Communal Organization and Social Transition

«This is an extraordinary, absolutely unique book about the counterculture of the late 1960s through the 1970s. Here, laid out in meticulous and abundant detail, is an historical account of the genesis of the hippie communes of Vermont and adjacent rural areas. In addition to being a great chronicler of the counterculture, Barry Laffan, now deceased, was a superb master of participant observation who lived with the communards and experienced their everyday joys and sorrows firsthand. The communards were convinced that they could upend America by removing themselves from the world of capitalist strivings. Again and again however, their sublime intentions ended in disasters... And yet Laffan does not shrink from proposing that the counterculture on balance helped to bring about permanent and beneficial changes for a more open and democratic society. Readers will find enough objective data in Laffan's treatise to make up their own minds.» (Marvin Harris, Department of Anthropology, University of Florida)
«This is the definitive study of not only one commune, but also of the conflicting values, ideologies, and status differences the countercultural communitarians everywhere confronted and tried to resolve. From its beginning to its end, Laffan chronicles the social life of youthful idealists who hoped to live the better life.» (Arthur J. Vidich, Senior Lecturer and Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology, New School For Social Research)
«Barry Laffan has given new life to anthropology's 'participant observation'. Instead of looking at people from the outside, he participated with high commitment in the commune culture in order to understand their ideas,feelings, and actions from the inside. At the same time, he managed to achieve an admirably rigorous degree of objectivity in his observations. These events, twenty-five years later, might seem like ancient history, except that Barry Laffan has shown us how to see their connections with the present-day