This PBS series on the 1960s was broadcast in 1991 and provides a thorough overview of the decade on six one-hour episodes. The use of over a hundred interviews with a wide range of people is an especially effective device in bringing this decade to life for younger viewers. Among those interviewed are former hippies, social activists, musicians, students, commune members, authors, and parents. Through their reminiscences these now middle-aged men and women reveal a great deal of uniformity - not in politics or philosophy, but in their deeply felt emotions about the period.
Breaking Boundaries, Testing Limits looks at the immense changes in America's youth culture between 1964 and 1968. The Beatles; happiness as a goal in itself, the counterculture of Haight-Ashbury, communes, the alternative press, Eastern religions, and mind-altering drugs are all discussed. Freedom without responsibility, however, could not be sustained - and Woodstock marked the death of the counterculture.
The societal changes begun in the 1960s persist: divorce is more common, couples living together before marriage is a widely accepted phenomenon, curricular reforms continue on college campuses, and earning a lot of money is still seen as the only important career goal.
A large portion of the series can be seen here.
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