The Seventies: The Great Shift in American culture, Society, and Politics
By Bruce Schulman
Thesis: The long seventies (1968-1974) have had a profound impact on the conservative leaning of America today. This decade began the religiously inspired, Sunbelt, small government conservatism that still exists today. Also Reagan’s legacy of increasing US military budget and intervention in world affairs, persist today.
Summary:
Schulman exhibits his thesis during several chapters that discuss:
1969-1976
-Nixon’s Presidency disillusions American’s about politicians and big government.
-Issues of racism take a new form, as ethnic identities struggle for differentiation and respect, instead of integration, diversity is to be respected.
-American’s search for spiritual fulfillment and spur the 3rd great awakening
-The south and the West rise to power politically, economically, and culturally
1976-1979
-The Carter Admin. faulters along with economy. The era of stag flation. Consumerism explodes as money continually loses value. Americans become credit based.
-Culturally, Americans are disenchanted and anti-authoritarian sentiment rises, giving way to punk music and dark films/tv
-Women fight to extend their roles as equals in society and deny the traditional home role. Man likewise, rise against the John Wayne stereotype, and embrace emotions/family life.
1979-1984
Reagan’s administration promises a war on taxes and claims to minimize the federal gov. Meanwhile they increase the national debt and military budget while intervening in world affairs.
However, the Cold War also ends soon after and America is restored as a world power of influence.
What does this tell us about Gender in the 1970's - Present day?
The 1970’s signaled a major shift in gender relations. Women took a stand against their traditional roles in the home and joined the work force and politics. They also fought against the idea that they were any better suited for family/home duties than men. Laws around divorce and abortion changed. Men also shifted their ideology and became more involved in family life and less relied upon as the sole breadwinner of the family. Male fulfillment shifted from financial and career success to other sectors.
What does this tell us about Race and Ethnicity in the 1970's - Present day?
The rise of the South. Southern egregious racism had been squelched by federal law, so the racist backwards reputation of the South was finally being overcome. Issues of racism take a new form, as ethnic identities struggle for differentiation and respect, instead of integration, diversity is to be respected.
From African Americans and the Civil Rights Movement spurred a general sense of ethnic identity amongst minorities. During Carter’s administration an inquiry into the internment camps of World War II resulted in reparations to Japanese Americans. This era spurred the affirmative action reform in colleges but started as a government requirement to have minority’s quotas for companies that received government contracts. Civil companies followed suit and hired diversity specialists. The American Indians embraced their culture and became more politically active, disputing broken treaties with the US gov, including taking over Alcatraz Island because it was unused American gov property.
What does this tell us about Religion in the 1970's - Present day?
Disillusioned Americans started to examine their spirituality. The communes of the 1960’s faded away or became more mainstream alternative living groups. The American passive Protestant attitudes shifted to more hardline evangelical ideals. Religion became more mainstream. The third great awakening brought many Americans back to the church and longing for the old days of America, causing a resurgence in the mainstream popularity of country music (associated with the south) and Christian mainstream music like “Spirit in the Sky”.
What does this tell us about Politics in the 1970's - Present day?
The author argues that the present day conservative stand on government and the shift away from FDR’s New Deal strategies of government intervention all stem from this era. Starting with the disgust of Nixon’s stunning immoral political manipulation and over law breaking, to frustration with Carter’s inability to stabilize the economy and the massive inflation rates along with increasing government oversight and programs, and finally with Reagan’s appeal to reduce taxes and federal government programs. The American people began to long for the gold old days when state government played the biggest role and presidents were spokesmen to maintain US power abroad. The South and the Western US rose to power, and the traditionally NE dominated government dissolved.
The rise of the South. Southern egregious racism had been squelched by federal law, so the racist backwards reputation of the South was finally being overcome. With the rise of industry, the space program, military installations, and the elderly moving south, population began to soar.
What parts of the book can be applied to lectures?
