The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 15 December 2004
edited by Carolyn Barnes
This small book is a collection of 16 articles from the more-or-less mainstream press of the late 1960s, all of which turn a bemused eye upon the phenomenon of the hippie movement. The articles first appeared in such publications as The Village Voice, Time, Atlantic magazine, the New York Post, Saturday Evening Post, the New Yorker, and even Business Week. All of them have a New York centered viewpoint, and all of them have at least some subtly critical things to say about the hippies and their lifestyle. Much of what is depicted from such a point of view remains the stereotypical image of hippie life, with irresponsible, dirty, hedonistic and drug-addled kids littering the streets of America's cities. The extreme is the one article aimed at high school students by Scholastic Scope, which has a distinctly finger-shaking attitude. Still, in moments throughout the book, and in some of its many black and white illustrations, there are sympathetic notes that offset some of the criticism. This is, by no means, a comprehensive look at the hippie movement, or at its critics, but it is an interesting window on the times. The book was published by Scholastic Book Services in 1968, and is no-doubt aimed at kids in school, but it nevertheless has some fairly juicy content, including a Pulitzer Prize-winning article about a murdered girl in hippie Greenwich Village. The book barely predates the Chicago convention protests, but includes an intriguing piece on the Yippies planning of those events. Some of the authors contained here are fairly notable names in journalism. Some of the content, though, will make a modern reader laugh aloud. A fine addition to any library on the sixties. Worth a look.
(The article The Two Worlds of Linda Fitzpatrick by J. Anthony Lukas is featured in this collection. For this article, Lukas was awarded the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.)