Social Movements

It’s 1968, and change is in the air. People are getting out in the streets, going back to the land, and looking deep within, in the sincere belief that individual actions can make the world a better place. Feminism and the civil rights movement are beginning to have an impact-- Enriqueta Basilio carries the torch in the 1968 Olympics, the first woman to take this role, and Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to serve in Congress, is elected to the House of Representatives in November 1968. But many are frustrated by the slow pace of change. Radical (“Second Wave”) feminism and the militant Black Power movement come into being in 1968. Meanwhile, others are deliberately seeking slowness, though of a different kind. Thousands of young people leave their comfortable middle-class urban lives and turn to communal, self-sufficient living “off the grid” as a solution to the artificiality, hypocrisy, oppression, and disconnection from reality that they perceive in the “square” world around them. World peace and inner peace are intimately linked. In May, 1968, the “Catonsville Nine” recite the Lord’s Prayer in unison as they burn their draft cards to protest the war in Vietnam. The Beatles move to India to learn how to meditate with Maharishi Mahesh, and hundreds of saffron-robed devotees in the International Krishna Consciousness Movement (“Hare Krishnas”) travel the country in a painted bus to share their ecstatic religion with all. Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs is published in 1968, sparking a huge interest in astrology. BKS Iyengar brings Hatha Yoga to the United States. Holistic ideas about food and diet lead to a “health food revolution” that eventually has a profound effect on the American diet (think rice cakes, alfalfa sprouts, yoghurt and humus).

Equality and justice, non-violence, respect for the earth and for our own bodies, inner peace through meditation and universal love…these are the ideals behind the social movements of 1968.

Social Movements Resource Guide

Some Key Social Movements of 1968

Counterculture, Anti-war, Feminism, Radical Feminism, Civil Rights:

Where to look in the library:
HN Social History, problems & reform

Terms to search:
social conflict, social movements, reform, social action (or by specific movement)

Exploration of Religions and Lifestyles:

Where to look:
HX Socialism, Communism, Utopias, Anarchism

Terms to Search:

Ashrams
Back to nature
Cohousing (newer term)
Collective Settlements – United States
Communal living
Ecovillages (newer term)
Hippies
Housing cooperatives
Intentional Communities
Kibbutzim
Land trusts
Living off the land
Living off the grid
Subculture

Books:

General

The Blackwell companion to social movements Snow, D. A., S. A. Soule, et al. (2004). HM881 .B53 2004
Online with IU username/pass

Encyclopedia of American social movements Ness, I. (2004). HN57 .E594 2004 v.1&2 (Ref. Dept.)

Mass appeal Kammen, G. D., F. F. Piven, et al. (2005). HM881 .M37 (Southeast Stacks)

Power in movement : social movements and contentious politics Tarrow, S. G. (1998). HM291 .T353 1998 (Reserves)

Social movements, 1768-2004 Tilly, C. (2004). HM881 .T55 2004

The Feminist Movement

Daring to be bad : radical feminism in America, 1967-1975 Echols, A. (1989). HQ1421 .E25 1989

Gyn/ecology : the metaethics of radical feminism. Daly, M. (1990). HQ1154 .D312 1990 (SOUTHEAST STACKS)

Radical feminism : a documentary reader. Crow, B. A. (2000). HQ1426 .R325 2000

Radical feminism. Koedt, A., E. Levine, et al. (1973). HQ1426 .K778

Sexual revolution. Escoffier, J. (2003). HQ21 .I85 2003 (Core Collection)

Anti-war movement

The trial of the Catonsville Nine Berrigan, D. (1970). KF224.B4 B53

Explorations of Religions and Lifestyles

Builders of the dawn: community lifestyles in a changing world Corrine McLaughlin (1985). HX653 .M35 1986 (IUPUI)

Free land, free love: tales of a wilderness commune Don Monkerud, Malcolm Terence, Susan Keese (ed.). (2000). HQ971.5.C2 F74

The hippie narrative: a literary perspective on the counterculture Scott MacFarlane. (2007). PS374.C68 M33

Huerfano: a memoir of life in the counterculture Roberta Price. (2004). HQ799.72.C6 A3

The Jewish 1960s : an American sourcebook M.E. Staub. (2004). E184.36.P64 J42 2004

Scrapbook of a Taos hippie: tribal tales from the heart of a cultural revolution Iris Keltz (2000). F804.T2 K45

Straight from the fridge, dad: a dictionary of hipster slang Max Décharné (2001). PE3721 .D4

Wild child: girlhoods in the counterculture Chelsea Cain (ed.) (1999). HQ777.W55

Media Services (Kent Cooper Room)

1968 : the year that shaped a generation

Making sense of the sixties

I shot Andy Warhol. (fictionalized)

The Catonsville Nine: investigation of a flame

The trial of the Catonsville nine (audiotape)

Commune.