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

CalBear

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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.
And you were doing so well right up to the end.

Please confine political commentary to Chat.
 
. . . because double-digit inflation . . .
Thank you for mentioning the double-dip recession of 1980 and 1982 (although you did transpose some digits).

And do you remember the “misery index” in which the inflation rate and unemployment rate was added together as a shorthand?
 

Wallet

Banned
The Depression was clearly remembered in the 50s & 60s. Cant recall how many million times old farts like Uncle Edwin lectured everyone in ear shot about the Depression. My fathers generation certainly lived it in their youth, tho they were less inclined to yammer on about it.
I mean that in 2018, most people don’t know that people in the late 40s feared the return of depression
 
The 1940s are everything. They set in place trends which would last for decades.

part 1: All-out push to win war.

part 2: Both continuing to fight war and planning for post-war

part 3: the single year 1945, some people did fear a slide back to economic depression because that’s what they had known since 1929. But no, there was an economic boom, perhaps due to such factors as pent up consumer demand, continued military spending, a lot fewer major competitors to U.S. manufacturing, the GI Bill leading to staged re-entry to job market, etc.

part 4: the single year 1946, a wave of strikes probably from pent up wage demands, Republicans use slogan “Had Enough?” and win majorities in both the House and the Senate in the Nov. ‘46 elections.
https://books.google.com/books?id=J...IJTAA#v=onepage&q=1946 u.s. elections&f=false
Republicans ended up with 246 out of approx. 435 seats in House, and with 51 out of 96 seats in Senate (this was before Hawaii and Alaska were admitted!)

part 5: . . . .

part 6: . . . . .

A highly significant decade. And on this one, I am talking about what actually happened much more so than public perception.​
 
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The 1940s, cont’d


youtube: Postwar Housing Shortage

And I am stilled intrigued as heck by the idea of an economy in which there are plenty of jobs but hard to find things to spend your money on, even if this is just a very temporary stage. :)
 
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41qvizXa+cL._SL300_.jpg


And, bigger time periods?
 
in 1968 . . .

In Vietnam, the Tet Offensive which begun on Jan. 31, 3:00 am local time. It was a military defeat for the North Vietnamese communists and the allied rebel army in the South, . . . but then, (Americans thinking at the time) why aren't we more popular? Just because we supported an autocratic government in the south, certainly they're far better than the communists and why don't the people there see this?

The Tet Offensive caused many non-activist citizens to re-examine whether this war was at all winnable.

We lost Martin and Bobby.

A lot of violence at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, primarily on the part of the police attacking young protestors, but also the protestors weren't on their best behavior. It wasn't like the heady days of civil rights activism in which you really thought you could call forth the best ideals of fellow citizens. And when Chicago Mayor Richard Daley supported and justified the police, he may have really believed that shit. But I think it's also likely that the police were out of control and he didn't want to admit that. I think both are pretty likely possibilities.

And then the fact that George Wallace running on segregation, anti-elitism, and some version of economic populism, had one time had 25% in the polls. At the actual election, had 13%.

And the fact that Nixon ran on his "Southern strategy."

A lot of the idealism of the '60s was gone.
 
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and internationally . . .

In response to student protests and working-class strikes, Charles de Gaulle in France, called for a national referendum on May 24, 1968, and three days later cancelled that referendum and dissolved parliament.
https://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/modules/eu/mod05_1968/evidence_detail_08.html

On Aug. 20, the Soviet Union led the Warsaw Pact in an invasion of Czechoslovakia.

On Oct. 2, 1968, the army in Mexico fired upon student protestors killing hundreds in the Tlatelolco Plaza massacre, ten days before the start of the Olympics.

And I think there were student protests in a number of countries. A lot of this was demographics. I mean, take the late '40s and early '50s baby boom generation and add 16 to 25 years.
 
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http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article196983069.html

At the reception, my sixth-grade granddaughter enjoys cookies and punch as I enjoy her mature inquisitiveness about my service [Vietnam 1968]. Unpredictably, after thoughtful pause, she asks, “Grandpa, did you kill anyone?” I smile. “That’s a really important and complicated question; we’ll talk about ‘killing-in-war’ when you’re in high school.”
Maybe not directly related, but too good to just leave on the table.

And it does involve questions of idealism.
 
