US-2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view Notes Vietnam Wars and the US-2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?