Jagdish Bhagwati
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198288473
- eISBN:
- 9780191684609
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198288473.003.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter begins by discussing the reasons why this volume was created. It then details India's economic situation in the 1960s. Next, it tells of the author's account of the sad turn of events in ...
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This chapter begins by discussing the reasons why this volume was created. It then details India's economic situation in the 1960s. Next, it tells of the author's account of the sad turn of events in India and how he was described by the Communist Party as a ‘marginal’ economist with intended double entendre. Lastly, the chapter describes the reforms that transpired in India's economy.Less
This chapter begins by discussing the reasons why this volume was created. It then details India's economic situation in the 1960s. Next, it tells of the author's account of the sad turn of events in India and how he was described by the Communist Party as a ‘marginal’ economist with intended double entendre. Lastly, the chapter describes the reforms that transpired in India's economy.
Andrei A. Znamenski
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195172317
- eISBN:
- 9780199785759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172317.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter looks at the relationship between shamanism and psychedelic culture, focusing on the experience of investment banker R. Gordon Wasson and his Russian-born wife, Valentina, with ...
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This chapter looks at the relationship between shamanism and psychedelic culture, focusing on the experience of investment banker R. Gordon Wasson and his Russian-born wife, Valentina, with mushrooms. Valentina and Gordon eventually embarked on their lifelong quest to explore the role of mushrooms in the histories and folklore of different cultures. When Valentina died of cancer in 1958, Gordon continued this quest alone. Eventually, his explorations evolved into research on possible links between hallucinogenic mushrooms and early religion. What came out of this research was a small community of scholarship that brought together people who believed that plant hallucinogens gave rise to human spirituality in archaic times; essentially, Wasson and his colleagues added a new hallucinogenic dimension to shamanism studies. That “psychedelic scholarship,” which was closely linked to the counterculture of the 1960s, not only informed the debates about shamanism among academics but also aroused and fed public interest in shamanism.Less
This chapter looks at the relationship between shamanism and psychedelic culture, focusing on the experience of investment banker R. Gordon Wasson and his Russian-born wife, Valentina, with mushrooms. Valentina and Gordon eventually embarked on their lifelong quest to explore the role of mushrooms in the histories and folklore of different cultures. When Valentina died of cancer in 1958, Gordon continued this quest alone. Eventually, his explorations evolved into research on possible links between hallucinogenic mushrooms and early religion. What came out of this research was a small community of scholarship that brought together people who believed that plant hallucinogens gave rise to human spirituality in archaic times; essentially, Wasson and his colleagues added a new hallucinogenic dimension to shamanism studies. That “psychedelic scholarship,” which was closely linked to the counterculture of the 1960s, not only informed the debates about shamanism among academics but also aroused and fed public interest in shamanism.
Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The 1960s were a time of explosive religious change. In the Christian churches, it was a time of innovation from the ‘new theology’ and ‘new morality’ of Bishop Robinson, to the evangelicalism of the ...
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The 1960s were a time of explosive religious change. In the Christian churches, it was a time of innovation from the ‘new theology’ and ‘new morality’ of Bishop Robinson, to the evangelicalism of the Charismatic Movement, and of charismatic leaders, such as Pope John XXIII and Martin Luther King. But it was also a time of rapid social and cultural change when Christianity faced challenges from Eastern religions, from Marxism and feminism, and above all from new ‘affluent’ lifestyles. Using oral history, this book tells in detail how these movements and conflicts were experienced in England, but because the 1960s were an international phenomenon, it also looks at other countries, especially the USA and France. The book explains what happened to religion in the 1960s, why it happened, and how the events of that decade shaped the rest of the 20th century.Less
The 1960s were a time of explosive religious change. In the Christian churches, it was a time of innovation from the ‘new theology’ and ‘new morality’ of Bishop Robinson, to the evangelicalism of the Charismatic Movement, and of charismatic leaders, such as Pope John XXIII and Martin Luther King. But it was also a time of rapid social and cultural change when Christianity faced challenges from Eastern religions, from Marxism and feminism, and above all from new ‘affluent’ lifestyles. Using oral history, this book tells in detail how these movements and conflicts were experienced in England, but because the 1960s were an international phenomenon, it also looks at other countries, especially the USA and France. The book explains what happened to religion in the 1960s, why it happened, and how the events of that decade shaped the rest of the 20th century.
