Crosscurrents of Crisis in 1970s America

The 1970s ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Borstelmann
Keyword(s):  
American Culture ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Public Authority ◽  
The World ◽  
Oil Crisis ◽  
American Society ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Do So

This chapter examines American anxieties about the longstanding foundations of American society and thought. By the 1970s, American society would be buffeted by powerful crosscurrents which reshaped both the nation and the world beyond it. Military, political, economic, and environmental crises unfolded rapidly on top of each other, leaving many citizens uncertain of which to address first and how to do so. In the backwash of defeat in Vietnam and humiliation from the Watergate scandal, and in the midst of inflation and an oil crisis, distrust of government pervaded American society, the loss of confidence in public authority laid the foundation for deregulation and a turn toward the free market, a path that led to growing disparities between rich and poor. At the same time, the more tolerant and individualistic mainstream American culture increasingly rejected old forms of group discrimination and inequality.

The 1970s

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Borstelmann
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Free Market ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Retirement Plans ◽  
Free Agency ◽  
The World ◽  
The Disabled ◽  
Oil Crisis ◽  
American Society

This book looks at an iconic decade when the cultural left and economic right came to the fore in American society and the world at large. While many have seen the 1970s as simply a period of failures epitomized by Watergate, inflation, the oil crisis, global unrest, and disillusionment with military efforts in Vietnam, this book creates a new framework for understanding the period and its legacy. It demonstrates how the 1970s increased social inclusiveness and, at the same time, encouraged commitments to the free market and wariness of government. As a result, American culture and much of the rest of the world became more—and less—equal. This book explores how the 1970s forged the contours of contemporary America. Military, political, and economic crises undercut citizens' confidence in government. Free market enthusiasm led to lower taxes, a volunteer army, individual 401(k) retirement plans, free agency in sports, deregulated airlines, and expansions in gambling and pornography. At the same time, the movement for civil rights grew, promoting changes for women, gays, immigrants, and the disabled. And developments were not limited to the United States. Many countries gave up colonial and racial hierarchies to develop a new formal commitment to human rights, while economic deregulation spread to other parts of the world, from Chile and the United Kingdom to China. Placing a tempestuous political culture within a global perspective, this book shows that the decade wrought irrevocable transformations upon American society and the broader world that continue to resonate today.

scholarly journals Should 1974 be considered a watershed year in the economic history of the world?

1980 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 45-49
Author(s):  
G. Jan Hupkes
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Market Mechanism ◽  
Oil Consumption ◽  
Payments System ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oil Crisis ◽  
Economic Future

The early 1970s marked a turning point in mankind's economic fortunes and the author takes 1974 as an 'artificial' vantage point from which to look back, but also forward. Several forces led to the shocks of the seventies: the breaking down in the discipline of the international payments system, rising inflation, the oil crisis, the West's loss of strategic military initiative to the East. The author outlines what ought to be done to improve the economic outlook for the 1980s: The international payments system must be placed on a more stable and disciplined footing, inflation must be controlled by balancing of national budgets, the energy crisis must be contained by reduction of oil consumption via the price mechanism. In South Africa the economic watershed year was 1976; two years later than that of the world economy in general. Since then a policy of strict financial discipline has led to a record surplus in balance of payments, which together with new emphasis on the importance of the free market mechanism and increasing energy self-sufficiency, promises a better economic future for South Africa than for many other countries.Die vroee 1970s was 'n keerpunt in die mensdom se ekonomiese lotgevalle en die skrywer neem 1974 as 'n 'kunsmatige' uitsigpunt vanwaar hy terug kyk, maar ook vorentoe. Verskeie magte het gelei tot die skokke van die sewentigs: die aftakeling van die dissipline van die internasionale betalingstelsel, stygende inflasie, die oliiekrisis, en die Weste se afstand van strategiese militere inisiatief aan die Ooste. Die skrywer dui aan wat gedoen moet word om die ekonomiese vooruitsigte vir die 1980s te verbeter: Die internasionale betalingstelsel moet op 'n meer stabiele en gedissiplineerde grondslag geplaas word, inflasie moet deur die balansering van nasionale begrotings beheer word, die energiekrisis moet via die prysmeganisme deur verminderde olieverbrulk beteuel word. In Suid-Afrika was die ekonomiese waterskeidingsjaar 1976; twee jaar later as die van die wereld-ekonomie in die algemeen. Sedertdien het 'n beleid van streng finansiele dissipline gelei tot 'n rekord surplus op die betalingsbalans, wat saam met nuwe klem op die belangrikheid van die vrye markmeganisme en toenemende energie-selfvoorsiening, 'n bater ekonomiese toekoms vir Suid-Afrika as vir baie ander lande beloof.

