ABSTRACT
This is an expanded and revised version of a paper on the American Hippies written shortly after the Summer of 1967. The Hippie ‘scene’ has undergone significant change and development since that point in time. In the recent emergence of the Yippies – especially during the events surrounding the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, we can see the Hippie style being brought more directly into play in the radical and political arena. In another sphere, we can see the rapid penetration of Hippie styles of dress, music, attitudes and ways of life into the wider youth culture. The Hippie ambience has come to constitute, vis-a-vis youth culture, something of the force of a conscious avant-garde. These are important developments, and I make reference to them in the latter half of the paper. But, essentially, I have tried to hold quite closely to that ‘moment’ around the Summer of 1967 when the Hippies constituted a distinct and emergent ‘grouping’ or ‘formation’ in the society.
