Thesis: Many Americans perceive “the ‘70s” as short politically?

I think many of my fellow Americans perceive “the ‘70s” as extending from Watergate to the election of Ronald Reagan.

Would like to have your comments. :)
 
I'd say that's on point. Politically speaking the 70's are shorter than any other post-WWII decade, even the 2000s. For instance:

The 1950s: Red Scare era and longest decade, began with start of Cold War, ended with Kennedy assassination (16 years)

The 1960s: Began with Kennedy assassination, ended with Watergate (11 years)

The 1970s: Began with Watergate scandal, ended with Reagan election (only 6 years)

The 1980s: Starts with election of Ronald Reagan, ends with fall of USSR (11 years)

The 1990s: "End of History" era, spanning from Soviet collapse to 9/11 terrorist attacks (10 years)

The 2000s: 9/11 brings us out of the end of history delusion, the Great Recession and Obama's election bring the decade to early end (7 years)

The 2010s: Obama onwards. We're still in this decade until Trump leaves office most likely. (10+ years)

So yeah, both the 1970s and 2000s stick out like sore thumbs and the former decade was even shorter.
 
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Could it not be said that the election of Trump and the rise of the alt-right represents a movement from the 2010s to the 2020s? I guess we have to wait and see if this is the case
 
I'd say that's on point. Politically speaking the 70's are shorter than any other post-WWII decade, even the 2000s. For instance:

The 1950s: Red Scare era and longest decade, began with start of Cold War, ended with Kennedy assassination (16 years)

The 1960s: Began with Kennedy assassination, ended with Watergate (11 years)

The 1970s: Began with Watergate scandal, ended with Reagan election (only 6 years)

The 1980s: Starts with election of Ronald Reagan, ends with fall of USSR (11 years)

The 1990s: "End of History" era, spanning from Soviet collapse to 9/11 terrorist attacks (10 years)

The 2000s: 9/11 brings us out of the end of history delusion, the Great Recession and Obama's election bring the decade to early end (7 years)

The 2010s: Obama onwards. We're still in this decade until Trump leaves office most likely. (10+ years)

So yeah, both the 1970s and 2000s stick out like sore thumbs and the former decade was even shorter.
I'd divide differently but the principles are similar:

1940s: 1941-49 when both the Cold War and federal desegregation are starting to kick in and Truman has a term of his own.
1950s: 1949-58 to Sputnik, emergence of rock and roll as a sustainable force on the charts, the eve of the U-2 incident and the militarization of the conflict over civil rights
1960s pt. 1: 1958-65 up to Civil/Voting Rights Acts of that year and escalation in Vietnam
1960s pt. 2: 1965-72 Nam, counterculture, white backlash, and Nixon up through Watergate and the landslide
1970s: 1973-81 from the Paris Accords and acceleration of Watergate investigation to the Reagan inauguration
1980s: 1981-89, Reagan to the Berlin Wall
1990s: 1989-2001 from December as the Velvet Revolutions kick in to effect to 9/11
2000s: 2001-08 9/11 to electing Obama
2010s: 2009- inaugurating Obama until the Tangerine Toddler departs

That's my take anyway.
 
The 1960s: Began with Kennedy assassination, ended with Watergate (11 years)
1960s pt. 1: 1958-65 up to Civil/Voting Rights Acts of that year and escalation in Vietnam
1960s pt. 2: 1965-72 Nam, counterculture, white backlash, and Nixon up through Watergate and the landslide
I agree and disagree with both of you, but love the discussion! :) I’d put it at:

1960s, part 1: from the Summer of 1960 and and the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles July 11-15, 1960, and the Republican National Convention in Chicago July 25-28, when the American public realized they were going to have a young president for the first time in a long time. Please remember, Dick Nixon was born in 1913 and was only 47 come election time.

