This thesis describes the underground press of the sixties in the United States, from the beginning of the movement in mid-decade to its apparent demise in the early seventies. I use articles from the underground papers to illustrate the nature of the underground press and apply literary and socio-cultural theories and thinking to the phenomenon in order to chart and analyze its rapid development and speedy disappearance early in the seventies. I focus on the journalistic idealism represented by the papers. By journalistic idealism, I mean the belief that society could be improved if its ills were exposed by journalism conducted in the public interest--the founding faith of the daily press in America. In this sense the underground papers recalled the earlier ideals of a free press in a democratic society. I conclude that the journalistic idealism of the sixties was contained and perverted, but not destroyed. The deeper questions posed here, however, concern the nature of hegemony and of social movements for change and their particular problems with respect to the status quo and its official authorities. The theoretical justification for treating newswriting (generally) as a form of literature (rather than a form of "communications"), is to reveal some of the codes it relies upon to convey meaning (rather than simply information).

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