In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, a large portion of the population had become disenchanted with the American way of life that they did not feel they belonged to. While some openly revolted in the streets, others took to turning away from the mainstream and headed toward a new world. Utopian visions, manifesting themselves in the form of communes, were aimed at breaking the bonds of capitalism, big business, and the reigning oligarchy and were popping up throughout the country. The San Francisco Bay Area was the hotbed of these communes, and from the Height-Ashbury in San Francisco, east to Berkeley's protest hub at Sproul Plaza, and south to Oakland's Black Panther's communal households, this is an exploration of this unique cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. The history and vision of communal living is investigated in a series of essays aimed at explaining just what these communes were, how lives were lived within them, and what their goals entailed.

Iain Boal is an Irish social historian who is affiliated with the University of California–Berkeley and Birkbeck College–London. He is the author of The Green Machine and the coauthor of Retort’s Afflicted Power. He lives in San Francisco. Janferie Stone is a teacher and writer whose essays have been published in Sustainable Feminisms. She lives in Mendocino, California. Michael Watts is a professor of geology and the chair of development studies at the University of California–Berkeley. He is the former director of the Institute of International Studies. He lives in Santa Cruz, California. Cal Winslow is the author of Labor’s Civil War in California and the coauthor of Albion’s Fatal Tree. He lives in Mendocino, California.