Social+Movements

The Hippie movement of the 1960s and '70s was a counter-cultural movement much like what motivated Chris McCandless. A major feature of the movement was the Woodstock Festival of 1969.



The Strauss-Howe generational theory, created by historians William Strauss and Neil Howe, identifies a recurring generational cycle in American history. Strauss and Howe lay the groundwork for the theory in their 1991 book //Generations//, which retells the history of America as a series of generational biographies going back to 1584. At the heart of the Strauss-Howe theory is a basic alteration between two different types of eras, //**Crises**// and //**Awakenings**//. Both of these are defining eras in which people observe that historic events are radically altering their social environment.

One cycle consists of idealists who are “increasingly indulged youths after a secular crisis,” who come of age “inspiring a spiritual awakening,” cultivate principle rather than practicality or pragmatism in midlife, and emerge as “visionary elders.”