Interesting stuff……
Country Joe, Hippies Song “Vietnam Song”
The first Rambo displays the disillusionment the American people suffered as a result of the failure in Vietnam. Rambo II is symbolic of Reagan’s Admin and how he determined to no longer have our hands tied and to go full force to win the Cold War through intervention in many countries. There was the name “Ronbo” given to Reagan and his head put on Sly’s Rambo poster.
Resurgence in the mainstream popularity of country music (associated with the south) and Christian mainstream music like “Spirit in the Sky”.
1984 Year of the Yuppie, time magazine
General Thoughts:
Altomont Vs. Woodstock-> Made the hippies seems like a potentially violent group, no longer mellow protestors
Nixon told America what they already knew, that the president was a corrupt political position. It didn’t really change the public opinion of government. Confidence was already waning
The rise of the South. Southern egregious racism had been squelched by federal law, so the racist backwards reputation of the South was finally being overcome. With the rise of industry, the space program, military installations, and the elderly moving south, population began to soar. The third great awakening brought many Americans back to the church and longing for the old days of America, causing a resurgence in the mainstream popularity of country music (associated with the south) and Christian mainstream music like “Spirit in the Sky”.
THE REAGAN ADMIN:
The first Rambo displays the disillusionment the American people suffered as a result of the failure in Vietnam. Rambo II is symbolic of Reagan’s Admin and how he determined to no longer have our hands tied and to go full force to win the Cold War through intervention in many countries. There was the name “Ronbo” given to Reagan and his head put on Sly’s Rambo poster. Reagan’s admin became involved in Grenada, El Sal, Nica, Lebanon. It was clear that America supported Reagan’s power stance as long as no US soldiers were do the fighting. Reagan dramatically increased military spending.
However economy was one of the big issues, his administration had to face. He first blamed Carter (that’s original) and then set forth to do massive cuts to government spending. Cut taxes, cut spending.
Excerpts from Book Reviews:
2 Major Shifts
1.
“The decade transformed American politics and culture in two critical-and several lesser-respects. Most significantly, the South "rose again." During the 1970s, Schulman explains, the balance of political power shifted to thriving Sunbelt states in the South and the West and "the South's historic policy prescriptions-low taxes and scant public services, military preparedness and a preference for state and local government over federal supremacy-came to define the national agenda"
2.
“The triumph of the market as "the favored means for personal liberation and Cultural Revolution" (p. 257). The 1970s saw a marked decline in trust in the federal government, as many Americans turned instead to the private sphere and what Schulman calls "an unusual faith in the market"
“Schulman starts his narrative with a fascinating chapter on Richard Nixon, depicting the president as a man who earned the nickname "Tricky Dick" by systematically undermining liberal programs without ever publicly attacking them. Using the examples of federal funding for the arts, low-income housing, and environmental programs, as well as the never-implemented Family Assistance Plan, Schulman demonstrates how Nixon seemed to support traditional liberal issues while simultaneously undermining the liberal power base.”
My Highlighted Passages:
This impression could hardly be more wrong. The Seventies transformed American economic and cultural life as much as, if not more than, the revolutions in manners and morals of the 1920s and the 1960s. The decade reshaped the political landscape more dramatically than the 1930s. In race relations, religion, family life, politics, and popular culture, the 1970s marked the most significant watershed of modern U.S. history, the beginning of our own time.109
Americans developed a deeper, more thorough suspicion of the instruments of public life and a more profound disillusionment with the corruption and inefficiency of public institutions.170
Increasingly, all sorts of Americans, even those with dreams of radical reform, looked to the entrepreneur and the marketplace as the agent of national progress and dynamic social change.178
A new ethic of personal liberation trumped older notions of decency, civility, and restraint. Americans widely embraced this looser code of conduct.183
mayhem-filled years, from 1969 to 1984, the United States experienced a remarkable makeover. Its economic outlook, political ideology, cultural assumptions, and fundamental social arrangements changed.212
Nixon even conceded that “I am now a Keynesian in economics.” He embraced the idea that a humming economy was the responsibility of the federal government and that the White House should actively intervene in economic affairs, carefully calibrating the policy controls, to ensure robust growth and low unemployment. Nixon even dispensed with the gold standard, that most reassuring symbol of conservative fiscal orthodoxy.729
