Welcome to Thank-A Hippie.com!

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This site explores the history of the hippie movement and its impact on life today

For what should we thank the hippies — or blame them?

Love it or hate it, enough time has passed that the the hippie movement of the 60s and 70s — the counterculture movement — can be assessed for its long-term impact and its successes and failures in changing the world.

The hippie movement is now quite distant history; as much so to many Americans as WWII or the Great Depression was to the hippie generation!

By now the 1967 Summer of Love is a historical event from forty-five years ago, of which nobody younger than 55 to 60 will likely have many contemporaneous memories. Back then, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 was not as far back historically — 26 years — nor was the start of the great Depression in 1929 — 38 years prior.

To me, as I was growing up, both those events seemed like ancient history, though I knew my parents and grandparents had lived through them.

As the years have passed, new generations have grown up for whom the hippie movement is likewise just textbook history from long, long ago — or maybe the subject of some stories from parents and grandparents.

As with all historical events, contemporary understanding of the hippie movement is often distorted and biased

Some younger people, born after the hippie era ended, consider themselves modern hippies, or neo-hippies. Maybe they understand what the original hippies were all about, maybe they don’t.

Others use the term as an insult. Maybe they understand what the original hippies were all about, maybe they don’t.

Many have only a vague understanding of all the social, political, and intellectual changes that occurred during the hippie era.

This is an important chapter of American history, but too often history teachers trying to cram all of US history into one year skimp on the most recent chapters.

The goal of this site

I’m going to present a multi-media resource on the sixties, with video, photos, audio, and lots of links to books, music, and online information. I have a strong viewpoint, but the reader can reach their own conclusions from the facts.

It’s a one-man show, so the site will take a while to populate. I’ll chart my progress in the blog. And if anyone cares to contribute to the project. let me know in a comment!