American Cultural History1960 - 1969 |
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| 1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 |
Lone Star College - Kingwood
American Cultural History1960 - 1969 |
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| 1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 |
FACTS
about this decade.
|
The
sixties were the age of youth, as
70 million
children from the post-war baby boom became teenagers and young
adults. The movement away from
the conservative fifties
continued and
eventually resulted in revolutionary ways of thinking and real change
in the cultural fabric of American life. No longer content to be
images of the generation ahead of them, young people wanted change. The
changes affected education, values, lifestyles, laws, and
entertainment.
Many of the revolutionary ideas which began in the sixties are
continuing
to evolve today.
The
purpose of
this web and library guide is to help the user gain a broad
understanding
and appreciation for the culture and history of the 1960s.
In
a very small way, this is a bibliographic essay. While there is
no
way we can link to everything, we have attempted to find areas of
special
interest and to select information that we hold dear today - movies we
watch, songs we sing, events that move us, people we admire.
To see the whole picture, we encourage users to browse all the way through this page and then visit the suggested links for more information on the decade. We feel the best way to immerse oneself in a topic is to use both Internet and the library. The real depth of information is best read in books. More photographs, more information, more depth. Then, there is information that will be found only on the Internet; a journal from someone, photographs like those on our pages. If you can add a valuable site or information to this page, we invite you to write. Thanks for the visit. ENJOY!
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture in the
sixties was undergoing a refinement of Modernism and a move to an
even more streamlined contemporary look. Tall buildings or skyscrapers
created a distinctly American structural type. Architects such as
Philip
Johnson,
and John
Burgee, of
Johnson & Burgee (Kline
Biological Tower), are some of the
architects who designed office
buildings which helped create a different look for the skylines of
large cities. Architects used light and space, for example the Cleo
Rogers Memorial Library by I.M. Pei , to create
buildings which
were adapted for the activities which took place in them. The
influence of
space and futuristic design was apparent in some public buildings like
the NASA
complex at Houston, Texas . Eero
Saarinen created the Memorial Arch in St. Louis,
Missouri
in 1965. Walter
Gropius
designed the Pan Am
Building (now called the Met
Life Building) in 1963 with
Pietro Belluschi and Emery Rothe & Sons. Louis I. Kahn in his
Kimbell
Art Museum
of Ft. Worth and other buildings brought a feeling
of austerity to American architecture. Robert
Venturi
wrote Complexity
and Contradiction in Architecture in 1966 and
called for a
change in the reductive simplicity of Modernism, beginning a protest in
the late 60's. Perhaps one of the most well known and influential
architects
whose career began to rise in the sixties is I. M. Pei . Peter
Eisenman and
Frank O. Gehry
are architects who have become world famous for their distinctive
designs and who began making names for themselves during
this time. Designers like Herman
Miller left their mark on furnishings. Sleek
contemporary styles like those by Verner Panton
have translated well into future decades of furniture.
ART
As in the
fifties, art in America of the sixties was influenced by
the desire to move into the modern age or future which the space age
seemed to forecast. Major works by Alexander Calder (mobiles and
sculpture)
or Helen
Frankenthaler
(non-representational art) showed a desire to
escape from details to interpret. Artists wanted to inspire
the viewer to leap into the unknown and experience art in their own
way. A new artist who appeared was Andy Warhol,
a leading name in pop art. Other forms evolving during this time
were assemblage
art, op
art (or optical art) (ex.
Vasarely ),
or kinetic
abstraction
(ex. Marcel Duchamp
), environmental art (ex. Robert
Smithson ),
and pop art
, (ex. David
Hockney ).
BOOKS
ON ART AND ARCHITECTURE:
Literature
also reflected what was happening in the political arenas and social
issues of America in the sixties.
A book which described some of the turmoil of race relations as they
affected people in America, Harper
Lee's Pulitzer
prize winning novel To Kill a
Mockingbird is a story about a small southern town and social
distinctions between races. Writing about race and gender, women
of
color like Gwendolyn
Brooks, Maya Angelou
and Margaret
Walker Alexander
helped create new insights
on feminism as it developed in America.
Sylvia Plath (The
Bell Jar), and Mary
McCarthy (The
Group) spoke of women in
roles outside those of the happy wife and mother of the fifties.
Women like Betty
Friedan, author of The
Feminine Mystique , and Gloria
Steinem ,
led the way for many women. Disillusionment with
the system was the theme of books like Catch-22 and One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest.
