
Counterculture
The Story of America from Bohemia to Hip-Hop
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $21.84
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Dan Levy
-
By:
-
Alex Zamalin
About this listen
This entertaining, intellectual history fulfills the growing appetite for marginalized narratives. Counterculture brilliantly interrogates the diversity of counterculture and the interwoven relationship between each individual legacy. From Anarchism to the Harlem Renaissance, Alex Zamalin unveils the humanity behind these romanticized figures and popularized movements to capture revolutionary freedom in action.
American counterculture, defined as a movement whose values are outside and oppositional to mainstream norms and whose practices fundamentally reject what is socially respectable, ultimately transformed the 20th century.
With key players:
- Emma Goldman
- Billie Holiday
- Allen Ginsberg
- Amiri Baraka
- Jean-Michel Basquiat
And key movements:
- Anarchism
- Black Bohemia
- The Harlem Renaissance
- The Beat Generation
- The Black Arts Movement
- Hip-Hop
Counterculture reaches new depths, tackling a wide range of historical, social, and political topics, and expanding contemporary understandings of American cultural tradition.
At a time when counterculture was on the outskirts of American society, Alex Zamalin explores the reason why.©2025 Alex Zamalin (P)2025 Beacon Press Audio
Critic reviews
“Zamalin provides an engaging, well-researched, and immersive set of readings to shift our thinking about American countercultures. Zamalin connects dots we might not expect, across lines of race, gender, sexuality, and class, and in the process brings new life and power to a concept that has too often been dismissed as fringe and frivolous.”
—John Keene, author of Punks: New & Selected Poems
“Zamalin approaches these countercultures from multiple perspectives so that his book is not only the white, male, heteronormative history of the movements but a more inclusive account. VERDICT: A good introduction to the process of culture making in the 20th century.” —Library Journal
“Zamalin demonstrates incontestably why he is considered unequivocally to be our premier cultural historian.” —Gerald Horne, author of Armed Struggle? Panthers and Communists, Black Nationalists and Liberals in Southern California Through the Sixties and Seventies
“Counterculture is a brilliant text. Zamalin’s agile mind creates connections that we did not know existed. From Emma Goldman to Amiri Baraka, this book is an expertly woven tapestry of radical, marginalized cultures and movements and the ways in which they have built upon one another. A necessary book that fills a gap in our collective history. At a time when it feels like hope is in short supply, this book is a necessary corrective: a reminder that the struggle is always ongoing.” —Dave Zirin, author of The Kaepernick Effect: Taking a Knee, Changing the World
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Age of Choice
- A History of Freedom in Modern Life
- By: Sophia Rosenfeld
- Narrated by: Greg D. Barnett
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Choice tells the long history of the invention of choice as the defining feature of modern freedom. Taking listeners from the seventeenth century to today, Sophia Rosenfeld describes how the early modern world witnessed the simultaneous rise of shopping as an activity and religious freedom as a matter of being able to pick one's convictions. Similarly, she traces the history of choice in romantic life, politics, and the ideals of human rights. Throughout, she pays particular attention to the lives of women, who have frequently been the drivers of this change.
By: Sophia Rosenfeld
-
Ends of the Earth
- Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future
- By: Neil Shubin
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned scientist Neil Shubin has made extraordinary discoveries by leading scientific expeditions to the sweeping ice landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. He’s survived polar storms, traveled in temperatures that can freeze flesh in seconds, and worked hundreds of miles from the nearest humans, all to deepen our understanding of our world. Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, Ends of the Earth blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries.
-
-
Excellent scientific view of the poles
- By Prosanta Chakrabarty on 02-27-25
By: Neil Shubin
-
Paris Undercover
- A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal
- By: Matthew Goodman
- Narrated by: Kristi Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Etta Shiber and Kate Bonnefous are the unlikeliest of heroines: two seemingly ordinary women, an American widow and an English divorcée, living quietly together in Paris. Yet during the Nazi occupation, these two friends find themselves unexpectedly plunged into the whirlwind of history. With the help of a French country priest and others, they set out to rescue British and French soldiers trapped behind enemy lines—some of whom they daringly smuggle through Nazi checkpoints hidden inside the trunk of their car.
-
-
Great history marred by terrible reader
- By gail on 03-01-25
By: Matthew Goodman
-
Labor’s Partisans
- Essential Writings on the Union Movement from the 1950s to Today
- By: Samir Sonti - editor, Nelson Lichtenstein - editor
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne, Mirai Mirai
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With over twenty-five contributions by some of the nation's most influential progressive voices, Labor's Partisans brings to life a history of labor that is of immediate relevance to our own times. Introduced and edited by leading labor historians Nelson Lichtenstein and Samir Sonti, this essential volume reveals the powerful currents and debates running through the labor movement, from the 1950s to today.
