Transcript File

The Age of Disillusionment
America in the Seventies
Dazed and Confused
Popular media portrayals
and the 1970s.
A Turning Point
• Social Movements from
1960s advanced.
– Backlash by Americans
feeling economic insecurity
and loss.
• Contributes to rightward
turn in American politics.
– New Deal liberal reform
movement shattered.
– Culture wars we are still
fighting.
1960s Hangover
• National exhaustion from the reform and conflict of the
1960s, but still an ongoing commitment to social change
by:
– Environmentalists, feminists, gays and lesbians, people of color
Environmentalism
•
Rachel Carson and DDT
– Fossil fuels and chemicals
threatening global warming.
•
Earth Day – April 22, 1970
– Rights of nature
Three Mile Island
• Dangers to use of
alternative sources of
energy.
– 100,000 residents
evacuated after nuclear
power plant
experiences near
meltdown.
• Increase in cancer cases
reported afterwards.
• We still debate the
safety of nuclear
power today.
Feminist Movement
• Outgrowth of the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements.
• “Consciousness-raising” sessions.
• National Organization for Women (NOW) issues:
– equal pay
– Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
– Reproductive rights
• Roe v. Wade (1973)
Gay Rights
• Stonewall Riot, June 27, 1969
– Gay Liberation movement
demands equal protection
• American Psychiatric
Association declassifies
homosexuality as mental
disorder (1974)
Civil Rights and Identity Politics
•
Expansion of Affirmative Action
– Policies to redress historical patterns of race
and sex discrimination in education and
employment.
•
•
Court-mandated busing to achieve integration.
American Indian Movement
– 71 day protest at Wounded Knee (1971)
•
The Chicano and Asian American Movements
– Bilingual Education, ethnic studies
– Cesar Chavez
Politics of Resentment
• Middle-Class and Blue Collar workers struggle to comprehend
economic/cultural changes in U.S. and social problems.
• Economic Insecurity
– Vietnam War increases inflation (“too many dollars chasing too few
goods.”)
– Higher prices and an end to increases in real incomes.
• “Deindustrialization”
– The United States lost between 32 and 38 million jobs in the 1970s.
Oil rose from $3 to $34 a barrel (1973-1979)
Stagflation in the 1970s
• Inflation reaches nearly 14% by 1980
• Catch 22 for Policymakers
– Increase interest rates to fight inflation will also slow
down economy and make unemployment worse.
• Inflation seen as the worst evil.
– Interest rates hit 20% in 1980.
• Economy in a shambles.
Proposition 13
• Voters in California
pass a measure to
reduce property taxes
(1978).
• Reduces government
spending and requires
cutbacks in social
services.
• A conservative model
to shrink government
around the country.
Politics of Resentment
• White resentment of further
calls for minority rights.
– Affirmative Action and Busing
called “reverse
discrimination.”
• Opposition to Feminist
Movement
Boston Busing Protest, 1976
– Both among women and men.
– Stepford Wives
Conservative Christians
• Jerry Fallwell and the
Moral Majority
• Support:
– creationism in schools
– school prayer
amendment
– government aid to
religious schools
Watergate Scandal
• White House cover-up of
break-in at Democratic HQ
at Watergate Hotel.
– Tried to get FBI to shut
down investigation.
• Nixon Refused to release
personal audio tapes which
detailed his orders for a coverup.
• “Saturday Night Massacre”
Nixon Resigns
• Tapes show his involvement in coverup and obstruction of justice.
– House votes articles of impeachment.
• First President to resign.
– August 8, 1974
President Gerald Ford
“Our long national nightmare is over.”
– Ford pardons Nixon.
“I will never lie to you.”
-- President Jimmy Carter
• An ineffective president.
– Micromanaged affairs
– Played the outsider and
alienated potential insider
allies.
– Economic problems too big.
Loss of International Influence
• Fall of Saigon, 1975
• Crumbling relations between U.S.
and Soviet Union
– Soviet Union supports revolutions
in Africa and invades Afghanistan
in 1979.
Iranian Hostage
Crisis
• 53 Americans are taken hostage
from the U.S. embassy in Iran in
1979.
• Failed U.S. rescue mission
reinforces sense of helplessness.
Voter Revolt
• Americans seething with
frustration at elected
leaders and the political
system.
• With economic troubles
and international
humiliation, Carter
defeated in 1980
election.
Ronald Reagan
• Conservative Revolution sweeps the country.
– Promises low taxes, more defense spending, return to cultural
values, balanced budget.
• Americans didn’t believe him…but they wanted to.
– They liked his message and were willing to take a chance.
Cultural Wars
• A Paradox:
– 1960s social movements gain
strength in 1970s but fuel a
politics of resentment, leading
to conservative revolution.
• We still fight these culture
wars today:
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–
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School curriculums
Gay and Minority Rights
Affirmative Action
Role of Government
Energy Policy
Abortion and Reproductive
Rights