FAR OUT, MAN!

American culture through the '60s

There's something new and really groovy happening at ELI! During the summer session, Gale Barchus took on the challenge of creating a pilot project course on the 1960s for the American Culture track. This fall, someone else was seen wearing those rose colored granny glasses around ELI: Russ Mason, former teacher of the Music Class, took over the care and development of this new course.

The era of the '60s was perhaps the most turbulent, controversial, and confusing decade of the 20th century. It was a time of conflict and rebellion when limits were tested, rules were defied, and traditional values were strained to the breaking point. To understand mainstream American culture and society in the 1990s, ELI now offers a crash course in the Sixties. This class examines a number of important topics and themes, including an overview of the cultural backdrop of the '50s in which the "seeds" of the '60s were sown; the Civil Rights movement, which sought true equality for African-Americans; U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and the anti-war backlash stateside; hippies, rock-n-roll, and the counterculture; radical politics; and the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Students learn about bellbottom jeans and mini-skirts, sit-ins and stand-offs, and the San Francisco Summer of Love. To have a really far out cultural experience, the 1960s course is the place to be!