Redefining the Hippies

New Approaches to Understanding a Social and Cultural Movement

To make sense of the legacy of the 1960s, the "Redefining the Hippies" website will guide users through the period and also allow them to shape this social and cultural history project. Visitors to the site will be able to explore a timeline utilizing MIT's open source program SIMILE Timeline (http://www.simile.mit.edu/timeline) to give them a general overview of the events of the era. Users will also be encouraged to upload photos and other visual content as well as post accounts of their experiences during the sixties and comment on those of others. Instead of relying on the minimal accounts of the era that have been told by its most prominent figures, this site will bring together a wide array of narratives from people whose voices often go unheard.

My goal in creating this site is to help supplement the limited body of resources and scholarship that exist on the hippies and sixties youth culture in general. By gaining access to personal accounts and material, I hope to aid what will eventually be my own dissertation research and the research of others in this and similar fields. The user driven approach is meant to encourage people to challenge existing notions of the Hippies' legacy and eventually discover parallels between the movement's style, culture, and ideals and those of the present.