6. The world wide web of American culture

2018 ◽  
pp. 105-126
Author(s):  
Eric Avila
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
Hip Hop ◽  
World Wide ◽  
American Culture ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
The World ◽  
The Sixties ◽  
Aids Crisis ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Impact

If the sixties radicalized the content of American culture, the nineties revolutionized its form. The digital revolution began in California and enveloped the entire world, creating unprecedented opportunities for instantaneous communication and self-expression. “The world wide web of American culture” first describes the impact on American culture of 1970s counterculture; the music genres of disco, pop, and hip hop; the AIDS crisis; and the excesses of 1980s culture. It then explains how the rise of the Internet fostered a new plurality in American society. American culture continues to unite diverse and disparate segments of the population, even as it remains a battleground, fraught with the very tensions and conflicts that define the nation’s history and identity.

scholarly journals Globalization of Serbia

2002 ◽  
pp. 235-244
Author(s):  
Zoran Avramovic
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Social Life ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The Third ◽  
American Model ◽  
The World ◽  
Individual Consciousness ◽  
American Society

The paper defines the notion of globalization as spreading of American culture to all countries in the world. The essential meaning of the ideology of globalization is the establishment of a new way to rule the world. The idea of American world leadership, supported by the entire elite of the American society, is underlined. The second part analyses examples of the globalization of the Serbian society. Media and education are the two areas of social life in which the processes of Americanization are the strongest. The examples from economy, culture, entertainment and sport are also pointed out. The third part discusses the possibility of protection from globalization, pointing to the possibility of critical doubt as a part of the collective and individual consciousness in denying universality of the American model, as well as to the value of autonomy, unpredictability of human nature, and to the process of auto-criticism within the American society.

scholarly journals Understanding American Values Through Emerson’s Self-Reliance

IdeBahasa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-104
Author(s):  
Rudy
Keyword(s):  
American Culture ◽  
Hard Work ◽  
American Life ◽  
American Values ◽  
Self Reliance ◽  
The World ◽  
American Romanticism ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Impact

The study focuses on the influence of one of the prominent figures in American romanticism, Ralph Emerson. By applying the Hall’s Theory of Representation this study intends to identify the role of Self-Reliance in American culture and the impact of Emerson’s philosophy toward American life And now people all over the world have recognized his work Self-Reliance (1841) as the inspiration in many aspects of life. His hard work, ethical teaching and spirit have become the most important ideas in shaping independent American society. Through his literary works, Emerson has conveyed important messages to the world on shaping personalities.

scholarly journals Irving Kristol — svjetovni teolog kapitalizma

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Erma Ivoš
Keyword(s):  
Private Property ◽  
Free Market ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Moral Legitimacy ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Structural Nature ◽  
Just Society ◽  
American Society ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The Welfare State

In Irving Kristol, the professor and publicist who coined the prefix »neo« and the creator of the sintagm neo-conservatism, American neoconservatism of the eighties has found its political ideologue. In his last book, Two Cheers for Capitalism, which is the immediate occassion of this analysis, he expresses his concern for the fate of American democracy and the capitalist system in USA. The onslaught of egalitarians and the demand for a democracy without bounds, has produced a cultural, followed by an economic crisis, which brings about the loss of the political, economic and moral legitimacy of the American society. The solution of the present crisis, which is of a structural nature, Irving Kristol sees in the return to a traditional capitalist ethos and the politics of laissez faire, as well as to the values affirmed by the state of labour and not the welfare state. The free market as the selector of individual abilities, private property and a rational economy represent the essence of capitalism not only as a free but as a just society. The author in addition believes that socialist societies, founded on diametrically opposite values, are more historical deviations that will end up on the dunghill of history.

