“Alienation,” “anomie,” “estrangement,” and “malaise” all soared as Ngram buzzwords during the Long Sixties. The mood was encapsulated in 1979 by a nationally televised address by President Jimmy Carter—summarizing virtually all of the events and trends that we have described in this section—a talk that he titled a “Crisis of Confidence” but that was quickly and appropriately dubbed “the malaise speech.”
