I will provide a historical overview of the 1950s and 1960s to introduce the background and the evolution of the two movements, and will compare the political and social ideas of Beats and hippies. An analysis of the main fields of similarities between the movements will also be part of the present work. Topics such as environmentalism, community life, sexuality, drug culture and its effects on the arts, and religious reform will be addressed to prove the real connections between the two movements.