The 1970s: a new global history from civil rights to economic inequality

The 1970s 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, Thomas Borstelmann creates a new framework for understanding the period and its legacy. He 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 mu

The 1970s 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, Thomas Borstelmann creates a new framework for understanding the period and its legacy. He 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. Borstelmann 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, The 1970s shows that the decade wrought irrevocable transformations upon American society and the broader world that continue to resonate today. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Crosscurrents of crisis in 1970s America : trouble abroad, corruption at home, conservatism and the distrust of government, economic insecurity, turning inward -- The rising tide of equality and democratic reform : women in the public sphere, women in the private sphere, the many frontiers of equality, political reform, resistance -- The spread of market values : a sea change of principles, the economy goes south, globalization's gathering speed, from citizenship to deregulation, market solutions for every problem, a freer market, a coarser culture -- The retreat of empires and the global advance of the market : the emergence of human rights, European empires and Southern Africa, the Soviet Empire, the American empire, the Israeli exception, the retreat of the state, China and the hollowing out of socialism -- Resistance to the new hyper-individualism : the environmentalist challenge, religious resurgence at home, religious resurgence in Israel, religious resurgence in the Muslim world, Jimmy Carter as a man of his times -- More and less equal since the 1970s : evidence to the contrary, inclusiveness ascending, markets persisting, unrestrained consumption, inequality rising