A SEARCH FOR ORDER, 1880-1920

 Economic and Social Disruption

  Rapid Industrialization

  Corporations

  Urbanization

  Immigration

 Economic Changes

  Rural Farming Community-Industrial Urban Society

  Pre 1865: Labor Intensive, Small Scale, Community

  Post1865: Capital Intensive, Large Scale, Corporate

 

Nature of Work and Workplace Changes

  Independent Artisan to Assembly Line Worker

  Family to Factory

  Quality to Quantity

  Loss of Control

  Loss of Life

 

In Response to the Organization of Capital

  (Monopolies, Trusts, Holding Companies)

 The Organization of:

  Labor-Unions

  Farmers-Populism

  Middle Class and Small Business-Progressivism

 
 

ORGANIZED LABOR

 

War between Labor and Capital

  Great Railroad Strikes of 1877

 

Union Movement

  Knights of Labor (1869)

     Organize All Workers

     Boycott Not Strike

     Cooperative System

     Haymarket Square Bombing 1886

 American Federation of Labor (1886)

     Samuel Gompers and Craft Unionism

     Organize Skilled Industrial Worker

     Strike

     Embrace Industrial Capitalism

  Industrial Workers of the World (1905)

     One Big Union

     Class War/Revolution

     Red Scare of World War I

 

Legacy

  Forced Reforms in Workplace

  Created Debate about the Role of Government

  Created Fear of Political Revolution

  Limited Membership in Unions (U.S. and Europe)

 

A SEARCH FOR ORDER, 1880-1920

POPULISM

 

Farm Problems, 1865-1914

  Overproduction/Cost of Production

  Tax/Debt

  Alienation

Farmers Alliance Movement, 1877-1892

  State Farmers Alliance

    railroads and cooperative exchanges

National Farmers Alliance and Industrial Union

    Ocala Demands

      Direct Election of Senators

      Progressive Income Tax

      Sub-Treasury Plan

 

The People’s Party (Populist Party)

  Presidential Election of 1892

  Depression 1893-1894

  Mid-term Election of 1894

    Gold vs. Silver

  Presidential Election of 1896

    Republican Party: William McKinley

    Democratic Party: William Jennings Bryan

    Populist Party: ???

 Legacy: Set political agenda for the next forty years

 

A SEARCH FOR ORDER, 1880-1920

SOCIALISM

  Eugene V. Debs and the Socialist Party of America

    Political Expression of Economic Interests

    Cooperative Commonwealth

    Socially produced/socially owned

    Christian Utopian Socialism/ Scientific Socialism

    Political Results, 1900-1912

    1,200 public offices in 340 cities held by Socialists

    79 mayors in 24 states, one congressman

    Debs receives over 400,000 votes in 1904/1908        

    Debs receives over one million votes in 1912

 

RESPONSE

Social Darwinism (Horatio Alger stories)

Progressivism (regulate to avoid revolution)


 

THE SEARCH FOR ORDER, 1880-1920

PROGRESSIVISM

Industrial Urban Corporate Society

Authoritarian: Private Power of Corporation

Democratic: Public Power of Government

 

Muckrakers: City=Progress and Poverty/Corruption

  How the Other Half Lives/Triangle Fire

Progressive Reformers

   Robert LaFollette and the Wisconsin Idea

   Theodore Roosevelt and the Square Deal

Roosevelt’s Presidency, 1901-1908

 Goals: Remake Republican Party/Regulate Economy

   J.P. Morgan / Coal Strike

   1904 Election: Square Deal

   Herbert Croly and The Promise of American Life

       Government As Active Agent

Taft’s Presidency, 1908-1912

  Reform and regulate

  Old Guard Republicans

Election of 1912

   Republican: Taft   (R) Progressive: Roosevelt 

   Democrat: Wilson

   Socialist: Debs

Wilson’s Presidency, 1912-1916

   Federal Reserve Act/16th 17th 18th and 19th amends.

 End of Reform Spirit: World War I

 

THE SEARCH FOR ORDER ABROAD

American Diplomacy In

The Age of Imperialism, 1880-1920

 

Pre-Civil War Diplomacy

   Free Security

   Continentalism

   Exceptionalism

 

Post-Civil War Diplomacy

   The Significance of the Frontier in Am. History

   Industrialization (production exceeds consumption)

   Social Darwinism (The Influence of Sea Power)

   Manifest Destiny (Our Country)

 

Spanish-American War, 1898

   Cuban Revolution

   Yellow Press

   de Lome letter

   U.S. Maine

   Declaration of War and the Teller Amendment

   War: Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico and Cuba

   Year Long Debate over territories

   Filipino-American War, 1901-1903

 

