Beat Generation: A Beginner's Guide

Chronicles the origins, adventures, and inner workings of the first counterculture movement and examines its monumental legacy which ranges from abstract expressionism to the Simpsons.

The Beat Generation were a revolutionary group of poets, drifters, musicians, and visionaries whose gritty spontaneous prose explored alienation, repression, and what it meant to be a member of the human race in post-WWII American society. Through the iconic personalities of Ginsberg, Kerouac, Corso, and Burroughs, along with women writers, musicians, and artists, Christopher Gair charts the emergence and true significance of the group, revealing how their fresh approach to literature and a bohemian lifestyle created one of the most exciting and important movements in American literature. Half a century after the publication of the modern classics "Howl" and "On the Road", the movement continues to attract scores of new readers, influencing everything from bebop to the Beastie Boys.

Scott Lucas, Executive Director of Libertas: The Centre for the Study of US Foreign Policy - "In this essential study, Professor Gair takes us beyond the cliches of the beatnik and non-conformity to establish how the Beat Generation came out of the political, economic, cultural, and ideological tensions of post-1945 America."Ian F. A. Bell, Professor of American Studies at Keele University - "For Chris Gair, there remains 'no coherent overview of the Beat Generation,' but here it is in a breeze of historical narrative. Gair tells a lively and eloquent story that is superbly deft and engaging."James Williams, Senior Managing Editor of Critical Inquiry - "For its breadth of coverage, including the international impact of the Beats, as well as for the perspecuity of its detailing, this book is both an excellent beginning point and a reference source to be returned to time and again."

Christopher Gair is a Senior Lecturer in American Literature at the University of Glasgow. He is author of The American Counterculture (2007) and Complicity and Resistance in Jack London's Novels: From Naturalism to Nature (1997).