As we enter a new millenium, events of the past continue to influence and shape the present and the future. The decade of the 1960s was a time of great social and political transformation. The civil rights and feminist movements challenged racial and gender inequality, peace activists spoke out on such issues as the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons, and the hippie counterculture arose as an alternative to conservative, buttoned-down mainstream culture. These and many other movements interacted and sometimes disagreed with one another. What they all had in common was a dissatisfaction with established ways and a desire to create something new and better. Three decades later, many problems still face humanity. On the other hand, much progress has been and continues to be made. The movements and ideas of the Sixties live on in a variety of ways. Many of the "hippie communes" of the time, such as Twin Oaks in Virginia and the Farm in Tennessee, have matured into today's Intentional Community movement. In Ann Arbor and countless other cities, food cooperatives offer an alternative to large, corporate chain grocery stores. Throughout the 1990s, the Green Party has emerged as a serious social and political force. The key values of the Greens include environmental wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy, feminism, and nonviolence, all of which were important issues in the sixties.

          Although many of the events associated with the 1960s happened between the years 1960 and 1969, it is not so easy to limit discussion of the era to just those years. Many of the movements of the Sixties had their roots in previous decades. For example, the civil rights movement began with such actions as the sit ins and school desegregation efforts of the Fifties, and the hippies were at least partially inspired by the Beat Generation which was more of a late Forties and Fifties phenomenon. The feminist and enviromental movements emerged somewhat later in the Sixties, and gained strength in the early Seventies. Then, there was the Vietnam War, which did not end until 1975. The downfall of Richard Nixon also did not happen until the early Seventies, although it is often thought of as part of the Sixties era.

          The items listed in this bibliography represent only a portion of what the Thompson Library has available on 1960s topics. In addition, other libraries have materials that may not be available at the Thompson Library. Please ask a reference librarian for assistance in locating any additional materials, as well as the ones listed here.

Hamilton, Neil A. The ABC-Clio Companion to the 1960s Counterculture in America. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1997. Reference Collection E 169.02 .H3515 1997

Singleton, Carl (ed.). The Sixties in America. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 1999. Reference Collection E 841 .S55 1999 (3 volumes)

Tucker, Spencer C. (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1998. Reference Collection DS 557.7 .E53 1998 (3 volumes)

Wachsberger, Ken. Voices From the Underground: A Directory of Resources and Sources on the Vietnam Era Underground Press. Tempe, AZ: Mica Press, 1993. Reference Collection PN 4888 .U5 V64 1993

Burns, Stewart. Social Movements of the 1960s: Searching for Democracy. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.
HN 59 .B97 1990

Carson, Clayborne, ed. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Intellectual Properties Management in association with Warner Books, 1998.
E 185.97 .K5 A52 1998

Chepesiuk, Ron. Sixties Radicals, Then and Now: Candid Conversations with Those who Shaped the Era. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 1995.
HN 90 .R3 C48 1995

Churchill, Ward and Jim Vander Wall. Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. Boston: South End Press, 1988.
HV 8141 .C46 1988

Chomsky, Noam. Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture. Boston: South End Press, 1993.
DS 558 .C5 1993

Collier, Peter and David Horowitz. Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About the Sixties. New York: Summit Books, 1989.
HN 59 .C63 1989

Collier, Peter and David Horowitz. The Kennedys: an American Drama. New York: Summit Books, 1984.
E 843 .C65 1984

Echols, Alice. Daring to be Bad: Radical Feminism in America, 1967-1975. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989.
HQ 1421 .E25 1989

Farber, David, ed. The Sixties: From Memory to History. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
E 841 .S54 1994

Firestone, Bernard and Robert Vogt, eds. Lyndon Baines Johnson and the Uses of Power. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988.
E 847 .L97 1988

Freeman, Jo, ed. Social Movements of the Sixties and Seventies. New York: Longman, 1983.
HN 59 .S625 1983

Friedan, Betty. It Changed My Life: Writings on the Women's Movement. New York: Dell, 1991.
HQ 1426 .F846 1991

Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. Toronto; New York: Bantam Books, 1987.
E 841 .G57 1987

Hayden, Tom. Reunion: A Memoir. New York: Random House, 1988.
F 866.4 .H39 1988

Hoffman, Abbie. Soon to be a Major Motion Picture. New York: Putnam, 1980.
HV 8658 .H63 A36 1980