Watergate only intensified Americans’ alienation from public life: their contempt for the secrecy, inefficiency, and failures of “big government.”1131
But the general trends bolstered conservatives. The ultimate lesson of Watergate remained “you can’t trust the government.”1352
President Jimmy Carter represented a more conservative faction of the Democratic party: southern, fiscally responsible, suspicious of labor unions and government regulation. 861354
Along with the bonfire of political power, the Sunbelt boom ignited a cultural revival—the strongest reassertion of southern cultural identity and regional pride since the Civil War.2831
By the early 1970s, embarrassment over segregation had faded away, and the South rejoined the national mainstream on questions of race relations.2833
On the one hand, the worst excesses of southern racism had been outlawed, and African Americans began voting in southern elections.2833
Their beliefs and resentments created a potent political force. Sunbelt conservatives accomplished what Sixties radicals had only dreamed of: they captured a political party and won control of the White House.2915
Demi-rednecks formed the foundation for conservative populism, the tax revolt, and the Reaganite assault on the welfare state.2916
In Grenada, El Salvador, and Angola, it appeared that Reagan and the United States had reclaimed world leadership,5288
States lacked the wherewithal—the unchallenged economic hegemony that had underwritten the ambitious interventionism of the early cold war. After 1945, the war-revved U.S. economy so outperformed its exhausted allies and defeated enemies that Americans could afford economic sacrifices for political or strategic objectives.5319
The Reagan administration would send soldiers and sailors into combat, Weinberger explained, only if the operation had a clear objective, if the circumstances permitted the United States to marshal sufficient firepower to finish the job quickly, and if the intervention received overwhelming public support.5336
Richard Viguerie rightly labeled Reagan “a reverse Teddy Roosevelt”—a leader who spoke loudly and carried a small stick. 235351
Maintaining public approval often took precedence over standing tall. The heart of the president’s program—the centerpiece of the Reagan Revolution—was an attack on big government—the5456
“In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”5458
They could not fulfill Reagan’s promises of tax cuts, rearmament, and a balanced budget, at least not without massive cuts in public services.5644
Experiments in communal life and spiritual renewal had disbanded or become conventional. Rap, with its militant lyrics and contempt for racial integration, competed with country, the most conspicuous component of a southernized national culture, for control of the airwaves.6077
During the Seventies, national power shifted south and west.6096
Drawing strength from its burgeoning population and booming economy, the South and Southwest wrested control of national politics.6100
The South’s historic policy prescriptions—low taxes and scant public services, military preparedness and a preference for state and local government over federal supremacy— came to define the national agenda during the Seventies and have remained the motive forces in American public policy ever since.6105
Religion, especially the frank expression of personal spirituality, assumed a public and powerful role in American life.6112
Over the past two decades, entrepreneurship has replaced social and political activism as the source of dynamic cultural and political change in the United States.6124
The digital revolution only reinforced the conviction that technology and entrepreneurship empowered ordinary people and inspired cultural and political innovation.6133
Seventies emphasis on authenticity and freedom, on political transformation through personal liberation. But the market—in particular, starting new businesses—became the favored means for personal liberation and cultural revolution.6147
changes in attitudes, remain potent. The long, gaudy, depressing Seventies reinvented America. We live in their shadows.
Nixon wanted to destroy the liberal establishment by stripping it of its bases of support and its sources of funds.
But the era, and its climactic twelve months, have also been recalled, as “the Year the Dream Died”—the year, to quote one journalist, “when for so many, the dream of a nobler, optimistic America died, and the reality of a skeptical conservative America began to fill the void.”
Nixon also pioneered what came to be called devolution—transferring authority from the federal government to state and local governments and from the public sector to the private sphere.
Watergate was unique; it forever altered the way Americans understood politics and the presidency, the way they reported and discussed national politics, the way they conceived, investigated, and understood wrongdoing by government officials.
If one date delineated the end of the Sixties and the beginning of the Seventies, it was the year 1968.
