Summer of Love: Psychedelic Art, Social Crisis and Counterculture in the 1960s

Liverpool University Press

"The Summer of Love brings together an impressive group of historians, artists, and cultural critics to present a rich and varied interpretation of this seminal decade and its continuing influence on politics, society, and culture.

The Summer of Love, which accompanies an exhibition at Tate Liverpool, pays particular attention to the wildly creative psychedelic art of the era. Perceptive essays on psychedelic comics, graphic design and typography, light shows, and film successfully rescue psychedelic art from the fog of nostalgia and unjust critical neglect. Distinguished contributors also explore the role of 1960s fashion and architecture, and they consider anew the central influence of hallucinogenic drugs on the art of the era. Running throughout the essays are the elements of epochal change--from sexual liberation to student revolutions--that still form the backdrop of our collective consciousness of the 1960s.

An incisive collection of writings on all aspects of 1960s art and culture, tempered by time and critical distance, The Summer of Love will be indispensable for those who wish they had been there--or for those who were, but can't remember it."