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There is another reason the seventies lose their identity, and it is because generational demarcations ended. If you look at recent generations: Gen. X (1965-1979), Millennial (1980-1994) and Gen. Z (1995-2009), the dividing points are quite artificial, based on the notion that a cultural generation should be 15 years, half of a family generation, 30 years. We can not say a child born in 1962 was exposed to a different environment from one born in 1966, even though a sudden drop in the birth rate ends the designated Baby Boom after 1964. Same with 1992 and 1996. In contrast, a child born in 1952 had very different concerns versus one born four years later. A man born in 1952 could be drafted, against his will, if his lottery number came up first, and there were no more 4-year undergraduate deferrals to keep him from being drafted in 1972, in the middle of his sophomore year in college. In contrast, one born in 1956 moved to adulthood as if the draft never happened. For this reason, I place the end of the cultural sixties at July 1, 1973, the day selective service ended.

Two older generations had significant changes within. The Silent Generation (1927-1945) starts with Korean War veterans (much in common with those of WWII) and ends with Vietnam vets, treated very differently and are among those who ushered in the counterculture. The Baby Boom (1946-1964) starts with Vietnam vets and ends differently. In contrast, the differences among those born after 1960 occur slowly without prominent demarcation points. The people slowly assimilate new technology, new electronics and new standards. While technology is a point of distinction for every generation, it moves to the forefront in more recent generations.

In fact, we can step back some 45 years to 1973 and see a time when many order of life issues are still much like those of today: cars, highways, airplanes, hotels, shopping centers, classic rock music, dress codes (or lack thereof). If you step a mere 15 years farther (1958), you are in an era of Jim Crow segregation, passenger railroads, different dress codes, and recorded music that is much less developed.
 
Maybe an idea of an Interregnum?

With "the sixties" as idealistic, "the seventies" as blah and a time of diminished expectations, and there being an in-between period which doesn't fit neatly into either decade?
 
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. . . the day selective service ended. . .
This was certainly important to the young men and to youth culture generally. One common analysis is that a lot of political activism ended when the draft was over. And then regarding Watergate, I think it was Dave Dellinger who said a lot of citizens moved from being active citizens to just watching and cheering on the good guys.

All the same, as far as big cultural trends I'm going to say either Nixon's so-called "Saturday Night Massacre" when three people in the Justice Dept. either resigned and/or were fired including special prosecutor Archibald Cox (Oct. 20, 1973), and the resulting "firestorm of protest."

Or, maybe when gas lines first starting appearing in (?) early '74?

https://www.politico.com/story/2012/01/us-military-draft-ends-jan-27-1973-072085

' . . . in 1973 [January 27], as the Vietnam War drew to a close, the Selective Service announced that there would be no further draft calls. . . '

' . . . In March 1973, 1974 and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955 and 1956, in case the draft was extended — but it never was. . . '
According to this, the draft ended slowly. And maybe young men with low lottery numbers didn't know they were entirely off the hook.
 
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The Selective Service did draw lottery numbers for those born in 1954, 1955 and 1956, but the announcement of the end of the draft on July 1, 1973 pretty much made the possibility of service very contingent on some new, unexpected post-Vietnam escalation.

Compared to the idealistic challenges of the sixties, those of the seventies seemed more down to earth: energy and the price of fuel; and the political scandal of Watergate. In many ways, the seventies were a very "open" period, as the constraints of the sixties (and earlier) were gone, and the challenges of the eighties (and beyond) had not yet arrived. The drinking age was 18 or 19 in many states in 1976. Into the eighties, society began to tighten. Fear of Herpes (1978) and later AIDS (1980+) had a chilling effect. Jobs became tight, political correctness began to set in, seat belt laws and child restraints became law. Also, computers were still mainframe devices in corporations, universities and governments, not desktop tools.
 
. . . the end of the draft on July 1, 1973 . . .

The following newspaper article looks back at the last guy drafted one day before this!

Last Draftee, Who Tried To Hide, Now Believes In Service
Seattle Times, David Wood (Newhouse News Service), June 22, 1993.

http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930622&slug=1707752

' . . Dwight Elliott Stone, then a 24-year-old plumber's apprentice living in Sacramento, Calif. . '

' . . Stone, the last draftee, was inducted into the United States Army on June 30, 1973. . '
It looks like the previous Politico article is not quite a hundred percent accurate, or at least incomplete. It's a fact of life that sources are sometimes a little ragged around the edges, which is one reason I believe in using a variety of sources.
 
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