1960s

How Bob Dylan Ran Afoul of the FBI

by Aaron J. Leonard

The combination of alcohol and unconsidered remarks about Lee Harvey Oswald in the wake of the Kennedy assassination helped ensure that the FBI opened a file on the singer. 

The Unlikely Story of the 1960s Revival of Delta Blues Giant Son House

After shifts in African American musical styles, the Great Depression and the Great Migration consigned him to obscurity, Son House recorded live music in the 1960s. 

Stephen Shames's Photos Document the Lives and Activism of Black Panther Party Women

As a college student, Shames built trust with the members of the BPP and documented their activism. Now, working with former member Ericka Huggins, a book of those photos preserves the history. 

Inside Riotville: How the Military and the Police Prepared for Domestic Rebellion

by Bench Ansfield

“Riotsville” was the name the Army gave to the training grounds it built, beginning in 1967, to school police departments and military personnel in the art of domestic counterinsurgency. Sierra Pettengill's new documentary tells its story. 

Eve Babitz's Archive Reveals the Person Behind the Persona

by Kevin Dettmar

"What could the personal documents of a writer who was so public about her private world teach us about her work? How much of that persona was a performance and how much a reflection of her real anxieties and ambitions?"

What Does an Electric Makeover Mean for the Car of the Counterculture?

by Jill Lepore

The new electric VW bus seems to lack the charm of the vehicle of the counterculture, reflecting changes in technology and society. 

1968: A Year of Dashed Hopes

by Walter G. Moss

While people seek to confront life's challenges with hope and courage and banish fear and doubt, some years, like 1968, don't make that easy. 

Ukraine Evokes Past "Eve of Destruction"

by Richard Aquila

In 1960s America, popular songs gradually roused the conscience of many Americans against the war in Vietnam. What forces might make Russia (as well as Ukraine and the west) push away from the brink of unthinkable acts mass destruction? 

Even With the Challenge of a Nuclear Crisis, 1962 Was a Year of Hope

by Walter G. Moss

For HNN Contributing Editor Walter Moss, 1962 was a year when it seemed the US was capable of overcoming the gravest challenges with positive results (it was a good year for him personally, too). 

When Eartha Kitt Disrupted the Ladies Who Lunch

In 1968, real life imitated "Batman" as the Catwoman actress broke the veneer of politeness at a luncheon hosted by Lady Bird Johnson to denounce the war against Vietnam. But while Catwoman always got away, Kitt's career was destroyed for a decade.

Todd Gitlin's Work Against the Dark

by Jeffrey C. Isaac

As an activist and later a chronicler of Students for a Democratic Society, Todd Gitlin shaped the path and the legacy of the New Left. 

Peter Richardson on Hunter S. Thompson and the Long Shadow of the Counterculture

by Aaron J. Leonard

"His historical significance, I think, lies in his willingness to challenge the nation’s political class, including the leaders of both major parties. He didn’t do that in established journals of opinion."

Utopia’s Settler Colonialism Problem

by Jessica Namakkal

The commune movements of the 1960s counterculture were organized around a number of pernicious assumptions about indigenous people and the prerogatives of whites to settle and reorganize land. 

"The Essential Kerner Commission Report" Links Past and Present, but Abridges the Committee's Process

by James Thornton Harris

The Kerner Commission shocked Lyndon Johnson and much of white America by insisting that "the Negro problem" was in fact a problem of pervasive white racism. Two books are essential reading for understanding the commission's work and it's unmet demands. 

Ringer Eddie "The King" Feigner Strikes Out 6 HOF'ers in 1967 Celebrity Softball Game

Hear Vin Scully and Jerry Lewis announce a celebrities vs. big leaguers softball game, watch barstorming softball legend Eddie "The King" Feigner strike out six hall-of-famers in a row. 

A Warning Ignored: The Kerner Commission after a Half Century

by Jelani Cobb

The Kerner Report and the wave of unrest after the killing of George Floyd show that it is possible to be entirely cognizant of history and repeat it anyway.

The Revolution that Wasn't: What did 1960s Radicals Achieve?

by Michael Kazin

A new book of narrative history of the 1960s New Left repeats a common error: mistaking rhetoric for revolution and ignoring a key outcome of the decade: that the right emerged more powerful, argues reviewer Michael Kazin. 

Don't Erase Women's Leadership in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement

by Robert Cohen

Historians have yet to fully examine the role of women in leadership and at the grass roots of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. Even some of the best and most insightful accounts of the FSM treat it as a movement of men and ignore the key roles of Jackie Goldberg, Bettina Aptheker and others. 

The Real Black Panthers

Historian Donna Murch joins NPR's The Throughline to discuss the Black Panther Party's agenda and its targeting by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. 

"Where Perversion is Taught": The Untold History of a Gay Rights Demonstration at Bucks County Community College in 1968

by Marc Stein

A student protest at Bucks County (PA) Community College in 1968, sparked by the college's decision to block a speech by gay rights advocate Richard Leitsch, should be recognized as a key event in the growing movement for gay liberation.