By: Samir Sonti - editor, and others
-
We Hold These "Truths"
- How to Spot the Myths That Are Holding America Back
- By: Casey Burgat
- Narrated by: Deanna Anthony, Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Former congressional staffer turned George Washington University grad school professor Casey Burgat leads a diverse team of officials, academics, and experts from both sides of the aisle to expose the lies at the heart of our political dysfunction. They debunk talking points about term limits, lobbyists, money in politics, and more—offering real-world insights into how our government actually works.
By: Casey Burgat
-
The Incorruptibles
- A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld
- By: Dan Slater
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 1900s, prior to World War I, New York City was a vortex of vice and corruption. On the Lower East Side, then the most crowded ghetto on earth, Eastern European Jews formed a dense web of crime syndicates. Gangs of horse poisoners and casino owners, pimps and prostitutes, thieves and thugs, jockeyed for dominance while their family members and neighbors toiled in the unregulated garment industry. But when the notorious murder of a gambler attracted global attention, a coterie of affluent German-Jewish uptowners decided to take matters into their own hands.
-
-
Very Entertaining/Researched
- By ptr on 02-23-25
By: Dan Slater
-
The Age of Choice
- A History of Freedom in Modern Life
- By: Sophia Rosenfeld
- Narrated by: Greg D. Barnett
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Choice tells the long history of the invention of choice as the defining feature of modern freedom. Taking listeners from the seventeenth century to today, Sophia Rosenfeld describes how the early modern world witnessed the simultaneous rise of shopping as an activity and religious freedom as a matter of being able to pick one's convictions. Similarly, she traces the history of choice in romantic life, politics, and the ideals of human rights. Throughout, she pays particular attention to the lives of women, who have frequently been the drivers of this change.
By: Sophia Rosenfeld
-
Ends of the Earth
- Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future
- By: Neil Shubin
- Narrated by: Fred Berman
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Renowned scientist Neil Shubin has made extraordinary discoveries by leading scientific expeditions to the sweeping ice landscapes of the Arctic and Antarctic. He’s survived polar storms, traveled in temperatures that can freeze flesh in seconds, and worked hundreds of miles from the nearest humans, all to deepen our understanding of our world. Written with infectious enthusiasm and irresistible curiosity, Ends of the Earth blends travel writing, science, and history in a book brimming with surprising and wonderful discoveries.
-
-
Excellent scientific view of the poles
- By Prosanta Chakrabarty on 02-27-25
By: Neil Shubin
-
Paris Undercover
- A Wartime Story of Courage, Friendship, and Betrayal
- By: Matthew Goodman
- Narrated by: Kristi Burns
- Length: 14 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Etta Shiber and Kate Bonnefous are the unlikeliest of heroines: two seemingly ordinary women, an American widow and an English divorcée, living quietly together in Paris. Yet during the Nazi occupation, these two friends find themselves unexpectedly plunged into the whirlwind of history. With the help of a French country priest and others, they set out to rescue British and French soldiers trapped behind enemy lines—some of whom they daringly smuggle through Nazi checkpoints hidden inside the trunk of their car.
-
-
Great history marred by terrible reader
- By gail on 03-01-25
By: Matthew Goodman
-
Labor’s Partisans
- Essential Writings on the Union Movement from the 1950s to Today
- By: Samir Sonti - editor, Nelson Lichtenstein - editor
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne, Mirai Mirai
- Length: 14 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With over twenty-five contributions by some of the nation's most influential progressive voices, Labor's Partisans brings to life a history of labor that is of immediate relevance to our own times. Introduced and edited by leading labor historians Nelson Lichtenstein and Samir Sonti, this essential volume reveals the powerful currents and debates running through the labor movement, from the 1950s to today.
By: Samir Sonti - editor, and others
-
We Hold These "Truths"
- How to Spot the Myths That Are Holding America Back
- By: Casey Burgat
- Narrated by: Deanna Anthony, Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Former congressional staffer turned George Washington University grad school professor Casey Burgat leads a diverse team of officials, academics, and experts from both sides of the aisle to expose the lies at the heart of our political dysfunction. They debunk talking points about term limits, lobbyists, money in politics, and more—offering real-world insights into how our government actually works.
By: Casey Burgat
-
The Incorruptibles
- A True Story of Kingpins, Crime Busters, and the Birth of the American Underworld
- By: Dan Slater
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 1900s, prior to World War I, New York City was a vortex of vice and corruption. On the Lower East Side, then the most crowded ghetto on earth, Eastern European Jews formed a dense web of crime syndicates. Gangs of horse poisoners and casino owners, pimps and prostitutes, thieves and thugs, jockeyed for dominance while their family members and neighbors toiled in the unregulated garment industry. But when the notorious murder of a gambler attracted global attention, a coterie of affluent German-Jewish uptowners decided to take matters into their own hands.
-
-
Very Entertaining/Researched
- By ptr on 02-23-25
By: Dan Slater