heathward's reviews
591 reviews

Five Key Points:

1. Management and business (capitalism) in the 1960s underwent a counterculture revolution just as dramatic as that found in the streets: "Postwar American capitalism was hardly the unchanging and soulless machine imagined by countercultural leaders; it was as dynamic a force in its own way as the revolutionary youth movements of the period, undertaking dramatic transformations." (6)

2. Book examines 'co-option' of counterculture by business, seeking to go beyond traditional vilification of it: "This book is... an analysis of the forces and logic that make rebel youth cultures so attractive to corporate decision-makers." (7)

3. A radical section of American businessmen saw the counterculture as a kindred spirit in their own attempts to revitalise society: "Many in American business... imagined the counterculture not as an enemy to be undermined or a threat to consumer culture, but as a hopeful sign, a symbolic ally in their struggles against the mountains of dead-weight procedure and hierarchy." (9)

4. The capillaries of countercultural thought in business stretch into the 1950s, with a turn against hierarchy and towards creativity gradually becoming more popular: "Even in the most complacent management literature of the fifties one finds harbingers of dissent and upheaval." (21)

5. Consumerism was able to remain such a powerful part of American society through its ability to allow individuals to show dissent- including dissent towards consumerism! "No longer would Americans buy to fit in or impress the Joneses, but to demonstrate that they were wise to the game , to express their revulsion with the artifice and conformity of consumerism."

Appendix contains useful summary of Nye's views on leadership. Concise and practical read.

Key Points:

1. The sixties witnessed the rise of an anti-disciplinary politics; "a language of protest which rejected hierarchy and leadership, strategy and planning, bureaucratic organisation and political parties." (4)

2. Modern apathy to politics has been "shaped as much by the success of the anti-disciplinary politics of the sixties counterculture as by the failure of more traditional forms of politics." (4)

3. Images and ideas of the protest were found all over the world; America served as "the focal point in the sixties for [this] transcontinental movement of activists." (7)

4. Disciplinary and anti-disciplinary politics were: "in constant dialogue, often in tension with one another and mingled with if not depended on the other for self-definition." (25)

5. The counterculture rejected the entire idea of rational discourse and logic: "Enlightenment nations of rationality were dismissed, often in favour of magic, madness and 'pre-modern' modes of logic." (30)

Key Points:

1. A 'cultural revolution' occured in 1960s, a revolution "in material conditions, lifestyles, family relationships, and personal freedoms for the vast majority of ordinary people." (15)

2. "The sixties were characterized by the vast number of innovative activities taking place simultaneously, by unprecedented interaction & acceleration." (7)

3. The decade in this sense lasted from "1958 & end[ed] broadly speaking... in 1973-4" as the effects of the economic downturn began to be felt.

4. The counter-cultural movements which constituted the sixties "did not confront society, but permeated and transformed it."

5. Transformation of society was aided by "the existence in positions of authority of men and women of traditional enlightened and rational outlook who responded flexibly & tolerantly to counter-cultural demands." (measured judgment)

Key Arguments:

1. In 1968 "Activists from different political and cultural frameworks tried to construct a collective identity that could lead to solidarity and cooperation, as well as a more global consciousness." (3) "Intercultural exchange created a common, though constructed, reality explains why the protesting students of the 1960s felt connected to each other, as if they were on an 'international crusade.' It turned the sixties into a shared experience across national boundaries" (7)

2. New system of international exchanges and networks forms "well before 1968" and provides "a favorable climate for the emergence of transnational subcultures and protest movements." (3)

3. Vietnam is the "issue that most deeply connected activists to each other" (5) across the world. Thus "many student protesters sought to overcome the bloc confrontation of the cold war between East and West in favor of a greater focus on the North-South divide, and reached out to their peers in other countries for this endeavor." (5)

4. The perception of West German students towards the US was not one of anti-American sentiment but rather was more nuanced: "Countercultural items and their import can hardly be labeled as anti-American, given their origins and strong roots in the United States. They instead formed a critique of the official U.S. government... these shared sentiments reflected an additional degree of American (counter-)cultural influence. In other words, the dissent was (if at all) an anti Americanism of 'With America against America.'" (7)

5. "Faced with growing internal unrest in the country of one of its closest allies during the cold war, the U.S. government not only stepped up its monitoring of student activities in West Germany but also decided to make the young generation the primary target group of its cultural and educational activities." (239)