So I'm doing a U.S. history research paper for school and I'm thinking I want to do something on the Hippie movement. It has to be 12 pages but I need to narrow the topic down quite a bit. I don't really know a ton about the history of the hippie movement so I thought some people on here might know of some interesting things. I found some stuff about the CIA MKULTRA thing and it mentioned that it led to LSD use by alot of hippies. I think further researching that might be cool. Anyone have any other ideas? I think this paper could be kind of interesting if I can get the right topic. Oh yeah, I have to have 25% primary sources.
I think it would be interesting to talk about how the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement and things like dissatisfaction with the status quo contributing to the growth of the hippy movement. The ideological aspects of it always interested me a lot.
MK ULTRA is a guaranteed C. Especially if your primary source in Ward Churchill's writings. source materials are sketchy at best, but it can be incorporated into a paper on the point in time of illegalizing LSD, and what happened as a result. (like, use rates didn't appreciably change) ask your instructor what his/her personal feelings about drug related papers are, if you are presenting a use-neutral viewpoint. (and be sure to stay use neutral)
Thanks for the suggestions. I think my teacher would be pretty open to a drug related paper. She has admitted to being a big time activist in her day. She's made comments that suggests she did drugs as well. I think she'd probably be pretty interested in a drug related paper.
sounds good, but let her know what you are writing about (hey, ask for reliable sources) and ask if Erowid.org counts as a source. That way you get a better paper and she gets no surprises. This is advice from a former TA.
I've just got to have some kind of topic together by Friday. I probably need to talk to her tomorrow so I can figure out if MKULTRA will work or if I need to come up with something else.
There's a long history behind homicide, serial killers and such... but doesn't seem like the best topic for U.S. history, probably better for psychology.
