The Beat Generation: An American Dream

Steve Allen narrates this overview of the influential literary movement that arose in New York City at the height of the Cold War. Deeply alienated from mainstream American society, such writers as Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs used poetry, novels and experimental fiction to explore themes of nonconformity, drug use and sexuality. Archival footage of important figures reading their works is supplemented by modern interviews with people associated with the movement.