Jacobs, Ron. The Way the Wind Blew: a History of the Weather Underground. London; New York: Verso, 1997.
HN 90 .R3 J33 1997

Kaiser, Charles. 1968 in America: Music, Politics, Chaos, Counterculture and the Shaping of a Generation. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988.
E 846 .K29 1988

Kesey, Ken. The Further Inquiry. New York: Viking, 1990.
PS 3561 .E667 F8 1990

Kovic, Ron. Born on the Fourth of July. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976.
DS 559.5 .K68

Levy, Jacques E. Cesar Chavez: Autobiography of La Causa. New York: Norton, 1975.
HD 6509 .C48 L48

Levy, Peter B. America in the Sixties: Right, Left, and Center. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998.
E 841 .A47 1998

Matthews, Christopher. Kennedy and Nixon: the Rivalry that Shaped Postwar America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996.
E 842.1 .M38 1996

Miller, Timothy. The 60s Communes: Hippies and Beyond. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1999.
HQ 971 .M55 1999

Morgan, Robin, ed. Sisterhood is Powerful: an Anthology of Writings from the Women's Liberation Movement. New York: Random House, 1970.
HQ 1426 .M85

Perry, Charles. The Haight-Ashbury: a History. New York: Random House, 1984.
HN 80 .S4 P47

Reich, Charles A. The Greening of America: How the Youth Revolution is Trying to Make America Livable. New York: Random House, 1970.
HN 59 .R38

Steigerwald, David. The Sixties and the End of Modern America. New York: St. Martin's, 1995.
E 841 .S74 1995

Tischler, Barbara L., ed.  Sights on the Sixties. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
E 841 .S48 1992

Whitmer, Peter and Bruce VanWyngarden. Aquarius Revisited: Seven Who Created the Sixties Counterculture that Changed America. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
E 169.12 .W48 1987

Wyatt, David. Out of the Sixties: Storytelling and the Vietnam Generation. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
E 169.12 .W88 1993

X, Malcolm. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992.
E 185.97 .L3 A3 1992

Ramparts. Berkeley, CA: Noah’s Ark, Inc.: 1962-1975.
Microfilm 1962-75
  1-13

Rolling Stone. San Francisco: Straight Arrow, 1967-.
  1967-
  1-
Current issues in Periodicals section (3rd Floor), back issues in Microfilm (Room 134).

Legacies of the Sixties. Dir. David Hoffman. Alexandria, VA: PBS Video, 1991.
Learning Resource Center : Video Tape PBSV MSIX 106

Picking up the Pieces. Dir. David Hoffman. Alexandria, VA: PBS Video, 1991.
Learning Resource Center:  Video Tape PBSV MSIX 105

We Can Change the World. Dir. David Hoffman. Alexandria, VA: PBS Video, 1991.
Learning Resource Center : Video Tape PBSV MSIX 102 

          The libraries at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor are another excellent source of information on the social and political movements and events of the sixties. Some materials from Ann Arbor can be borrowed through interlibrary loan, while others may require a trip to Ann Arbor. The Labadie Collection of Social Protest Material is part of the Special Collections Library, and is located on the 7th Floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library. The collection was started in 1911 when a Detroit anarchist named Joseph Labadie donated his personal library to the University. Since then, many materials relating to social movements have been added to the collection. Some of the Sixties-related material in the Labadie Collection includes underground newspapers such as the Berkeley (California) Barb, the Los Angeles Free Press, the Ann Arbor Sun, and the South End (Detroit). The Bentley Historical Library, on the UM Ann Arbor North Campus, has the John and Leni Sinclair Papers. The Sinclairs were key figures in the late Sixties/early Seventies counterculture in Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Michigan in general. The Sinclair Papers include correspondence, newspapers, posters, photos, and audiovisual materials. This is an extremely valuable resource on what was happening in Michigan in the Sixties. For the record, John Sinclair is originally from Davison, and earned his undergraduate degree from none other than the University of Michigan-Flint.

          To search for materials at the UM Ann Arbor, use the "MCAT" catalog in MIRLYN.

Credit to Bob Dylan for the title of this page, which is of course a slight re-wording of one of his better known song titles.

This page is brought to you by Vince Prygoski, Reference and Interlibrary Loan Librarian at the University of Michigan-Flint Thompson Library. E-mail Vince at prygoski@umflint.edu for more information about the topics covered on this webpage, or for general library questions.