Elizabeth Rose
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195395075
- eISBN:
- 9780199775767
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195395075.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
The creation of the federal Head Start program in 1965 put the needs of young children from poor families on the national agenda. Head Start was inspired both by research suggesting the promise of ...
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The creation of the federal Head Start program in 1965 put the needs of young children from poor families on the national agenda. Head Start was inspired both by research suggesting the promise of early intervention and by the politics of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, which required that it be launched quickly and on a large scale, and that it bypass the structures of local government. Local programs varied widely in how they prioritized Head Start's different goals, making it difficult to assess the program's success. By drawing national attention to the promise of preschool for the poor, Head Start also spurred interest in preschool for other children, leading to the expansion of public kindergartens, private nursery schools, and the television show Sesame Street.Less
The creation of the federal Head Start program in 1965 put the needs of young children from poor families on the national agenda. Head Start was inspired both by research suggesting the promise of early intervention and by the politics of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, which required that it be launched quickly and on a large scale, and that it bypass the structures of local government. Local programs varied widely in how they prioritized Head Start's different goals, making it difficult to assess the program's success. By drawing national attention to the promise of preschool for the poor, Head Start also spurred interest in preschool for other children, leading to the expansion of public kindergartens, private nursery schools, and the television show Sesame Street.
Janet L. Abu-Lughod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195328752
- eISBN:
- 9780199944057
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328752.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
American society has been long plagued by cycles of racial violence, most dramatically in the 1960s when hundreds of ghetto uprisings erupted across American cities. Though the larger, underlying ...
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American society has been long plagued by cycles of racial violence, most dramatically in the 1960s when hundreds of ghetto uprisings erupted across American cities. Though the larger, underlying causes of contentious race relations have remained the same, the lethality, intensity, and outcomes of these urban rebellions have varied widely. What accounts for these differences? And what lessons can be learned that might reduce the destructive effects of riots and move race relations forward? This detailed study is the first attempt to compare six major race riots that occurred in the three largest American urban areas during the course of the twentieth century: in Chicago in 1919 and 1968; in New York in 1935/1943 and 1964; and in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1992. The book weaves together detailed narratives of each riot, placing them in their changing historical contexts and showing how urban space, political regimes, and economic conditions—not simply an abstract “race conflict”—have structured the nature and extent of urban rebellions. The book draws upon archival research, primary sources, case studies, and personal observations to reconstruct events—especially for the 1964 Harlem-Bedford Stuyvesant uprising and Chicago's 1968 riots where no documented studies are available. By focusing on the similarities and differences in each city, identifying the unique and persisting issues, and evaluating the ways political leaders, law enforcement, and the local political culture have either defused or exacerbated urban violence, this book points the way toward alleviating long-standing ethnic and racial tensions.Less
American society has been long plagued by cycles of racial violence, most dramatically in the 1960s when hundreds of ghetto uprisings erupted across American cities. Though the larger, underlying causes of contentious race relations have remained the same, the lethality, intensity, and outcomes of these urban rebellions have varied widely. What accounts for these differences? And what lessons can be learned that might reduce the destructive effects of riots and move race relations forward? This detailed study is the first attempt to compare six major race riots that occurred in the three largest American urban areas during the course of the twentieth century: in Chicago in 1919 and 1968; in New York in 1935/1943 and 1964; and in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1992. The book weaves together detailed narratives of each riot, placing them in their changing historical contexts and showing how urban space, political regimes, and economic conditions—not simply an abstract “race conflict”—have structured the nature and extent of urban rebellions. The book draws upon archival research, primary sources, case studies, and personal observations to reconstruct events—especially for the 1964 Harlem-Bedford Stuyvesant uprising and Chicago's 1968 riots where no documented studies are available. By focusing on the similarities and differences in each city, identifying the unique and persisting issues, and evaluating the ways political leaders, law enforcement, and the local political culture have either defused or exacerbated urban violence, this book points the way toward alleviating long-standing ethnic and racial tensions.
Ernest Nicholson (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263051
- eISBN:
- 9780191734090
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263051.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
The chapters in this book give an account of how the agenda for theology and religious studies was set and reset throughout the twentieth century – by rapid and at times cataclysmic changes (wars, ...
