one of my favorites of my collection is the 1970 the alternative, a supposed sociological study of communes that just aches with the whistfulness that hippies and the young had for the transformative power that seemed to lie before them.
primarily a photobook, it focuses on several rural and urban communes including new buffalo, lorien, messiah's world crusade, the hog farm, the lama foundation, drop city, and koinonia farm--some of which continue, most of which don't--as well as abortive attempts at new institutions like shasta free high school and elder statesentities like the l.a. free clinic.
like much of my collection, the alternative traveled around the country in one of several milk crates and I remember thumbing through it sitting beside small fires or parked under some parking lot's lights, imaging what could be. I still pull it down and flip through it. it's a mini-woodstock with all that term suggests.
william hedgepeth and dennis stock. the alternative: communal life in new america. collier books. 1970. first edition.
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