The Beat movement was a literary movement that became a social movement as well. In the late 1940s and into the 1950s, a group of writers shared a deep distaste for American culture and society as it existed after World War II (1939–45). These writers included Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), Jack Kerouac (1922-1969), William F. Burroughs (1914-1997), John Clellon Holmes (1926-1988), and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–). In an era when many Americans were content to pursue consumer culture, the Beats—or Beatniks—sought out experiences that were more intensely "real." Sometimes "real" experiences meant physical pleasures such as sex and drugs or more spiritual pursuits such as Eastern religions, particularly Buddhism.

Of the Beats, the two most important figures were Ginsberg and Kerouac. Ginsberg's poem "Howl" was a biting commentary on the values of postwar America. He described how he "saw the best minds...