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The chapters in this book give an account of how the agenda for theology and religious studies was set and reset throughout the twentieth century – by rapid and at times cataclysmic changes (wars, followed by social and academic upheavals in the 1960s), by new movements of thought, by a bounty of archaeological discoveries, and by unprecedented archival research. Further new trends of study and fresh approaches (existentialist, Marxian, postmodern) have in more recent years generated new quests and horizons for reflection and research. Theological enquiry in Great Britain was transformed in the late nineteenth century through the gradual acceptance of the methods and results of historical criticism. New agendas emerged in the various sub-disciplines of theology and religious studies. Some of the issues raised by biblical criticism, for example Christology and the ‘quest of the historical Jesus’, were to remain topics of controversy throughout the twentieth century. In other important and far-reaching ways, however, the agendas that seemed clear in the early part of the century were abandoned, or transformed and replaced, not only as a result of new discoveries and movements of thought, but also by the unfolding events of a century that brought the appalling carnage and horror of two world wars. Their aftermath brought a shattering of inherited world views, including religious world views, and disillusion with the optimistic trust in inevitable progress that had seemed assured in many quarters and found expression in widely influential ‘liberal’ theological thought of the time. The centenary of the British Academy in 2002 has provided a most welcome opportunity for reconsidering the contribution of British scholarship to theological and religious studies in the last hundred years.Less
The chapters in this book give an account of how the agenda for theology and religious studies was set and reset throughout the twentieth century – by rapid and at times cataclysmic changes (wars, followed by social and academic upheavals in the 1960s), by new movements of thought, by a bounty of archaeological discoveries, and by unprecedented archival research. Further new trends of study and fresh approaches (existentialist, Marxian, postmodern) have in more recent years generated new quests and horizons for reflection and research. Theological enquiry in Great Britain was transformed in the late nineteenth century through the gradual acceptance of the methods and results of historical criticism. New agendas emerged in the various sub-disciplines of theology and religious studies. Some of the issues raised by biblical criticism, for example Christology and the ‘quest of the historical Jesus’, were to remain topics of controversy throughout the twentieth century. In other important and far-reaching ways, however, the agendas that seemed clear in the early part of the century were abandoned, or transformed and replaced, not only as a result of new discoveries and movements of thought, but also by the unfolding events of a century that brought the appalling carnage and horror of two world wars. Their aftermath brought a shattering of inherited world views, including religious world views, and disillusion with the optimistic trust in inevitable progress that had seemed assured in many quarters and found expression in widely influential ‘liberal’ theological thought of the time. The centenary of the British Academy in 2002 has provided a most welcome opportunity for reconsidering the contribution of British scholarship to theological and religious studies in the last hundred years.
Andrew R. Murphy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195321289
- eISBN:
- 9780199869855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195321289.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter begins by considering Vice President Dan Quayle's 1992 “Murphy Brown” speech, and goes on to explore the rise and rhetoric of the Christian Right, which mobilized American evangelicals ...
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This chapter begins by considering Vice President Dan Quayle's 1992 “Murphy Brown” speech, and goes on to explore the rise and rhetoric of the Christian Right, which mobilized American evangelicals and fundamentalists to re-enter the political process during the 1970s and 1980s. After a brief recapitulation of the historical background of evangelical and fundamentalist involvement in 20th‐century American politics, the chapter looks at the Christian Right jeremiad, which emphasizes the 1960s as the time period when a godly nation strayed from its moral and spiritual roots and embraced an ideology of secularism. The Christian Right nests this tale of American decline within a story of American chosenness, especially in the fight against communism. The Christian Right jeremiad propelled Ronald Reagan to the presidency and continues to play an important role in Republican Party politics.Less
This chapter begins by considering Vice President Dan Quayle's 1992 “Murphy Brown” speech, and goes on to explore the rise and rhetoric of the Christian Right, which mobilized American evangelicals and fundamentalists to re-enter the political process during the 1970s and 1980s. After a brief recapitulation of the historical background of evangelical and fundamentalist involvement in 20th‐century American politics, the chapter looks at the Christian Right jeremiad, which emphasizes the 1960s as the time period when a godly nation strayed from its moral and spiritual roots and embraced an ideology of secularism. The Christian Right nests this tale of American decline within a story of American chosenness, especially in the fight against communism. The Christian Right jeremiad propelled Ronald Reagan to the presidency and continues to play an important role in Republican Party politics.
Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the changes that occurred in the religions history of the Western world during the ‘long 1960s’, a period which lasted from 1958 to 1974. Four ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the changes that occurred in the religions history of the Western world during the ‘long 1960s’, a period which lasted from 1958 to 1974. Four major themes are highlighted. First, from the 1950s to the 1970s there was an enormous increase in the range of beliefs and world-views accessible to the majority of the population. Second, there was a change in the way that people in most Western countries understood the religious identity of their own society. Third, there was a serious weakening of the process by which the great majority of children were socialized into membership of a Christian society and in particular were given a confessional identity and a basic knowledge of Christian beliefs and practices. Fourth, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Catholics and Protestants moved closer together. But as the divisions between the Christian churches were narrowing, the divisions within each of the churches were deepening. The main objectives of the books are then described.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a discussion of the changes that occurred in the religions history of the Western world during the ‘long 1960s’, a period which lasted from 1958 to 1974. Four major themes are highlighted. First, from the 1950s to the 1970s there was an enormous increase in the range of beliefs and world-views accessible to the majority of the population. Second, there was a change in the way that people in most Western countries understood the religious identity of their own society. Third, there was a serious weakening of the process by which the great majority of children were socialized into membership of a Christian society and in particular were given a confessional identity and a basic knowledge of Christian beliefs and practices. Fourth, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, Catholics and Protestants moved closer together. But as the divisions between the Christian churches were narrowing, the divisions within each of the churches were deepening. The main objectives of the books are then described.
Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter begins by discussing some of the main theories advanced by historians and sociologists to explain the religious crisis of the 1960s. It then suggests a historical framework within which ...
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This chapter begins by discussing some of the main theories advanced by historians and sociologists to explain the religious crisis of the 1960s. It then suggests a historical framework within which the dramatic developments in that decade can be understood. It argues that to understand the unique atmosphere of the 1960s one also has to take account of specific events and movements. In particular, three stand out as being of pivotal significance in the political and religious radicalization and polarization during that decade, namely the US Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Second Vatican Council.Less
This chapter begins by discussing some of the main theories advanced by historians and sociologists to explain the religious crisis of the 1960s. It then suggests a historical framework within which the dramatic developments in that decade can be understood. It argues that to understand the unique atmosphere of the 1960s one also has to take account of specific events and movements. In particular, three stand out as being of pivotal significance in the political and religious radicalization and polarization during that decade, namely the US Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, and the Second Vatican Council.
John G. Kennedy
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9789774249556
- eISBN:
- 9781617970955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774249556.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Middle Eastern Studies
The building of Egypt's High Dam in the 1960s erased innumerable historic treasures, but it also forever obliterated the ancient land of a living people, the Nubians. In the period 1963–64, they were ...
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The building of Egypt's High Dam in the 1960s erased innumerable historic treasures, but it also forever obliterated the ancient land of a living people, the Nubians. In the period 1963–64, they were removed en masse from their traditional homelands in southern Egypt and resettled elsewhere. Much of the life of old Nubia revolved around ceremonialism, and this study reveals and discusses some of the most important and distinctive aspects of Nubian culture. Since its original publication, this book has become a standard text in the fields of anthropology and cultural psychology. In addition to basic ethnographic data, this study contains discussions on the psychology of death ceremonies, the nature of “taboo,” and the importance of trance curing ceremonies. The book also presents information about a village of Nubians who had been resettled some thirty years earlier, thereby providing some clues regarding the possible patterns of future culture change among these recently relocated people.Less
The building of Egypt's High Dam in the 1960s erased innumerable historic treasures, but it also forever obliterated the ancient land of a living people, the Nubians. In the period 1963–64, they were removed en masse from their traditional homelands in southern Egypt and resettled elsewhere. Much of the life of old Nubia revolved around ceremonialism, and this study reveals and discusses some of the most important and distinctive aspects of Nubian culture. Since its original publication, this book has become a standard text in the fields of anthropology and cultural psychology. In addition to basic ethnographic data, this study contains discussions on the psychology of death ceremonies, the nature of “taboo,” and the importance of trance curing ceremonies. The book also presents information about a village of Nubians who had been resettled some thirty years earlier, thereby providing some clues regarding the possible patterns of future culture change among these recently relocated people.
