Why were the 1960s so Religiously Explosive?

2006 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Hugh McLeod

Abstract The 1960s were a time of dramatic religious change throughout the Western world. These years were religiously explosive because of the convergence of major social changes with new currents of thinking and the impact of specific events, notably the Civil Rights movement, Vietnam War and Vatican II. The social changes included unprecedented affluence, changes in family relationships and especially in the position of women, and the weakening of collective identities, rooted in confessional and ideological sub-cultures. New currents of ideas included a growing political and theological radicalism, culminating in 1968, and increasingly influential concepts of individual human rights.

2019 ◽  
pp. 301-352
Author(s):  
Steven K. Green

This chapter examines the various events that undermined the public support for church–state separation in the 1960s. It considers the impact of Vatican II, of ecumenism, of the civil rights movement, and of federal social welfare and education legislation on Protestant attitudes. All of these events encouraged Protestants and Catholics to find common ground in working for the greater societal good. These events also suggested a model of church-state cooperation rather than one of separation. The chapter then segues to consider the various church–state cases before the Supreme Court between 1968 and 1975 in which the justices began to step back from applying a strict separationist approach to church–state controversies.


Author(s):  
Kirsten E. Shepherd-Barr

The decades 1960–80 witnessed a seismic shift in modern drama. The rage that came to define, and fuel, much of the drama in the 1960s and 1970s is directed at the audience. ‘Absurdism, protest, and commitment’ shows it is a post-war rage stemming from many sources: the Vietnam War, the Cold War, a feeling of betrayal by government and politicians, the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, gay rights, feminism, the growing gap between rich and poor, and ethnic oppression. It is all about denying the audience what it expects of a play, provoking it out of real or perceived complacency, startling, and offending it. The plays of Pinter, Shepard, Beckett, Stoppard, Friel, and Fugard are discussed.


Author(s):  
Teishan A. Latner

Beginning with Stokely Carmichael’s appearance at the Organization of Latin American Solidarity conference in Havana in 1967, the Introduction traces the relationship between the Cuban Revolution and the multi-ethnic American Left, and the impact of this engagement upon U.S.-Cuba relations within the context of the Cold War, decolonization, and Third World nationalism. Focusing on the 1960s era, when America was engulfed in the social upheaval of Civil Rights and the Vietnam War, and concluding in the early 1990s, the Introduction argues that Cuba became the primary Third World influence on the U.S. Left for more than three decades. The Introduction briefly presents the book’s primary case studies, which include the formation of the Venceremos Brigade, the FBI’s surveillance of pro-Cuba activists, the airplane hijacking surge of 1968-1973, Cuban American leftwing activism, and Cuba’s provision of political asylum to U.S. activists.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Poe ◽  
Melody Fisher ◽  
Stephen Brandon ◽  
Darvelle Hutchins ◽  
Mark Goodman

In this article, we consider music as the praxis of ideology in the 1960s within the framework of Burke’s rhetoric of transformation. The 1960s were a period of cultural change in the United States and around the world—the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam War, challenges to communism in Eastern Europe, liberation politics around the world. The role of music as a unifying element among those people advocating change is well established in scholarship. We take that consideration of the role of music into a discussion of how music became the praxis of ideology, providing a place where millions of people could advocate for change and be part of the change by interacting with the music.


Author(s):  
Laura Sampson

Released in 2007, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster tracks the career of Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), who dominated the Harlem drug trade in the 1960s and 70s through his monopoly over heroin, which he imported directly from Vietnam and Thailand. The film follows the character of Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), who led the police task force ultimately responsible for toppling Lucas’ regime. This paper investigates the historical validity of the film, taking into consideration the consultant role Roberts and Lucas adopted during production alongside the political implications of Scott’s decision to cinematize (and so implicitly condone) the life of a convicted drug lord and accused murderer. It examines both filmic elements of music, casting and cinematography as well sociological concerns of race, space, masculinity and class in order to determine whether the film realistically portrays the lived experience of gang members and Harlem residents alike. Moreover, it considers the film’s political backdrop and its engagement with events like the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement and the 1970s recession. Ultimately, the paper concludes that despite Scott’s efforts to undermine traditional iconography by portraying Lucas as a complex, rational and respected outlaw-businessman, the narrative’s lack of critical engagement with the socio-economic context of its era ultimately render it presentist in style, content and intention.


Author(s):  
Simon Wendt

The chapter explores the organization’s post–World War II history. This period saw major challenges to its conservative vision of America’s “imagined community.” Despite these challenges, the DAR’s views on race, immigration, gender, and the nation’s past remained virtually unchanged. It continued to embrace ethnic nationalism, opposing racial integration and a liberalization of America’s immigration laws, and upheld the very same ideals of femininity and masculinity that its campaigns had emphasized prior to 1945. The organization regarded the social movements of the 1960s, including the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and second wave feminism, as a grave danger to the nation. Although the DAR began to admit black members in 1977 and finally acknowledged African Americans’ patriotic contributions to American independence in the 1980s, its public rhetoric of civic tolerance frequently belied the DAR’s conservative views on race and gender.


Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Spina

Scholars and practitioners paid little attention to the subject of gender and crime until the 1960s. However, this topic began to gain attention as a result of the political and social changes of the women’s movement, as well as the civil rights movement. Prior to that, men engaging in crime was the norm, and women who engaged in crime were seen as anomalies. Criminology scholars started to think of gender and crime differently, recognizing how the vastness of this topic could lead to opportunities in this previously under-researched area. Researchers began examining issues related to inequality, differences in offending between men and women, and female victims of male violence. In the 21st century, scholars often focus on intersectionality, taking the effects of race/ethnicity, class, sexuality, and other factors into consideration. Furthermore, research on gender and crime also examines the different pathways men and women have into crime. Consequently, it is important to research prevention and treatment programs that address female offenders’ unique needs, including histories of childhood trauma, mental illness, and substance abuse. Finally, as more women are entering the field of criminal justice, research has focused on some of the challenges they face in law enforcement and legal professions.


The “New Hollywood” that emerged in the late sixties is now widely recognized as an era of remarkable filmmaking, when directors enjoyed a unique autonomy to craft ambitious, introspective movies that evinced a cinematic world of hard choices, complex interpersonal relationships, compromised heroes, and uncertain outcomes. The New Hollywood Revisited brings together a remarkable collection of authors (some of whom wrote about the New Hollywood as it unfolded), to revisit this unique era in American cinema (circa 1967-1976). It was a decade in which a number of extraordinary factors – including the end of a half-century-old censorship regime and economic and demographic changes to the American film audience – converged and created a new type of commercial film, imprinted with the social and political context of the times: the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, women’s liberation, economic distress, urban decay, and, looming, the Shakespearean saga of the Nixon presidency. This volume offers the opportunity to look back, with nearly fifty years hindsight, at a golden age in American filmmaking.


Author(s):  
Natsu Taylor Saito

In the 1960s, global decolonization and the civil rights movement inspired hope for structural change in the United States, but more than fifty years later, racial disparities in income and wealth, education, employment, health, housing, and incarceration remain entrenched. In addition, we have seen a resurgence of overt White supremacy following the election of President Trump. This chapter considers the potential of movements like Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock water protectors in light of the experiences of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement, and other efforts at community empowerment in the “long sixties.”


Troublemakers ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Kathryn Schumaker

The introductionexplains how and why student protest became common in the United States in the late 1960s and places these protests in the context of shifts in the history of education and in broader social movements, including the civil rights movement, the Chicano Movement, and black power activism. The introduction also situates students’ rights within the context of children’s rights more broadly, explaining the legal principles that justified age discrimination and excluded children and students from the basic protections of American constitutional law. The introduction identifies the two decades between the 1960s and 1980s as a constitutional moment that revolutionized the relationship of students to the state. It also connects students’ rights litigation to the issue of school desegregation and the legacy of Brown v. Board of Education.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document