Marshall McLuhan, author of books on communications and the scope of the "global village," popularized his belief that mass communications were a driving force in the development of modern society in works like The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media . The Peter Principle, by Laurence Peter, came to epitomize incompetence. In 1963, Maurice Sendak published Where the Wild Things Are, about a boy named Max who must face some of his childhood fears. This controversial book with its illustrations, also by Sendak, won the Caldecott Medal in 1964 and has become a classic in children's literature.
LINKS
BOOKS: Library of Congress browsing areas include: PS - American Literature; Z - Books and LibrariesChildren's Book Award Winners of the 60's
Newbery
Award Winners - Began in 1922 (awarded to the most distinguished children's book of
the previous year)
Caldecott
Award Winners - Began in 1938 (awarded to the most distinguished children's picture
book of the previous year)
During the sixties, college campuses became centers of debate and scenes of
protest more
than ever before. Great numbers (statistics)
of young adults, baby boomers, reaching military draft age (selective
service) and
not yet voting age (minimum voting age did not become
18 until 1971), caused a struggle which played out on many campuses as
the country became more involved (timeline)
in the Vietnam War.
The generation gap became a growing phenomenon.
In 1966, James S. Coleman, commissioned by the government, published Equality of Educational Opportunity, a landmark study that led the way to forced integration and busing in the 1970s.
Problems in secondary schools, discovered in the fifties, were being addressed in books such as James B. Conant's The American High School Today. A return to the teaching of basic thinking skills was seen to be part of the solution. In grade schools across the nation, phonics made a come back as reading specialists try to fix what went wrong in American education in the fifties.
The picture to the right shows the first teacher allowed to teach
pregnant (and showing) in Clear Creek School District. It was the
end of 1968.
LINKS
BOOKS
Youth predominated the culture of the 1960's.
The post World War II Baby Boom had created 70 million teenagers for
the sixties, and these youth swayed the fashion, the fads and the
politics of the decade. California surfers took to skateboards
as a way to stay fit out of season, and by 1963, the fad had spread
across the country. Barbie
dolls, introduced by Mattel in 1959, became a huge success in the
sixties, so much so that rival toy manufacturer Hasbro came up with G. I. Joe, 12 inches tall and
the
first action figure for boys. Another doll, the troll
or Dammit doll (named for it's creator, Thomas Dam) was a
good luck
symbol for all ages. Slot cars
overtook toy trains
in popularity.
COSTUMES / FASHION
The 1960's began
with crew cuts on men and bouffant
hairstyles on women. Men's casual shirts were often plaid
and
buttoned down the front, while knee-length dresses were 
required wear
for
women in most public places. By mid-decade, miniskirts or hot pants, often worn
with go-go
boots, were revealing legs, bodywear was revealing curves, and women's hair
was either very short or long and lanky. Men's hair became longer
and wider, with beards and moustaches. Men's
wear had a renaissance. Bright colors, double-breasted sports
jackets, polyester pants suits with Nehru jackets,
and turtlenecks were in vogue. By the end of the decade, ties,
when worn, were up to 5" wide, patterned even when worn with
stripes. Women wore peasant
skirts or granny dresses and chunky shoes. Unisex dressing
was popular, featuring bell bottomed jeans, love beads, and embellished
t-shirts. Clothing was as likely to be purchased at surplus
stores as boutiques. Blacks of both genders wore their
hair in an afro.
LINKS
The Civil Rights movement made
great changes in society in the 1960's. The movement began peacefully, with Martin Luther King
and Stokely Carmichael
leading sit-ins and peaceful protests, joined by whites, particularly Jews. Malcolm X preached about Black Nationalism. After his assassination, the
Black Panthers were formed to continue his mission. In 1965, the Watts riots broke out in
Los Angeles. The term "blacks" became socially
acceptable, replacing "Negroes."
The number of Hispanic Americans tripled during the decade and became recognized as an oppressed minority. Cesar Chavez organized Hispanics in the United Farm Workers Association. American Indians, facing unemployment rates of 50% and a life expectancy only two-thirds that of whites, began to assert themselves in the courts and in violent protests.
The Presidential Commission of the Status of Women (1963) presented disturbing facts about women's place in our society. Betty Friedan, Pauli Murray and Gloria Steinem, (National Organization for Women) questioned the unequal treatment of women, gave birth to Women's Lib, and disclosed the "glass ceiling." The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was amended to include gender. The birth control pill became widely available and abortion for cause was legalized in Colorado in 1967. In 1967, both abortion and artificial insemination became legal in some states.
The
Supreme Court decided in Engel
v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421, 1962, that prayer in
the
public schools was unconstitutional. As the 1960's progressed,
many
young people turned from mainstream Protestant religions to mystic
eastern
religions such as Transcendental
Meditation
(Maharishi Mahesh
Yogi) or Zen Buddhism.