Slavica Jakelić
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195342536
- eISBN:
- 9780199867042
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195342536.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter shows that during the 1960s there was an increasing affinity between the notion that de‐institutionalized religion is something good and the intellectual and social sensibilities of the ...
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This chapter shows that during the 1960s there was an increasing affinity between the notion that de‐institutionalized religion is something good and the intellectual and social sensibilities of the period. Two views on secularization and de‐institutionalization of religion, those of Christian theologian Harvey Cox and sociologist Peter L. Berger, mirrored the intellectual and social climate of the time and were broadly discussed and debated. In this chapter Slavica Jakelić argues that Berger and Cox's claims about the inevitable link between deinstitutionalization of religions and modernity were persuasive because they happened in a context in which “religionless religion” was increasingly becoming the ideal of religious life. Berger and Cox talked of the de‐institutionalization of religion as progress that brought about freedom for individuals to choose. Their prophecies of godlessness were the prophecies of freedom.Less
This chapter shows that during the 1960s there was an increasing affinity between the notion that de‐institutionalized religion is something good and the intellectual and social sensibilities of the period. Two views on secularization and de‐institutionalization of religion, those of Christian theologian Harvey Cox and sociologist Peter L. Berger, mirrored the intellectual and social climate of the time and were broadly discussed and debated. In this chapter Slavica Jakelić argues that Berger and Cox's claims about the inevitable link between deinstitutionalization of religions and modernity were persuasive because they happened in a context in which “religionless religion” was increasingly becoming the ideal of religious life. Berger and Cox talked of the de‐institutionalization of religion as progress that brought about freedom for individuals to choose. Their prophecies of godlessness were the prophecies of freedom.
Hugh McLeod
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199298259
- eISBN:
- 9780191711619
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199298259.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This concluding chapter presents a summary of discussions in the preceding chapters, discussing the similarities and differences between these explanations and those offered by other writers. It ...
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This concluding chapter presents a summary of discussions in the preceding chapters, discussing the similarities and differences between these explanations and those offered by other writers. It contends that explanations for religious change in the 1960s must operate at three levels: the long-term preconditions, the effects of more immediate social changes, and the impact of specific events, movements, and personalities. In this respect, the methodology used in this study is closest to that of Alan Gilbert who, in The Making of Post-Christian Britain integrates a range of factors, some very long-term and others much more recent.Less
This concluding chapter presents a summary of discussions in the preceding chapters, discussing the similarities and differences between these explanations and those offered by other writers. It contends that explanations for religious change in the 1960s must operate at three levels: the long-term preconditions, the effects of more immediate social changes, and the impact of specific events, movements, and personalities. In this respect, the methodology used in this study is closest to that of Alan Gilbert who, in The Making of Post-Christian Britain integrates a range of factors, some very long-term and others much more recent.
Robert Adlington (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
During the 1960s many avant‐garde musicians were intensely involved in the era's social and political upheavals, and often sought to reflect this engagement in their music. This volume examines the ...
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During the 1960s many avant‐garde musicians were intensely involved in the era's social and political upheavals, and often sought to reflect this engagement in their music. This volume examines the encounter of avant‐garde music and ‘the sixties’, across a range of genres, aesthetic positions, and geographical locations. Rather than providing a comprehensive survey, the intention is to give an indication of the richness of avant‐garde musicians' response to the decade's defining cultural shifts. Many of these musicians were convinced that aesthetic experiment and social progressiveness made natural bedfellows. Yet this stance threw up some sharp dilemmas. For instance, how could institutional and governmental subsidy for recondite music continue to be justified in the context of demands for democratised decision‐making in cultural affairs? How was the cultural baggage of established performance institutions (such as concert halls, symphony orchestras, and broadcasting organizations) to be reconciled with a radical critique of bourgeois values? Most fundamentally, how could avant‐garde musicians make a meaningful contribution to social change if their music remained the preserve of a tiny, initiated clique? The contributors address music for the concert hall, tape and electronic music, jazz and improvisation, participatory ‘events’, performance art, and experimental popular music, and explore developments in the United States, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, Japan, and parts of the so‐called ‘Third World’. Each chapter draws on new archival research and/or interviews with significant figures of the period.Less
During the 1960s many avant‐garde musicians were intensely involved in the era's social and political upheavals, and often sought to reflect this engagement in their music. This volume examines the encounter of avant‐garde music and ‘the sixties’, across a range of genres, aesthetic positions, and geographical locations. Rather than providing a comprehensive survey, the intention is to give an indication of the richness of avant‐garde musicians' response to the decade's defining cultural shifts. Many of these musicians were convinced that aesthetic experiment and social progressiveness made natural bedfellows. Yet this stance threw up some sharp dilemmas. For instance, how could institutional and governmental subsidy for recondite music continue to be justified in the context of demands for democratised decision‐making in cultural affairs? How was the cultural baggage of established performance institutions (such as concert halls, symphony orchestras, and broadcasting organizations) to be reconciled with a radical critique of bourgeois values? Most fundamentally, how could avant‐garde musicians make a meaningful contribution to social change if their music remained the preserve of a tiny, initiated clique? The contributors address music for the concert hall, tape and electronic music, jazz and improvisation, participatory ‘events’, performance art, and experimental popular music, and explore developments in the United States, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Soviet Union, Japan, and parts of the so‐called ‘Third World’. Each chapter draws on new archival research and/or interviews with significant figures of the period.
