And the Beat Goes On: The Beat Movement and the Generation Gap in the 1950s

Youth rebellion in America is frequently compared to the hippie movement of the late 1960s. However, hippies did not invent the concept of rejecting society and its social traditions. Within this essay I discuss the Beat Generation, or Beat Movement. The Beatniks were a diverse group of writers, artists, musicians, and poets who broke the old barriers in their respective subjects and began a countercultural crusade that took place nearly two decades before the hippies. The 1950s were a time of prosperity and increasing affluence. With more time available to search for social and personal identity, college-aged individuals rejected traditional socialization, believing they should shift away from the cultural values of their parents\u27 generation.https://dc.swosu.edu/rf_2016/1050/thumbnail.jp