1960s, part 2: from Jack Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, and the disillusionment and in some cases skepticism toward the establishment that followed. Through Vietnam, Civil Rights, the space program, youth culture (start with peak years of the baby boom like 1951, 1952, 1953, and then just add 16 to 25 years for a generation). Part 2 ending with either the Oct. ‘73 OPEC oil embargo or some high point of Watergate when more than half the American public first believed Nixon would not serve out the balance of his term.
 
For me, as a teenager the 60s did not end until latter 1972 or 1973. The first couple years were dominated by music and other cultural items that emerged in the 60s. It was not until distinctly new things in music, clothing, film, politics ... came to dominate that it was clear the 60s were over. A stagnating economy contributed as the post WWII prosperity of the US clearly sagged & inflation was becoming a real problem.
 
Could it not be said that the election of Trump and the rise of the alt-right represents a movement from the 2010s to the 2020s? I guess we have to wait and see if this is the case
We certainly could might have a big sea change, such as:

(1) As a wildcard, Trump pushes through immigration reform which is actually pretty decent and sensible, similar to “only Nixon could go to China,” or

(2) Trump resigns under a cloud, and VP Mike Pence who is more right-wing and also more organized and effective takes over, or

(3) I’ll tell you, I’ve talked about the net erosion of middle-class jobs for like the last twenty years, both online and in person. And the first time I’ve felt that people are really open to listening to me has been fairly recently when I’ve talked about the possibility of the coming automation crisis (which may or may not happen, if you’re a tech optimist, you tend to be a job pessimist, and vice versa). If we do effectively address this, we’ll have less scapegoating of all sorts, or

(4) About a dozen versions of the muddle-through possibility. For example, maybe micro-transactions finally kind of get it right and become a thing. And on competitor sites to youtube, popular content makers and groupers can make independent professional income, I mean 100+ grand a year or more. Wouldn’t be enough different people making this to make up for net middle-class job loss since the late ‘70s, but as one major thread in the tapestry, sure, it at least helps.

And other much grayer muddle-through scenarios.
 
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The 60s ended in Mid August 1969. Woodstock was the last hurrah, already sharing the spotlight with Charles Manson. The Beatles ended in 1970 while Joplin and Hendrix died the same year. Kent State. The ideals were gone and replaced with 70s style cynicism that Watergate pumped with steroids.
 
For me, as a teenager the 60s did not end until latter 1972 or 1973. The first couple years were dominated by music and other cultural items that emerged in the 60s. It was not until distinctly new things in music, clothing, film, politics ...
I turned seven in Jan. 1970. To me, some archtypical '70s songs are "Jeremiah was a Bullfrog," "Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves," and "The Locomotion."
 
'The Locomotion', that probably would have been the Grand Funk cover in the early 70s. Others covered it then but theirs hit the top on the Rock radio of the era.
 
My take:

WWII was its own period.
1945-1952: postwar, shortages loomed, waiting lists to buy cars and appliances.
1953-1963: cultural fifties; television, shortages ended, more housing and cars, vastly improved audio recording, early rock
1963-1973: began with MLK dream speech, ended when draft stopped; music, counterculture, civil rights, war protests, birth control, fall of dress codes, etc.
1973-1983: cultural seventies, energy crisis, high inflation, no more demonstrations
1983-1991: inflation ended, economics changed, ended when USSR broke up.
1992-2001: computers spread via Moore's Law, ended with 9/11
2002-2009: computers and cell phones everywhere, broke down with financial crisis
2009-present: launched with Tea Party and alt-right; hard to say how it concludes
 
Hell, this even fits musically. The transition to disco began in 1974 with Philly Soul hits like TSOP and Love's Theme. And obviously the genre's success came to a screeching halt by the end of 1980.
 
My take on this for the whole of the 20th century, in parentheses are my reasons for why I think each year in question is a "rupture year" that marks the beginning of a new era.