Bernard Gendron
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0011
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
This chapter analyses the resurgence of the jazz avant‐garde in New York in the mid‐1960s, focusing in particular upon musicians' negotiation of competing aesthetic, social, and economic imperatives. ...
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This chapter analyses the resurgence of the jazz avant‐garde in New York in the mid‐1960s, focusing in particular upon musicians' negotiation of competing aesthetic, social, and economic imperatives. Through a detailed investigation of shifting patterns of reception in the jazz press, attention is drawn to a complex of factors that lifted the jazz avant‐garde from near obscurity in the early years of the decade, to a canonised status by 1965. Prominent amongst these factors was the politically radical discourse promoted by figures associated with the Black Arts Movement such as Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, which conceived black avant‐garde musicians as shaping the spiritual foundation for revolutionary change. The articulation of a radical social purpose thus assisted the process of canonisation, although this canonisation brought no parallel economic success.Less
This chapter analyses the resurgence of the jazz avant‐garde in New York in the mid‐1960s, focusing in particular upon musicians' negotiation of competing aesthetic, social, and economic imperatives. Through a detailed investigation of shifting patterns of reception in the jazz press, attention is drawn to a complex of factors that lifted the jazz avant‐garde from near obscurity in the early years of the decade, to a canonised status by 1965. Prominent amongst these factors was the politically radical discourse promoted by figures associated with the Black Arts Movement such as Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal, which conceived black avant‐garde musicians as shaping the spiritual foundation for revolutionary change. The articulation of a radical social purpose thus assisted the process of canonisation, although this canonisation brought no parallel economic success.
Danielle Fosler‐Lussier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0012
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
Avant‐garde music played a small but important role in American cultural diplomacy during the cold war. In Western Europe, it was meant to demonstrate the United States' cultural sophistication; in ...
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Avant‐garde music played a small but important role in American cultural diplomacy during the cold war. In Western Europe, it was meant to demonstrate the United States' cultural sophistication; in Eastern Europe, to present a provocative alternative to socialist realism. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the music both engaged elite listeners and elicited feelings of respectful indebtedness from broader audiences. The latter relationship can be described as an unusual form of “gift economy” in which questions of prestige and value were negotiated through the medium of a musical performance with its accompanying publicity. While during the 1960s avant‐garde jazz and art music were treated alike in some respects, American officials were more likely to alter jazz programs, reflecting ambivalent expectations about their global audiences and about jazz as high art.Less
Avant‐garde music played a small but important role in American cultural diplomacy during the cold war. In Western Europe, it was meant to demonstrate the United States' cultural sophistication; in Eastern Europe, to present a provocative alternative to socialist realism. In Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the music both engaged elite listeners and elicited feelings of respectful indebtedness from broader audiences. The latter relationship can be described as an unusual form of “gift economy” in which questions of prestige and value were negotiated through the medium of a musical performance with its accompanying publicity. While during the 1960s avant‐garde jazz and art music were treated alike in some respects, American officials were more likely to alter jazz programs, reflecting ambivalent expectations about their global audiences and about jazz as high art.
