This book offers a concise overview of the social, cultural, and aesthetic sensibilities of the Beat Generation, explaining how their drastic visions and radical styles challenged postwar America's dominant values in ways that can still be felt in literature, cinema, music, theater, and the visual arts.

• List of illustrations


• Preface


• Ch. 1: Origins and essences


• Ch. 2: Beats, beatniks, bohemians, and all that jazz


• Ch. 3: The writers and the books


• Ch. 4: The Beats and popular culture


• Ch. 5: The Beat legacy


• References


• Further reading


• Index

Professor Emeritus of Theatre and Film, Long Island University; Chair, National Society of Film Critics; Adjunct Professor, School of the Arts, Columbia University; and Adjunct Professor of Art History, Maryland Institute College of Art