Roosevelt Foreign Policy, 1901-1908

   Corollary to Monroe Doctrine

   Latin America (Dictators for Democracy)

 

Woodrow Wilson and the Diplomacy of Principle

 

The Great War, 1914-1918

   American Neutrality

     British Propaganda and Cultural Relationship

     Economic Relationship ($2 billion to Allies)

     Prejudice Against Germany

       Radical Ideology, Alcohol and U-Boat Attacks

       Lusitania

Election of 1916: Progressivism and Peace

   Sussex Pledge

Road To War

   U-Boat Attacks

   Zimmermann Note

   Russian Revolution

   To Make The World Safe For Democracy

    (vote: 82-6 in Senate; 373-50 in House)

 

Democracy At Home

   Committee on Public Information

   Alien and Sedition Acts (security or politics) 

  

Democracy Abroad

   Fourteen Points (League of Nations)

 

Treaty of Versailles

   European Politics

   Domestic Politics

 

THE CULTURAL WARS, 1920-1925

Old vs. New America

   Community—Society

   Family—Factory

   Church—City

   Threat of Science: Darwin, Marx, and Freud

Expressions of Cultural Wars

   Red Scare: The Passing of the Great Race (WASP)

                      Immigration Act of 1924

                      Ku Klux Klan

                      Eugenics Movement

  Prohibition: Organized Crime 

  Fundamentalism: The Scopes Trial

America’s Business Is Business, 1925-1929

Economic Growth

   Consumer Spending

   Advertising

   Credit

   Stock Market Boom (symbol)

Economic Problems (loss of purchasing power)

   Agricultural Depression

   Technological Unemployment

   Decline in Industrial Wages

   Trade with Europe

    Stock Market Crash (symbol)

  

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

 Role of Government (crisis of 1873, 1886, 1893)

  Herbert Hoover (R) 1928-1932

     Work Ethic

     Balance Budget

     Bonus Army

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D) 1932-1945

   New Deal

     Bank Holiday (FDIC)

     Home Owners Loan Corporation

     Civilian Conservation Corps

     Works Progress Administration

     Social Security

     National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

     Rural Electrification Act

 

Legacy

   Corporate Capitalism

   Political Coalition

   Government as Active Agent in Society

   Civil Rights

 

UNITED STATES DIPLOMACY, 1920-1940

ISOLATIONISM VS. INTERNATIONALISM

 

Mood of the Country

   Depression

   Lack of Military Power

   Anti-War Sentiment

     War Fought For Profit Not Principle

     Kellogg-Briand Pact (Pact of Paris, 1928)

     Anti-War Lobbies and Pact

       Moral Obligation

       Nye Investigation, 1934-1937

    Neutrality Legislation, 1935-1937

      Arms Embargo

      Loans Embargo

      Travel at Own Risk

 

International Events

   Japan Invades Manchuria

   Italy Invades Ethiopia

   German Aggression (Rhineland and Austria)

     Munich Agreement (Appeasement) 1938

     Gallup Poll revealed that 97% reject war

     Germany Invades Poland 1939

   U.S. Reaction: Shoot on Sight and Cash and Carry

   Japanese Aggression (China and Southeast Asia)

     Pearl Harbor

 

WORLD WAR II DIPLOMACY AND

THE ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR

 

Roosevelt’s Diplomatic Goals

   United Nations

   International Monetary Co-Operation

 

Obstacles to Goals

   Military Reality

   “Wilson’s Shadow”

 

Key Figure

   Joseph Stalin and the U.S.S.R.

 

Diplomatic Problems

   Second Front

   Eastern Europe

   Pacific War

   (Yalta Conference)

 

Harry Truman (D) 1945-1952

   Atomic Bomb

 

Legacy: Nature of Diplomacy and War Change

 

 THE COLD WAR

CONTAINMENT ABROAD

 

Diplomatic Leaders: Truman and Stalin

Motivation of Leaders: Ideology or Nationalism

 

George Kennan and Containment Policy

Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan, 1947

Berlin Airlift, 1948

Communist Spy Rings and “Loss” of China, 1949

Soviet Bomb, 1950

Korean War, 1950-1953

H-Bomb and Arms Race, 1951-

Duck and Cover M.A.D. Brinksmanship

 

Containment At Home

(Second Red Scare)

  H.U.A.C. and Hollywood

Joe McCarthy and McCarthysim

 

 

THE SIXTIES

Political Reform Movements

  Union Movement

  Populism

  Progressivism

  New Deal

  Sixties
  Neo-Conservatism

 

The Generation Gap

Parents: Fear of another war   Fear of another Depression

 

Values that shaped the two generations:

