Date of Review:

06/01/2009

Published Work:

American Countercultures: An Encyclopedia of Nonconformists, Alternative Lifestyles, and Radical Ideas in U.S. History

Reviewer:

Herman Sutter

Source:

School Library Journal

Review Excerpt:

According to this encyclopedic work, a counterculture is any movement that “stands in opposition to the conventional,” and that includes everything from the Chicago Seven, cult movies, and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to freak shows, temperance movements, and Wiccans. The brief and informative entries include further-reading suggestions (some obscure, such as those in “Streaking”), and each volume includes a “Topic Finder,” with entries organized by group. The central notion of this book–that almost anything may constitute a countercultural movement–is hard to swallow. Misiroglu’s introduction sheds some light when it refers to the set as a “cabinet of wonders.” There is a sense that this is a collection of oddities stirred into a serendipitous and caveat-filled agglomeration of the crass and the creative as well as the truly unconventional.

Link to Full Review: