America in the Seventies

by Beth L. Bailey (Editor), David Farber (Editor)

Tucked between the activist Sixties and the conservative Eighties lies a largely misunderstood and still under-appreciated decade. Now nine leading scholars of postwar America offer a revealing look at the Seventies and their rightful place in the epic narrative of American history

This is the first major work to relate the economic decline and cultural despair of the Seventies to the creative efforts that would reshape American society. Dogged by economic and political crises at home and foreign policy failures abroad, Americans responded to a growing sense of uncertainty in a variety of ways. Some explored the new freedoms promised by the social change movements of the late Sixties. Some challenged the technological verities that ruled corporate America. Others sought to create autonomous zones in the ruins of decaying cities or on the bleak landscape of anomic suburbia. And, against a backdrop of massive economic dislocation and bicentennial celebrations, many Americans struggled to redefine patriotism and the meaning of the American dream.

Focusing on how Americans made sense of their changing world by analyzing such sources as film, popular music, use of public space, advertising campaigns, and patriot rituals, these essays interweave the themes of economic transformation, identity reconfiguration, and cultural uncertainty. The contributors cover such topics as the publics increasing mistrust of government, the reshaping of working-class identity, and the tensions between the ideological and economic origins of changing gender roles.

From existential despair in popular culture to the reactions of youth subcultures, these provocative articles plot the lives of Americans struggling to redefine themselves as their nation moved into an uncertain future. Together they recapture the essence and spirit of that era—for those who lived it and for curious readers who have come of age since then and struggle to understand their own time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Historical, Politics

252 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Beth L. Bailey is an American historian, who is currently serving as the Distinguished Professor at Kansas University.

Reviews

[Darcia Helle · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lighthearted cover of this one, with photos of Archie and Edith Bunker, Farrah Fawcett and John Travolta's disco stance, is a bit misleading. This is not a light read, geared toward the fad culture of the seventies. Instead, this is a studied look at the politics, social movements and major influences of the decade.

I found some of the writing in these essays dry, even for nonfiction. Others, like 'She "can bring home the bacon"', which covered the women's liberation movement and "Adults Only", which talked about the so-called sexual revolution, fascinated me.

Whether you grew up during the seventies, as I did, were an older adult or a glimmer in your parents' eyes, this book offers a perspective of the much overlooked decade that can only be seen in hindsight.

[Joshua Valentine · Rating 5 out of 5]

America in the Seventies discusses in detail across a series of essays the subtle developments of the "me" decade as it intersects through racial, political, musical, and artistic areas of American culture. The book frames the 1970s as both a decade significant in encompassing America's shift from the more idealistic, late-New Deal era of the 1960s to the conservative, Reagan-revolutionized 1980s, while also emphasizing it as a decade of limits as the post-WW2 economy hit a standstill due to high inflation. The rapid industrialization of post World War 2 America, along with the high-trust society that accompanied it throughout mid-century America, quickly broke down into stagnating wages and pride in being American with the Watergate scandal and the ineffectual presidencies that followed with Ford and Carter in response to various economic and social crises. This decade of limits, crystalized by Carter's infamous "malaise" speech, effectively paved the way for a deterioration of the role collective action played in America's zeitgeist ever since, be it in unions fading in prominence, or disco being "demolished" in reaction to the emphasis on minority audiences by the end of the decade. All of this led to the rise of Reagan, a religious right emboldened to shape America in their narrow minded view, and what I would argue a far more polarized country. If you want a reference point for the root of all our country's modern problems, and where it could be heading, look no further than this book.

[Amy Lively · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Seventies was America's attempt at living with the social and legal changes that resulted from the movements of the Sixties, although the gay rights movement largely belongs to the Seventies. These essays take an interesting angle, which is to frame our changing social landscape through the lens of creative forces that, I argue, make the Seventies a fascinating decade. Sexuality, disco, skateboarders, punk rockers, and computer geeks were all as much of the fabric of the Seventies as Watergate and Vietnam.

Not every essay was a winner (trying to link "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Incredible Hulk" to inner despair was a bit of reach for me.) However, the essays on race, the working class, and the bicentennial were excellent. I liked "Adults Only," which was about the adult movies, disco, and the gay clubs of New York, but I couldn't get past the fact that the author, Peter Braunstein, raped and sexually tortured a colleague in 2005. It just made reading his work about sex...creepy. Still, for an academic publication this is very readable and one I have already used a lot for my podcast on the 70s. I am sure I will refer back to it time and again.

[Stephen Melvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid collection of essays tapping into the zeitgeist of the 70s.

[Hillery · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insightful book of essays on the economic, cultural, and social changes going on during the '70s. The essays avoid the easy caricature that usual results from most assessments of that decade. This book delves into how the '70s built on some of the social movements of the 1960s and also how the decade began America's painful introduction to the realization of our limits as a country--politically, economically, and militarily--that continues to today.