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An up close photograph of Leonard Cohen.

Leonard Cohen: Hippie Troubadour and Forgotten Reactionary

As the legend of the singer–poet–sex symbol grows, fans rarely acknowledge his conservative streak.
A small cabin in the woods; Laird Sutton, a man with a thick white beard.

The Last Glimpses of California's Vanishing Hippie Utopias

A legion of idealists dropped out of society and went back to the land. Here's a glimpse of their otherworldly residences—and the end of the social experiment.
"Alien Embrace" repeated artwork

The Institute for Illegal Images

Meditating on blotter not just as art, or as a historical artifact, but as a kind of media, even a “meta medium.”
Lenore Kandel’

The Forgotten Poet at the Center of San Francisco’s Longest Obscenity Trial

Amid Reagan’s late-sixties crackdown on the California counterculture, a jury was tasked with deciding whether Lenore Kandel’s psychedelic sex poems had “redeeming social importance.”
Sly Stone performing at a concert.

The Undoing of a Great American Band

Sly and the Family Stone suggested new possibilities in music and life—until it all fell apart.
The women of the Source Family pose on a Rolls-Royce for an ad for the release of a recording of the cult's band, Ya Ho Wha 13.

The Cult Roots of Health Food in America

How the Source Family, a radical 1970s utopian commune, still impacts what we eat today.
Collage of of Stewart Brand peeking out from behind the earth.

Stewart Brand’s Dubious Futurism

What did the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog stand for?
Students paddling rafts on Milwaukee River

Remember When Earth Day Used to Be Cool?

Today, the holiday is just a chance for ExxonMobil to release nonsensical ad campaigns. But once upon a time, it was a radical success story.
Split frame image of Norman Mailer, in black and white.

My Norman Mailer Problem—and Ours

Digging down into the roots of white America’s infatuation with Black.
Artists and people sitting on and around a hotel at Woodstock in 1967

The Dropout, a History: From Postwar Paranoia to a Summer of Love

The dropout was not just a hippy-trippy hedonist but a paranoid soul, who feared brainwashing and societal control.
A photo from the 1976 edition of the People's Yellow Pages shows the publication's volunteers assembled before the Vocations for Social Change office in Cambridge

Why The People's Yellow Pages, A Relic Of '70s Counterculture, Still Resonates Today

Fifty years later, The Yellow Pages stand as a testament to grassroots ingenuity and the radical idealism of '70s counterculture.
Stephen Kinzer

The Untold Story of the CIA’s MK Ultra: A Conversation with Stephen Kinzer

Stephen Kinzer discusses his new biography, “Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.”
A young girl kneels by a dead body, yelling.

The Girl in the Kent State Photo and the Lifelong Burden of Being a National Symbol

In 1970, an image of a dead protester at Kent State became iconic. But what happened to the 14-year-old kneeling next to him?
People dancing at Woodstock

When Science Was Groovy

Counterculture-inspired research flourished in the Age of Aquarius.

The Chaos of Altamont and the Murder of Meredith Hunter

A lot has been written about the notorious concert, but so much of the language around it has been passive and exonerating.

How a Small-Town Navy Vet Created Rock’s Most Iconic Surrealist Posters

The story of one of rock's most prolific poster artists.

Aquarius Rising

Considering the religious roots of the 1960s anti-militarist counterculture.

Where Does Your Tofurky Come From?

The first frozen Tofurky meal was a hard sell with retailers and a mad success with the customers who managed to find it.

The 1960s Photographer Who Documented the Peace Sign as a Political Symbol

Jim Marshall photographed the spread of the peace sign between 1961 and 1968, with his images now published for the first time by Reel Art Press.

Playing Indian

How a fight over Native American symbolism in Oregon brought to light the conflict at America's core.

The Long Summer of Love

Historians get hip to the lasting influences of ’60s counterculture
Woman with a flower.

The Summer of Love Ended 50 Years Ago. It Reshaped American Conservatism.

The Jesus People, born on Haight Ashbury, had a profound influence on the Religious Right.

Designers On Acid: The Tripping Californians Who Paved The Way To Our Touchscreen World

Ever wondered why email, trash cans, Google Docs and desktops look the way they do? The answer lies in 1960s hippie culture.
An audience listens to musicians playing outdoors by a Summer of Love banner.

Suddenly That Summer

LSD, ecstasy, and a blast of utopianism: How 1967’s “Summer of Love” all began.
A Christian cross in an open field, with a sunset in the background.

Jesus Freaks: On the Free Spirited Evangelicals of the 1970s and 80s

Chronicling the emergence of a unique blend of counterculture and Christianity.
Eden Ahbez.

The Strangest Hit Songwriter in History

He wrote one of my favorite songs, but was so much more than a composer.
Harry Smith pointing finger upward

Outsider’s Outsider

At once famous and obscure, marginal and central, Harry Smith anticipated and even invented several important elements of Sixties counterculture.
Tom Wolfe in profile against the New York City skyline.

The Electric Kool-Aid Conservative

Tom Wolfe was no radical.
A turntable and records.

What’s Old is New Again (and Again): On the Cyclical Nature of Nostalgia

Retro was not the antithesis to the sub- and countercultural experiments of the 1960s, it grew directly out of them.
Ronald Reagan signing anti-drug legislation as Nancy Reagan and legislators look on.
partner

America's War on Drugs Was Always Bipartisan—And Unwinnable

There was really only one big difference between liberal drug warriors and conservative ones.

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