Peter J. Schmelz
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0013
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
The first Soviet synthesizer was developed in the late 1950s by a military engineer named Yevgeniy Murzin. Named after Murzin's hero Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, the ANS synthesiser was soon ...
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The first Soviet synthesizer was developed in the late 1950s by a military engineer named Yevgeniy Murzin. Named after Murzin's hero Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, the ANS synthesiser was soon toured overseas as a symbol of the Soviet Union's technological prowess. However, by the mid 1960s official interest had waned and both the synthesizer and its studio, although continuing to be supported by official subsidies, fell into the hands of the musical“underground”. The studio thereby became a centre for“unofficial” concerts which undercut the dominant Soviet Realist aesthetic codes. It also witnessed a generational shift within the underground, from the older“academic” avant‐gardists to a younger generation fascinated by progressive rock. The multimedia“happenings” staged at the studio in the early seventies finally precipitated the studio's closure, although it was the synthesizer's brief association with avant‐garde composers such as Schnittke, Denisov and Gubaidulina that figured most prominently in the official justification.Less
The first Soviet synthesizer was developed in the late 1950s by a military engineer named Yevgeniy Murzin. Named after Murzin's hero Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, the ANS synthesiser was soon toured overseas as a symbol of the Soviet Union's technological prowess. However, by the mid 1960s official interest had waned and both the synthesizer and its studio, although continuing to be supported by official subsidies, fell into the hands of the musical“underground”. The studio thereby became a centre for“unofficial” concerts which undercut the dominant Soviet Realist aesthetic codes. It also witnessed a generational shift within the underground, from the older“academic” avant‐gardists to a younger generation fascinated by progressive rock. The multimedia“happenings” staged at the studio in the early seventies finally precipitated the studio's closure, although it was the synthesizer's brief association with avant‐garde composers such as Schnittke, Denisov and Gubaidulina that figured most prominently in the official justification.
Peter Knight
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748624102
- eISBN:
- 9780748671199
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748624102.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. Over the four decades since Kennedy's violent death in Dealey Plaza, the event has been interpreted and represented in ever-widening ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. Over the four decades since Kennedy's violent death in Dealey Plaza, the event has been interpreted and represented in ever-widening contexts, but several themes have become constant. The iconic phrases and images that sum up the event — the grassy knoll, the sniper's lair, the magic bullet, the head-snap, Jackie scrambling over the back of the limousine — have become a kind of verbal and visual shorthand for a loss of faith in the authorities and the official version of events, and a more general sense of nostalgic grief for the demise of the promise of youth and idealism supposedly embodied by Kennedy. In short, the flashbulb memories of the assassination provide an instant iconography of the 1960s in general and the loss of an exceptionalist sense of American national destiny in particular. With the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the meaning of the Kennedy assassination has shifted once again. No longer is the death of JFK the most significant traumatic event for living Americans. If the news networks learned on the job during the Kennedy assassination how to cover a breaking story of major importance, then they had perfected the art by the time of the terrorist attacks.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. Over the four decades since Kennedy's violent death in Dealey Plaza, the event has been interpreted and represented in ever-widening contexts, but several themes have become constant. The iconic phrases and images that sum up the event — the grassy knoll, the sniper's lair, the magic bullet, the head-snap, Jackie scrambling over the back of the limousine — have become a kind of verbal and visual shorthand for a loss of faith in the authorities and the official version of events, and a more general sense of nostalgic grief for the demise of the promise of youth and idealism supposedly embodied by Kennedy. In short, the flashbulb memories of the assassination provide an instant iconography of the 1960s in general and the loss of an exceptionalist sense of American national destiny in particular. With the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, the meaning of the Kennedy assassination has shifted once again. No longer is the death of JFK the most significant traumatic event for living Americans. If the news networks learned on the job during the Kennedy assassination how to cover a breaking story of major importance, then they had perfected the art by the time of the terrorist attacks.
Robert Adlington
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0001
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
The artistic avant‐garde, many of its theorists seem to agree, is a culture of subversion. Yet recent Anglo‐American musicology has tended to emphasise avant‐garde music's disavowal of issues of ...
