Publication Date

Summer 2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS)

Department

Library and Information Science

Advisor

Debra Hansen

Keywords

Communication Company, Counterculture, Diggers, Haight-Ashbury, Mimeograph, Pamphlet

Subject Areas

Library science; American history; American studies

Abstract

The thesis examines the history of the Communication Company, a grassroots radical street press utilizing mimeograph technology and operating for and within the psychedelic hippie counterculture of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury District from 1967-1968. The symbiotic relationship between the Communication Company and the Diggers, a street theater and anarchist collective that became a group of de facto social workers of the Haight, is discussed, demonstrating how the Communication Company fulfilled a critical role as the Diggers' outreach and information ministry. The products of the Com/co press were also examined within the context of the American radical pamphlet tradition. By exploring the cycle and activities of Com/co, the study sought to shed new light on the radical pamphlet tradition and the role it played in the 1960s counterculture.

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