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The Alternative: Communal Life in New America
William Hedgepeth and photoessayist Dennis Stock offer a sensitive and astute penetration in depth into the new commune culture of the 1970s, from its roots among young dropouts in Haight-Ashbury to its current outcroppings in the form of half-hidden youth communities throughout the American countryside.
'The Alternative' is an exploration into a thriving netherworld of revolution-minded persons who are turning tribal en masse and reverting to 'primitive' conditions of survival as part of their serious search for the most viable shape that human life must take in days to come. Whether you view the communal movement as an adventure or as a threat ultimately depends on your own personal view of the future.
'The Alternative' is an exploration into a thriving netherworld of revolution-minded persons who are turning tribal en masse and reverting to 'primitive' conditions of survival as part of their serious search for the most viable shape that human life must take in days to come. Whether you view the communal movement as an adventure or as a threat ultimately depends on your own personal view of the future.
191 pages
First published January 1, 1970
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October 29, 2017William Hedgepeth is an interesting character. As a journalist for Look Magazine he was one of the first to be sent to cover the migration of hippies into San Francisco at the onset of the Summer of Love, 1967. Unable to retain his professional detachment he fell in with the lifestyle of the movement and never really came out again as an objective observer. You can see him in historical photos of the era. He’s the one wearing the eye patch, a memento of an auto accident from his early youth in Georgia.
The Alternative is his chronicle of communal life in new America, circa 1967-1970. The book was first published in 1970. I’ve read numerous other books on the subject, all of them written later and mostly dwelling on the question “what went wrong?” Hedgepeth’s perspective is totally what is right about this movement, heralding the birth of a new consciousness, away from capitalism, commercialism, and individualism toward interpersonal blending, community, a free-sharing, non-competitive society uncontaminated by the drive for personal gain. From our 21st Century perspective this all seems pretty naïve. People today, both young and old, appear far more isolated than ever before, as we allow the planet to careen toward destruction at our own hands. It makes me ask, is there an underground movement alive today, more mature than that of the early 70s, working toward these goals from a sadder-but-wiser perspective? That is the book I would like to read.
This book centers on a handful of communes, the superstars you might say, the ones that Hedgepeth visited, New Buffalo, Drop City, Lorien, the Lama Foundation, Koinonoia Farms. There’s a long chapter on Allen Noonan (later Allen Michael) and his bizarre Messiah’s World Crusade- here Hedgepeth cops to the “looniness” of some of the movement’s ideas, but nonetheless seems to hail the mission behind the madness.
There are a lot of decent black and white photographs by Dennis Stock. I wish the photos were inserted within the narrative, clearly identifying the people and places about which we are reading, rather than in chunks between the text without much in the way of captions.
All in all I’m glad I read it, but I come away feeling there is more to the story.
The Alternative is his chronicle of communal life in new America, circa 1967-1970. The book was first published in 1970. I’ve read numerous other books on the subject, all of them written later and mostly dwelling on the question “what went wrong?” Hedgepeth’s perspective is totally what is right about this movement, heralding the birth of a new consciousness, away from capitalism, commercialism, and individualism toward interpersonal blending, community, a free-sharing, non-competitive society uncontaminated by the drive for personal gain. From our 21st Century perspective this all seems pretty naïve. People today, both young and old, appear far more isolated than ever before, as we allow the planet to careen toward destruction at our own hands. It makes me ask, is there an underground movement alive today, more mature than that of the early 70s, working toward these goals from a sadder-but-wiser perspective? That is the book I would like to read.
This book centers on a handful of communes, the superstars you might say, the ones that Hedgepeth visited, New Buffalo, Drop City, Lorien, the Lama Foundation, Koinonoia Farms. There’s a long chapter on Allen Noonan (later Allen Michael) and his bizarre Messiah’s World Crusade- here Hedgepeth cops to the “looniness” of some of the movement’s ideas, but nonetheless seems to hail the mission behind the madness.
There are a lot of decent black and white photographs by Dennis Stock. I wish the photos were inserted within the narrative, clearly identifying the people and places about which we are reading, rather than in chunks between the text without much in the way of captions.
All in all I’m glad I read it, but I come away feeling there is more to the story.
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