1900s: 1901 (death of Queen Victoria and ascension of TR to the US Presidency)- 1914 (start of WWI and opening of Panama Canal).
1910s: 1914-1918 (basically just WWI)
1920s: 1919 (Versailles)-1929 (stock market crash)
1930s: 1929-1941 (Depression and early stages of WWII)
1940s: 1941 (WWII goes fully global with Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor)-1949 (Cold War begins in earnest with the Chinese Revolution, formal division of Germany, Red Scare in the US)
1950s: 1949-1963/4
1960s: 1963/4 (Kennedy asassination, March on Washington, Beatles break America, Vietnam escalates)-1973 (First oil shock, Nixon's second term begins, US withdrawal from Vietnam, ideological foundations of neoliberalism begin to be laid)
1970s: 1973-1979(Reagan announces candidacy, Thatcher elected PM, Volcker appointed to the Fed, Iranian Revolution/hostage crisis, beginning of Afghanistan, Grand Mosque siege, Deng comes to power in China).
1980s: 1979-1991 (fall of USSR, Gulf War marks the beginning of unchallenged American hegemony, neoliberal reforms in India and many other countries)
1990s: 1991-2001 (9/11)
2000s: 2001-2008 (financial crisis)
2010s: 2008- present (you can make the case that 2016 is a rupture year due to Trump/Brexit, but IMO it's too early to tell).
 
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My take:

WWII was its own period.
1945-1952: postwar, shortages loomed, waiting lists to buy cars and appliances.
1953-1963: cultural fifties; television, shortages ended, more housing and cars, vastly improved audio recording, early rock
1963-1973: began with MLK dream speech, ended when draft stopped; music, counterculture, civil rights, war protests, birth control, fall of dress codes, etc.
1973-1983: cultural seventies, energy crisis, high inflation, no more demonstrations
1983-1991: inflation ended, economics changed, ended when USSR broke up.
1992-2001: computers spread via Moore's Law, ended with 9/11
2002-2009: computers and cell phones everywhere, broke down with financial crisis
2009-present: launched with Tea Party and alt-right; hard to say how it concludes

A good bit of the civil rights movement came earlier. Jackie Robinson - 1947, desegregation of the military - 1948, Baton Rouge public transit boycott - 1953, Brown v Board of Education - 1954, the more famous Montgomery boycott - 1955, Little Rock and the first civil rights law - 1957.

The early 1960s had the Woolworth's lunch counter, Freedom Rides, Ole Miss, etc and the mid-1960s saw the efforts pay off, but you could make a case that the heyday of civil rights was the 1950s.
 
We certainly could might have a big sea change, such as:

(1) As a wildcard, Trump pushes through immigration reform which is actually pretty decent and sensible, similar to “only Nixon could go to China,” or

(2) Trump resigns under a cloud, and VP Mike Pence who is more right-wing and also more organized and effective takes over, or

(3) I’ll tell you, I’ve talked about the net erosion of middle-class jobs for like the last twenty years, both online and in person. And the first time I’ve felt that people are really open to listening to me has been fairly recently when I’ve talked about the possibility of the coming automation crisis (which may or may not happen, if you’re a tech optimist, you tend to be a job pessimist, and vice versa). If we do effectively address this, we’ll have less scapegoating of all sorts, or

(4) About a dozen versions of the muddle-through possibility. For example, maybe micro-transactions finally kind of get it right and become a thing. And on competitor sites to youtube, popular content makers and groupers can make independent professional income, I mean 100+ grand a year or more. Wouldn’t be enough different people making this to make up for net middle-class job loss since the late ‘70s, but as one major thread in the tapestry, sure, it at least helps.

And other much grayer muddle-through scenarios.

I tend to think either one of two scenarios will happen:

1. Muddle-through scenario where things continue on more or less the same trajectory they are on now until most of flyover country ends up looking like the Columbus OH presented in Ready Player One while the coasts and Texas thrive, or

2. The upcoming trade wars with China and the EU cause the dollar's reserve currency status to end leading to a hyperinflation scenario.
 
A good bit of the civil rights movement came earlier. Jackie Robinson - 1947, desegregation of the military - 1948, Baton Rouge public transit boycott - 1953, Brown v Board of Education - 1954, the more famous Montgomery boycott - 1955, Little Rock and the first civil rights law - 1957.