Parents: Depression World War II= sacrifice, discipline, work

Kids: Economic growth, suburbia, college=fulfillment, freedom    

          Ethical work

 Goal: Be Happy—through the The Rules

 

1950s: Corporate Culture and Cold War= Organizational Man

“The important thing is to create an island of order in a sea of chaos” Man in the Grey Flannel Suit

Corporation becomes dominant institution in the country

  To get along, go along/follow the rules/network/fit in/conform

 Cold War

  McCarthyism 

 

Economic Success

  GNP doubled

  Middle class increases from 9% to 33%

  25% of all homes in the country built in one decade

  White Collar workers make-up 60% of workforce

  Suburban communities increase by over 50%

 

A Generation in Search of Itself

 

Films and Plays, 1946-1960

 

Best Years of Our Lives

Gentleman’s Agreement

Death of a Salesman

All The King’s Man

A Streetcar Named Desire

High Noon

From Here to Eternity

The Crucible

On The Waterfront

Rebel Without a Cause

On The Beach

The Apartment

 

Books, 1946-1950

 

The Naked and the Dead

The Seven Story Mountain

Moral Man Immoral Society

The Organizational Man

The Lonely Crowd—inner directed vs. other directed personality

The Origins of Totalitarianism

Growing Up Absurd

Catcher in the Rye

The Hidden Persuaders

The Status Seekers

Catch-22

The Graduate

   

The Modern Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965

 Failure of Reconstruction: 14th and 15th Amendments; Segregation and Violence  Catalysts for challenging Segregation: Role of Government; World War II and Holocaust; Baseball; Dixiecrat Movement; Military

 

 

1954: Brown v. Board of Education

  Overturns Plessy v. Ferguson and doctrine of separate but equal

 

Southern White Response to Brown: Massive Resistance

  Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Council

 

1955: Emmett Till Murder and Montgomery Bus Boycott

 

Southern Black Response to Brown:

  Non-Violent Civil Disobedience

  Martin Luther King  and S.C.L.C.

  Political ends through spiritual means

  Morality Play Shame the Enemy 

 

1956: Autherine Lucy denied entrance to University of Alabama 

1957: Central High School Little Rock High School

1959: Virginia closes many of its public schools

 

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, 1960-1965

 1960: Sit-Ins and the creation of S.N.C.C.

           Non-Violent Direct Action

           Media and the Middle Class

 1961: Freedom Rides (C.O.R.E. and S.N.C.C.)

           Television

1962: James Meredith and the University of Mississippi

 1963: King “Letter from Birmingham City Jail”

          “A just law is a man made code that squares with moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a     code that is out of harmony wit the moral law.”

           Medgar Evers murdered (Voters Registration Drive)

           Civil Rights Rally and “I have a Dream” speech

            Bombing in Birmingham four children murdered

 1964: Mississippi Freedom Summer and Deaths of Cheney Goodman and Schwerner    

 1965: “Bloody Sunday” Selma to Montgomery Freedom March

 Results: Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts

                Inspires student activism

                Moral Imagination at Work    

 

 STUDENT ACTIVISM, 1960-1965: THE NEW LEFT

MAKE THE REALITY CONFORM TO THE PROMISE

  

CATALYSTS

 Social/Moral: Civil Rights Movement (S.N.C.C.)

                Personal Witness and Moral Confrontation

 Intellectual: C. Wright Mills—The Power Elite, Letter To The Left   

(Old Left: urban, working class adults, look to Europe

New Left: college, students, look inward to America)

 Political: Cold War/Duck and Cover, McCarthyism

                Anti-anti-communism

 Challenge: Election of John Kennedy: The New Frontier

“Ask what you can do for your country”

 Cold War Events: Duck and Cover and Missile Crisis

  

STUDENTS AS SUB-CULTURE

 

Baby-Boomers

First generation not born in a culture of scarcity, raised in a culture of abundance; consumer spending driven by their birth and growth

 

College: separate space re-enforces special social status (one in four Americans between the age of 21 to 24 in college; fifty per-cent of the country under the age of thirty in 1965)

 

THE NEW LEFT

 

Students For A Democratic Society (S.D.S.)