Respect for authority declined among the youth, and crime rates soared
to nine times the rate of the 1950's. Marijuana
use soared. Well known Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary encouraged the use
of LSD as a
mind-opening drug. The hippie movement
endorsed drugs, rock music, mystic religions and
sexual freedom. They opposed violence. The Woodstock Festival at which
400,000 young people gathered in a spirit of love and sharing,
represents the pinnacle of the hippie movement. Many hippies
moved to Haight Ashbury
in San Francisco, East
Village in
New York City, or lived in communes.
When Fidel Castro, soon after overtaking Cuba, declared that he was a communist, the United States broke off diplomatic relations. Castro seized American property. The CIA attacked Cuba in an ill-fated mission at the Bay of Pigs. In 1962, a spy plane identified long range missiles in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy readied troops to invade Cuba, and the Soviet Union prepared to fire at US cities if we made a move.
John F.
Kennedy was young and charismatic, and his brief reign as president was
often called Camelot. He was assassinated by Lee Harvey
Oswald in
1963. His Vice
President, Lyndon B. Johnson became president, and
was reelected
the following year. To prevent communist North
Vietnam from
overtaking South Vietnam, the
United States sent military advisors and then soldiers. It was
largely a secret war until 1965, when massive troop buildups were
ordered to
put an end to the conflict. The draft was
accelerated and anti-war sentiment grew in the US. College
students organized anti-war
protests, draft
dodgers fled to Canada, and there were reports of soldiers
reflected the growing disrespect for authority, shooting
their officers rather
than follow orders. Johnson, blamed by many for the war and the
racial unrest in the country, did not run for reelection in 1968.
John Kennedy's brother, Robert campaigned
for the nomination for President and he, too was killed. Malcolm
X was
assassinated in 1965 and Martin Luther King
was
assassinated
in 1968.
The Space
Race, begun
by the Soviets in 1957, was highlighted by Alan
Shepard, the
first American in space in 1961. In 1963, John
Glenn was
the first American to orbit the earth. Neil
Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin,
in Apollo
XI, were the
first
men to walk on
the moon in
1969. The surgeon general
determined that smoking was a health hazard, and in 1965 required
cigarette manufacturers to place warnings on all packages and in all
ads. The first
clone of a vertebrate, a South African
tree frog, was produced in
1967. Dr. Denton
Cooley
implanted the first artificial heart in a human, and it kept
the patient alive for three days until a human heart could be
transplanted.
People became more concerned with their health and their environment. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring awakened the environmental movement and the Sierra Club gained a following. Ralph Nader's book, Unsafe at any Speed, led to the consumer movement.
LINKS
In
1960, Elvis returned to the music
scene from the US Army, joining the other white male vocalists at the
top of the charts; Bobby Darin, Neil Sedaka,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Paul Anka, Del Shannon and
Frankie
Avalon. America, however, was ready for a change. The Tamla
Motown Record Company came on the scene, specializing in black
rhythm and
blues, aided in the emergence of female groups such as Gladys Knight
and the Pips, Martha and the
Vandellas, the Supremes,
and Aretha Franklin, as
well as some black men, including Smokey
Robinson, James Brown,
Jimi Hendrix, and the Temptations. Bob Dylan helped bring about a
folk
music revival, along with Joan Baez
and
Peter, Paul & Mary.
The Beach Boys began
recording music that appealed to high schoolers. The Beatles,
from England, burst into popularity with innovative rock music that
appealed to all ages. The Righteous Brothers were a popular white
duo who used African American styling to create a distinctive sound.
There was a major change in popular music in the mid-1960's, caused in part by the drug scene. Acid Rock, highly amplified and improvisational, and the more mellow psychedelic rock gained prominence. When the Beatles turned to acid rock, their audience narrowed to the young. Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead grew out of the counterculture in 1967. The musical phenomena of the decade was Woodstock, a three day music festival that drew 400,000 hippies and featured peace, love, and happiness...and LSD. Folk music contributed to the counterculture.
The modular synthesizer (aka moog synthesizer), developed in 1960 by Robert Moog and Donald Buchla, marked a major change in serious music. Innovative composers were already experimenting with electro-acoustic music. Now they were able to go further with John Cage's 0'0 (Zero Silence) to be performed by anyone in anyway; Morton Subotnik's Silver Apples of the Moon; Robert Ashley's Wolfman. In 1967, Alvin Lucier, one of the co-founders of the Sonic Arts Union, created "Music for a Solo Performer," in which electrodes were attached to the performer's scalp. His alpha waves, controlled by his concentration, resonated from loudspeakers, accompanied by occasional percussion. Computers were used in music composition and sound synthesis, notably Max Mathews' Music IV and Music V. By the end of the decade, popular music was also using synthesizers and other electronic devices.