Framing an Ecology of Hope

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-34
Author(s):  
Graeme Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Presidential Address ◽  
Alternative Possibilities ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
American Society ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
Ways Of Being ◽  
Better Than

Abstract Responding to the social, political, economic, and ecological challenges that confront contemporary society, this article—the 2019 Presidential Address to the American Society for Environmental History—argues that critique and resistance, married with a quest for alternative possibilities, will serve us better than a doleful narrative of decline. It seeks hope by reengaging with the ideas of scholars who earlier lamented despoliation and envisaged other, better, ways of being in the world. By discovering, interrogating, and drawing insight from the ways in which our precursors sought to emancipate their contemporaries, we can ask what they (or their ideas) can do for us. Although this strategy is unlikely to deliver immediate efficacious solutions to current dilemmas, it can help us to historicize ourselves and the precepts that shape our lives. It can also expand the range of existential possibilities by calling into question the conceited convictions, tired mantras, and blithe assumptions of contemporary economic and political discourse. By reflecting on the lives and contributions of two Canadians—Pierre Dansereau, an ecologist, and C. B. Macpherson, a political theorist—whose ideas cast light on the roots of our present predicament, this article helps to frame hopeful strategies with which to address our circumstances.

scholarly journals Socio-economic conditions of “Biographical culture`s” formation in the USA during XX-XXI centuries

2018 ◽  
pp. 7-20
Author(s):  
Artem Kosheliev
Keyword(s):  
Free Market ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Creation ◽  
American Society ◽  
Political Economic

The article discusses the social and economic prerequisites for the formation of a “biographical culture” in the United States during the XX – beginning XXI centuries. Under the term “biographical culture”, the author understands the process of creating biographical narratives. Also, this term includes social-economic conditions in which biographical narratives influence the creation of the image of a certain personality in the collective consciousness. Using the comparative method, the study analyzes the socio-economic systems of the two states, within which were formed various “biographical cultures”. The article defines three criteria for the development of the state and society, which directly affect the creation of this culture. The first criterion is the presence or absence of a free market in the state. The second criterion is the existence of censorship in the state. The third criterion is the degree of development of the infrastructure for the distribution of biographical works and the level of its state`s dependence. The analysis based on the thesis that active and passive societies exist in different countries. Their development depends on the political, economic and ideological conditions. Based on the study, the author concluded that US society is classified as active. This means that it can produce and distribute biographical works independently without pressure from the state. Accordingly, the images of personalities created in biographical works in the USA reflect the preferences and value orientations of American society. Social values, which are reflected in the way of creating the image of a biography`s hero, develop and transform organically, but not under the pressure of a state machine.

scholarly journals Ayn Rand's Utopian Visions in Theory and Realization

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 32-41
Author(s):  
Ben Sapet
Keyword(s):  
American Culture ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Ayn Rand ◽  
The World

Ayn Rand sought to reframe the world around a distinctly utopian sense of domineeringindividualism. Her philosophy vilifed altruism and extolled selfshness in the name of her humanideal. With its unwavering faith in the free market and adoration of industrial magnates, Rand’soften problematic philosophy has gone on to shape American economic and political models. Thisessay explores how Rand’s philosophy manifested in her fction and, in turn, in American culture.

The Legacy of Iraq

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Iraq War ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Sequence Of Events ◽  
The World ◽  
Free Market Capitalism ◽  
Market Capitalism

This book critically reflects on the failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. The book argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world. Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq War and denying their connection to contemporary events could mean that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.

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