The early 1960s had the Woolworth's lunch counter, Freedom Rides, Ole Miss, etc and the mid-1960s saw the efforts pay off, but you could make a case that the heyday of civil rights was the 1950s.
True, but the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights act of 1965 were the crown jewels to end Jim Crow. They were the culminations of the movements of the cultural fifties. But the fact was, Jim Crow segregation was the law of the land in many locations through 1963. Until the laws changed, most African-Americans would not risk arrest and jail time to make a point.
 
Could it not be said that the election of Trump and the rise of the alt-right represents a movement from the 2010s to the 2020s? I guess we have to wait and see if this is the case

Too soon to say. The end of an era can only really be quantified once it's 5-10 years in the past.
 
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I'm more likely to see 2009-2019 end up as the Obama vs. Alt-Right era, ending with a Blue Wave in November, 2018. Before the Internet, opinions had to travel from publisher (or broadcaster) down. With social media, everyone can be a publisher. The next period will see an awareness of the vulnerability of social media.
 
The 60s ended in Mid August 1969. Woodstock was the last hurrah, already sharing the spotlight with Charles Manson. The Beatles ended in 1970 while Joplin and Hendrix died the same year. Kent State. The ideals were gone and replaced with 70s style cynicism that Watergate pumped with steroids.
And we might also add that the Washington Post and the New York Times published the Pentagon papers in 1971. For Americans who merely had doubts about the Vietnam War, this was evidence that the government had lied on a systematic basis for a long time. Plus, we could throw in Nixon's whole extended drama with the Supreme Court. He was bound and determined to appoint a Southern. He appointed first Clement Haynsworth and then Harold Carswell, and in both cases, the Senate refused to confirm. However, by the end of 1971 Nixon successfully had four appointees on the Court: Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, and William Rehnquist. And although the Court seemed to focus on individual rights (win some, lose some) throughout the '70s, by the early '80s, there was at least one case I remember focusing on corporate rights, perhaps laying the slow groundwork for Citizens United. It's amazing that a president had a chance to make four appointments in such a short period of time. President Ford made only one appointment. And President Carter did not have an opportunity to make a single appointment to the Supreme Court.

All the same, when we ask people what images and events they remember from "the 1970s," they tend to pick stuff that happened mid to late. The popular perception, even if mistaken.


* always found it confusing that Earl Warren was Chief Justice from 1953 to '69, and then Warren Burger was from '69 to 1986.

LATER EDIT: I think Nixon did successfully appoint Warren Burger as Chief Justice toward the very beginning, before the whole extended drama with all the rest.
 
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And we might also add that the Washington Post and the New York Times published the Pentagon papers in 1971. For Americans who merely had doubts about the Vietnam War, this was evidence that the government had lied on a systematic basis for a long time. Plus, we could throw in Nixon's whole extended drama with the Supreme Court. He was bound and determined to appoint a Southern. He appointed first Clement Haynsworth and then Harold Carswell, and in both cases, the Senate refused to confirm. However, by the end of 1971 Nixon successfully had four appointees on the Court: Warren Burger, Harry Blackmun, Lewis Powell, and William Rehnquist. And although the Court seemed to focus on individual rights (win some, lose some) throughout the '70s, by the early '80s, there was at least one case I remember focusing on corporate rights, perhaps laying the slow groundwork for Citizens United. It's amazing that a president had a chance to make four appointments in such a short period of time. President Ford made only one appointment. And President Carter did not have an opportunity to make a single appointment to the Supreme Court.

All the same, when we ask people what images and events they remember from "the 1970s," they tend to pick stuff that happened mid to late. The popular perception, even if mistaken.


* always found it confusing that Earl Warren was Chief Justice from 1953 to '69, and then Warren Burger was from '69 to 1986.

It would be really confusing if Earl Burger was appointed in 1986.
 
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