LINKS
By 1960,
Broadway productions had become prohibitively expensive for adventurous
offerings, and producers resorted to musicals and works proven
elsewhere. It was a great decade for musicals, including Camelot,
Hello Dolly,
Oliver,
Man of La
Mancha, Hair,
and
Funny
Girl. Even Off-Broadway was feeling the economic pinch.
leading to the advent of off-off-Broadway,
where innovative shows and new writers could get a start. Theater
expanded outside New York City, and by 1966 for the first time, more
actors were employed outside New York City than in it. The most
prestigious playwright of the sixties is Edward Albee, who wrote Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
Musicals
that proved popular on Broadway were made into movies, including Sound of Music and My Fair Lady. After
Marilyn
Monroe died, Audrey
Hepburn, star of My Fair
Lady and Wait until
Dark, was the idol of
young girls. Disney offered family entertainment in 101
Dalmatians and Pinocchio.
Movies became more political,
commenting on the arms race as in Dr.
Strangelove. Sex became more explicit, and occasionally
nontraditional,
as in Midnight Cowboy, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice,
and The
Graduate. Six James
Bond Movies, including Dr.
No, From Russia With
Love, and
Goldfinger, combined
sex and violence and were enormously
popular. Previous taboos on sex, violence and language, were
ignored, resulting in the need for a new
film code by the MPAA.
Radio continued to be the primary means of listening to music. The major development was a change from primarily AM to FM . Radio was supplemented by American Bandstand, watched by teens from coast to coast. They not only learned the latest music, but how to dance to it. When Chubby Checker introduced the twist on the show in 1961, a new craze was born, and dancing became an individual activity. The Mashed Potato, the Swim, the Watusi, the Monkey and the Jerk followed the Twist, mimicking their namesakes. Each new dance often lasted for just a song or two before the next one came along. Eventually the names and stylized mimicry ceased and the dancers just moved however they wanted. For those who preferred watching the dancers, Go-go girls, on stages or in bird cages, danced above the crowd.
Television
offered the second prime time cartoon show, the Flintstones , in 1960. (The first was Rocky and his Friends
in 1959.) It appealed to both children and adults and set off
a trend that included Alvin & the Chipmunks , the Jetsons , and Mr. Magoo.
The Andy
Griffith Show was the
epitome of prime time family television, and ran for most of the
decade. The Beverly
Hillbillies was another popular sitcom.
The supernatural and science fiction blended in many of the popular
shows,
including Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite
Martian , I Dream of Jeannie, Star Trek, the Outer Limits , and the Twilight Zone. In the late 60's, humor was
revived in a show called Rowan and Martin's Laugh In,
where many regular performers and guests became part of a show biz
classic.
LINKS
The
list below represents only a beginning of what was happening in the
cinema industry. New ground was broken with each new
film. Books may be the best means of learning more on this
topic.
Year and
Title of Film:
1964 -
Dr.
Strangelove or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb
- a satire on the dangers of atomic weapons
1968
- The Graduate
- a film showing how the generation gap affects communications
1969
-
Midnight
Cowboy - an example a films with a more mature theme
Wilma Rudoph won
gold in both the 100m and 200m runs. 
Muhammad Ali won gold as a light
heavyweight boxer. The women's 400m relay and the men's
basketball team won gold, too. In 1964,
the winter games were held in Innsbruck, Austria, and the summer
games were held in Tokyo.
Highlights for the US team were at the summer games where medalists
included world records for Bob
Hayes, 100m, olympic records for Henry Carr, 200m, Billy Mills, 10,000m,
Dallas Long,
shot put, and Al
Oerter, discus. Wyomia
Tyus, 100m, and Edith
McGuire, 200m, were gold medal women athletes. Once again the
men's basketball team won gold and the men's 400m relay team set a
world record. Don
Schollander won two gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle
swim. In 1968, the winter games were held in Grenoble
France and the summer games were held in Mexico
City. Figure skating champion Peggy Fleming won gold for her
performance in Grenoble. In Mexico City, the men's track and
field efforts were rewarded with world records for Jim Hines, 100m, Tommie Smith, 200m, Lee Evans,
400m, and the men's 400m relay team. Al Oerter set a third
olympic record in the discus throw. Wyomia
Tyus set a world record in the 100m run, and the women 's 400m
relay team set a world record. Debbie
Meyer won 3 golds for 200, 400 and 800m freestyle swimming events.Copyright
© 1999 [Lone Star College- Kingwood
Library]
Design
by: Peggy Whitley, Written by: Susan
Goodwin and Becky Bradley. Updated: 6/2011 BB.
