American Politics and Society Americans Have Long Essay

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American Politics and Society

Americans have long struggled with 1970s decade to understand exactly how it influenced American political, economic and social fabric. It seemed that while historians were pondering over the role of 1960s and 1980s, the decade in between evaporated in thin air with no one paying much attention or been able to comprehend the role played by this decade. But when the confused teenager of 1970s grew up to become academics and journalists, a shift in history was noticed.

To most Americans, seventies was an era of defeat and depression. Americans were sorely defeated in Vietnam, they faced hostage crisis in Iran, met some serious inflation problems and oil shortage. Thus if anything, Americans would want to forget that 70s ever existed. But that is not the whole picture- its just one side of the coin. The other side shows a much different picture where 70s played as crucial a role in shaping history as 1920s or 1960s did.

With the 1970s generation become more vocal and eloquent, they also became more aware of the role their decade had played in shaping the American culture, its political and economic structure. It is now believed that the America we live in today has its roots in the quiet revolution of 1970s. It was during this decade that experimentation in terms of social changes that had taken place in 1960s finally came to their appropriate end. This doesn't mean they disappeared but rather they were filtered out so that only the most appropriate, the most needed and the most in-demand changes stayed while the rest were weeded out.

Bruce J. Schulman in his book "The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics," studies the decade in greater detail and depth to answer one important question: did this decade brought an end of the changes of the past or did it give them their final shape.

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Schulman believes that the significance of 1980s, the conservatism of that decade all began in 1970s which acted like a bridge between extreme views of 1960s and the conservative values that America had hitherto held on to. It established the free market and private enterprise and firmly gave shape to the economy as we know it today. With its quite revolution, it also rebelled against some of the drastic changes of 1960s while it fought for liberation and freedom that some 1960s ideals had introduced. This gave birth to a much saner, a little conservative and basically a balanced American political and social scene.

This was also the time when American middle class came to the fore with all its might. It was when America became a little more Republican and a little less Democratic. It was also the time of southernization of America. The people who became most interested in the changes of the decade were the American middle class. And they found their voice in the alleged humdrum of 1970s. Richard Nixon had been brought to power by the same middle class- a group of people who believed in American old values of patriotism and duty. They did not endorse student protests and demonstrations but instead of actively speaking against it, they quietly stayed away from them and slowly but surely they were able to dominate and later suppress the rowdiness of 1960s. There was however buried in the changes of 1960s a seed for individualism which ripened in 1970s and hence the decade was marked by sense of self-reliance. And so powerful were the values that 1960s and its eccentric ways became a matter of the past and those who still adhered to those values….....

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