The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. Bruce Schulman analyzes the social, cultural, and political trends of the decade of the Seventies, broadening it to begin at 1968 and end at 1984. Schulman crafts a relatively brief (334 pages inclusive of footnotes), but detailed, history of a period that he proves to be more eventful than previously credited. American society in the Seventies was, in fact, experiencing profound changes. Three main themes emerged in the reading: From Rustbelt to Sunbelt Schulman astutely explains the great economic and political shift that took place from the Rustbelt, Northeastern and Midwestern states to the Sunbelt, Southern and Southwestern states. Schulman noted that jobs migrating from Rustbelt states to the Sunbelt states were a driving force in this transformation. During the late sixties and seventies, "Alabama, the slowest growing Sunbelt state, had expanded its job roles at twice the rate of New England and four times as fast as New York and Pennsylvania" (106). With these new jobs came people to fill them, which also meant there was a shift in political power as voters left the Rustbelt for the Sunbelt. "Between 1970 and 1990, the South's population exploded by 40 percent, twice the national rate" (109). The Sunbelt states' warm climates were attractive to business leaders and retirees. The Sunbelt also provided lower labor costs to business owners, due to the extremely low levels of union membership which was a result of the right-to-work laws enacted by most Sunbelt states in the 1950's. State governments made a concerted effort to lure jobs and industries to their region by providing public funds for generous relocation subsidies, long-term tax incentives, free land, and worker training programs. As Sunbelt communities transformed from agricultural backwaters to urban and suburban communities, laborers in the Rustbelt states were eager to leave their dilapidated urban communities. Schulman superbly noted the correlation between the economic gains of the Sunbelt states and their new-found political gains. For decades, American conservatism was perceived to be under the influence of elitist country club Northeasterners. Schulman describes the Sunbelt's shift to the Republican Party and how its population changed. "As the geographic locus of conservative politics had moved south and west, its nature changed; it became more populist, more middle class, more antiestablishment" (114). Though William F. Buckley, Jr. and his magazine National Review had become the primary forum for conservatives since the 1950's, it took new leaders on the right, such as Richard Vigurie to establish a new organizational structure to communicate to members of disparate groups. Vigurie brought groups like the National Rifle Association, pro-life organizations and the Christian evangelical organizations under an umbrella network so, "these groups could map out a broad-based conservative agenda and organiz

The problem with books recording the history of pop culture America is that there are too many of them, all with similar themes and layout. This makes a reader choice a bit complicated. This Schulman work is by and large a god work. It captures the spirit of the seventies and puts whatever was big deal event at the time in words. Schulman also skillfully put such events in their sociological, anthropological and economic context. Needless to say, the 1970s era actually started in 1968 and ended in 1980. During that time, America lived turbulent time from the consequences of the Vietnam War, to Watergate and the ensuing trust in government, to the failure of Ford and success of Carter whose popularity plummeted to record low as president. Schulman, however, did not restrict his book to political events as he included almost all facets of life deemed important at the time from the rise of the Sweet Home Alabama to Jesus music, the rise of communities as opposed to civil rights, the hippies, Jimmy Hendrix and Saturday Night Live. The book is so attractive and entertaining that you would want to finish it in an overnight read even though toward the end, Schulman might have over extended his decade to cover the consequences of the 1970s over the 1980s.

I have a preoccupation with the 1970's, as I should've lived in America and become more Americanized during that formative period of my youth. Well, guess what? I did a little, but not enough of the 1970's culture was filtered into my household. As a result, I felt alienated from America, and still haven't come to terms with it. So when I discovered Bruce Shulman's book, The Seventies-The Great Shift In American Culture, Society, and Politics, I saw an analytical treasure trove. Basically, the beginnings of contemporary America began not in the 60's, but the 70's, and Schulman effectively makes his case here.With the deaths of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968, the optimism that had lighted the country burned out into the disillusionment of the 1970's. The melting pot was transformed into a salad bowl in the 70's, as various ethnic groups went on the cultural nationalism bandwagon, be they African-Americans, Italian-Americans, Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans, whatever-Americans. I remember those commercials on a certain group, with someone concluding, "I'm proud to be a Chinese/Italian/Japanese-American."The various fads and movements are also touched on here, such as Werner Erhard's EST, radical feminism, New Age, the New Right Christians, the environmentalist movement, Gray Panthers, to list a few. Strangely enough, the SLA, People's Temple and the Moonies aren't mentioned. But the people thought there must be another answer. After losing Vietnam, we had entered, in the words of Jimmy Carter, "a crisis of confidence," even before he came to office.The feeling that authority figures were not trustworthy hit a high point with Watergate, and an early chapter focuses on Richard Nixon and his policies. This theme carried on later in Jimmy Carter's "crisis of confidence" speech.And while I'm at it--Jimmy Carter's given a sympathetic treatment by Schulman. His humble facade, attempts to de-imperialize the presidency, and Congress's tearing apart his energy policy are covered. Basically, he had good intentions, but came face-to-face with a Congress still steaming after Watergate.And what book would not be complete without entertainment? There was the narcissistic indulgence of glam artists KISS and David Bowie (both in my top artists lists, BTW), the continuing importance of Bob Dylan with Blood On The Tracks, and punk rock as typified by the Sex Pistols, Clash, and Ramones. The Clash's anarchic message demonstrated the anger against the establishment, and even called for people to "Kick down the wall/cause governments to fall" in the song "Clampdown." Even Saturday Night Fever, with its escapist theme living side by side with the economic souring of that time, is covered. There's a certain flavour in 70's movies, be it the hairstyles, clothes, cars, the vermilion dye that substituted for blood, and film quality that reaches out to me. The feeling of anger, disaffectedness, and distrust in authority from that bygo

This book review wil be short as people generally read the stars only. In brief, this is a thoughtful book which lays bare the political and cultural developments that characterize the 1970s in american society and help us to understand how contemporary political and cultural trends evolved from this complex and exciting period. If you are too young to remember much from that period, this is a great primer. If you are of a certain age, this will provide both food for thought and a trip down memory lane.Well written, and not too long, it makes a great book for a trip.I recommend this book highly.

Bruce J. Schulman's takes a look at how the Seventies shaped the political structure of today. The book actually stretches from 1968 to 1985 and Mr. Schulman deftly shows how the country's political power shifted from the Northeast to the South and how the country moved from the prevailing liberalism of the left to the conservative right. Along the way he discusses the presidencies of Nixon, Carter & Reagan and the social and cultural movements such as Women's Lib, The New South, Minority Equality and others as well as issues like property taxes, environmentalism, skyrocketing inflation and the energy crisis. Interspersed among all the political talk is a look at the music, film, television and how they mirrored the times. Mr. Schulman does a superb job of showing how the 70's seemed to a time of malaise, but actually shaped our country more than we think.