American Political Culture and Values Article Critique

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 690 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1

Page 1 of 2

American Political Culture and Values

In Hellfire Nation (2003) James Morone described U.S. history as cyclical, with alternating generational cycles of reform and conservatism that can be traced back to the colonial period. In the 20th Century, the reform periods were the Progressive Era, the New Deal and the Great Society of the 1960s, while the 1920s, 1950s and 1980s were eras of conservatism. Religion, culture and sexual morality also follow this cyclical pattern, with the Victorian Era of the late-19th Century and repressive laws of Anthony Comstock, the McCarthyism of the 1950s, and the Moral Majority of the 1980s all following a similar pattern. Since the days of the Puritans in the 17th Century, the great political and moral contests have always centered on the choice between "redeeming 'us' and reforming 'them'," and America has always had a dualistic, Jekyll and Hyde nature (Morone 3). In conservative cycles, politics and culture are focused on suppressing 'un-American' threats or order and morality, such as blacks, Indians, Catholics, gays, radicals or hippies, while in reform eras the goal is always to follow the Social Gospel of assisting the outcasts and the marginalized, such as slaves, the poor, the working class, women or other oppressed groups.

Stuck Writing Your "American Political Culture and Values" Article Critique?

View All Our Example American Political Culture and Values Article Critique

Have A Custom Example Essay Written



In the 1960s and early-1970s, Victorian morality and old-time religion were particularly threatened by Supreme Court decisions legalizing birth control and abortion, the civil rights, gay rights, feminist and countercultural movements, the Social Gospel of Martin Luther King, and the anti-Vietnam War protests. All over the world, "young people imagined a new, more democratic, more socially responsible order," although predictably all of these generated a huge Right-wing backlash that lasted for decades (Morone 435). A cyclical theory like Morone's is indeed one of the best theoretical frameworks at explaining the pendulum-like swings between reform and conservative periods in U.S. history, and why change in this country so often appears to be a matter of two steps forward and one step back. It would seem counter-intuitive to progressives and liberals, at least until they reflect on history and realize that they often….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"American Political Culture And Values" (2012, April 08) Retrieved April 29, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/american-political-culture-values-113046

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"American Political Culture And Values" 08 April 2012. Web.29 April. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/american-political-culture-values-113046>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"American Political Culture And Values", 08 April 2012, Accessed.29 April. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/american-political-culture-values-113046
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example