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The artistic avant‐garde, many of its theorists seem to agree, is a culture of subversion. Yet recent Anglo‐American musicology has tended to emphasise avant‐garde music's disavowal of issues of social and political concern. This volume assesses the intense engagement of many avant‐garde musicians in the tumultuous cultural and political developments of the 1960s, and the complex and often ambivalent status of their efforts when viewed in the wider social context. These musicians' conviction that aesthetic experiment and social progressiveness made natural bedfellows inevitably threw up some sharp dilemmas. Each chapter is briefly summarized.Less
The artistic avant‐garde, many of its theorists seem to agree, is a culture of subversion. Yet recent Anglo‐American musicology has tended to emphasise avant‐garde music's disavowal of issues of social and political concern. This volume assesses the intense engagement of many avant‐garde musicians in the tumultuous cultural and political developments of the 1960s, and the complex and often ambivalent status of their efforts when viewed in the wider social context. These musicians' conviction that aesthetic experiment and social progressiveness made natural bedfellows inevitably threw up some sharp dilemmas. Each chapter is briefly summarized.
Hubert F. van den Berg
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0002
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
This chapter gives an overview of the history of the term ‘avant‐garde’ as it has been used in the historiography of art. The point of departure is the lack of agreement as to the term's meaning. ...
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This chapter gives an overview of the history of the term ‘avant‐garde’ as it has been used in the historiography of art. The point of departure is the lack of agreement as to the term's meaning. Noting the almost complete absence of the term in the statements of the early 20th‐century artists more recently viewed as representing the avant‐garde's apogee, the chapter emphasises instead the role of the 1960s avant‐garde in retrospectively constructing an ‘historical avant‐garde’ to serve as their legitimating forebear. The 19th‐century association of the term with the service of political ideology was essential to its appeal in the 1960s, but this putative radicalism was muddied by the later, early 20th‐century understanding that progressive artists should lead, not serve. The chapter also notes how the association of artistic avant‐gardes with radical political movements undoubtedly contributed to the avant‐garde's alleged demise in the 1980s and 1990s.Less
This chapter gives an overview of the history of the term ‘avant‐garde’ as it has been used in the historiography of art. The point of departure is the lack of agreement as to the term's meaning. Noting the almost complete absence of the term in the statements of the early 20th‐century artists more recently viewed as representing the avant‐garde's apogee, the chapter emphasises instead the role of the 1960s avant‐garde in retrospectively constructing an ‘historical avant‐garde’ to serve as their legitimating forebear. The 19th‐century association of the term with the service of political ideology was essential to its appeal in the 1960s, but this putative radicalism was muddied by the later, early 20th‐century understanding that progressive artists should lead, not serve. The chapter also notes how the association of artistic avant‐gardes with radical political movements undoubtedly contributed to the avant‐garde's alleged demise in the 1980s and 1990s.
Benjamin Piekut
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336641
- eISBN:
- 9780199868551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336641.003.0003
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, Popular
This chapter discusses traces the path taken by the maverick composer, philosopher and activist Henry Flynt in the early 1960s, from a position at the heart of New York's downtown avant‐garde ...
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This chapter discusses traces the path taken by the maverick composer, philosopher and activist Henry Flynt in the early 1960s, from a position at the heart of New York's downtown avant‐garde community, to his radical repudiation of the avant‐garde under the influence of the Marxist‐Leninist Workers World Party (WWP). The WWP both shaped the rhetoric of Flynt's attacks on the avant‐garde, and (through its militant advocacy of civil rights) encouraged his growing interest in black popular music. Paradoxically, this was to lead to tension with the WWP itself, which shared the culturally conservative outlook of Soviet communism. Flynt, by contrast, viewed “street‐Negro music” as representing the vanguard of musical evolution through its resourceful use of electric instruments and recording and broadcasting technology.Less
This chapter discusses traces the path taken by the maverick composer, philosopher and activist Henry Flynt in the early 1960s, from a position at the heart of New York's downtown avant‐garde community, to his radical repudiation of the avant‐garde under the influence of the Marxist‐Leninist Workers World Party (WWP). The WWP both shaped the rhetoric of Flynt's attacks on the avant‐garde, and (through its militant advocacy of civil rights) encouraged his growing interest in black popular music. Paradoxically, this was to lead to tension with the WWP itself, which shared the culturally conservative outlook of Soviet communism. Flynt, by contrast, viewed “street‐Negro music” as representing the vanguard of musical evolution through its resourceful use of electric instruments and recording and broadcasting technology.