The university as an institution for social and political change

The Port Huron Statement and the call for a New Left and participatory democracy to counter the military-industrial complex

 

The Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley: Mario Savio

 

New Left Goals

End institutional racism

End poverty (Michael Harrington’s The Other America)

End Cold War diplomacy of M.A.D. and McCarthyism

 

Methods

Non-violent Direct Action, Education, Vote  

Results, 1962-1965

Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts

The War on Poverty

A Moral Imagination

 

LYNDON JOHNSON AND DEMOCRATIC LIBERALISM

 Three Stages of Liberalism (belief in personal liberty, human progress, the pursuit of rational self-interest as the basis of a free society)

Laissez-Faire Liberalism: economic freedom and limited government

Reform Liberalism: threat of excessive corporate power must be checked by state intervention

Rights-Based Liberalism: move from economic concerns to focus on the rights and freedoms of individuals and groups

 

 

THE GREAT SOCIETY

Goals: Abundance and liberty for all, an end to poverty, an end to racial injustice

Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts

War on Poverty:

  Economic Opportunity Bill

    Job Corps

    Head Start

     VISTA

Medicare

Medicaid

National Education Act

N.A.S.A.

Urban Renewal Projects (CAPS)

Clean Air and Water Acts

National Endowment for the Arts

National Endowment for the Humanities

 

“A place where men are more concerned with the quality of their lives than the quantity of their goods.”

 

WAR ON POVERTY-WAR IN VIETNAM

 

French Indochina, 1890-1945

  Ho Chi Minh and Independence Movement

  Republic of Vietnam, 1945-1946

  French return, 1946-1954

  Geneva Accords 1954

    Divide country along 17th

    Hold Elections in two years

 

Cold War and Vietnam

  President Eisenhower and Domino Theory

  American Support, 1956-1963

  President Kennedy Policies and Decisions

  President Johnson Policies and Decisions

  Containment, Credibility, Domestic Politics

 

WAR IN VIETNAM

  Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

  Rolling Thunder

  Ground War, 1965

    Military Superiority

    Technological Superiority (Agent Orange)

 

Anti-War Movement (protest to resistance)


 

THE YEAR 1968

Promises versus Pictures 

JANUARY

  Tet Offensive

  The Credibility Gap

FEBRUARY

  Eugene McCarthy challenges President Johnson

  Ant-War Movement moves from Protest to Resistance

 MARCH

  New Hampshire Democratic Primary

  McCarthy receives 42% of vote

  Robert Kennedy enters race

  President Johnson withdraws from race

 APRIL

  Martin Luther King murdered

  Riots and Anti-War Demonstrations increase

 MAY

  The Promise of Robert Kennedy

JUNE

  Robert Kennedy murdered

 JULY

  Troops at Khe Sanh reached; village then abandoned

 AUGUST

  Police Riot at Democratic Convention

SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER

  Hubert Humphrey and War (promise of Peace Talks)

  Richard Nixon and War (betrays Peace Talks)

 

NIXON AND VIETNAM

AMERICA: LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT

 

1969: Trial of Chicago Eight (War on Trial)

          Days of Rage

          S.D.S. holds last convention

          Weather Underground formed

          Congressional Hearings on Conduct of War Held

          Rescind Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

   

War in Vietnam

   Ho Chi Minh dies

   Vietnamization: Troop Reduction/Search and Destroy Missions

   Hamburger Hill

   “New” Soldier in Vietnam—Fragging incidents

   My Lai (revealed in 1971)

   Draft Deferments end (lottery system begins)

   Life Magazine photo editorial 

 

1970: Invasion of Cambodia

             Kent State and Jackson State

            Anti-War Movement Increases

            Middle-Class Support Declines

 

1971: Publication of Pentagon Papers and Reports of My Lai

          Generation Gap becomes Credibility Gap

 

1972: Henry Kissenger and Peace Talks; The Christmas Bombings

           Church Committee Hearings on the C.I.A.

1973:  Peace Accords Signed; Troops Leave

1974:  U. S. Abandons South Vietnam

1975:  North Invades, War Ends

 

 

THE COUNTER CULTURE MOVEMENT

TURN ON TUNE IN DROP OUT

 

1960-1963: Death of civil rights activists (Missile Crisis)

1963: Death of President Kennedy

1964: Death of Cheney Goodman and Schwerner

1965: Death of Malcolm X

1966-1967: Urban Riots

1968: Deaths of King and Kennedy

1969: Deaths of Black Panther leaders

1970: Deaths of students at Kent State and Jackson State

 

ACTIVISM                             ANARCHISM

Political revolution              Cultural revolution

(Civil Rights Movement and War On Poverty abandoned)

System                                   Self

 

Reject Middle Class Culture and Values of Parents

(generation gap—credibility gap—cultural gap)

 

Search For Values:

  Social Status to Simplicity

  Materialistic Life to Meaningful Life

  Western Religion to Eastern Mysticism

 

Culture of Scarcity (order progress rationalism authority)

Culture of Affluence (instinct impulse emotions)

 

Cold War Corporate Consumer Culture: Parents and Kids

    “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed…”

 

PreCursors: Beats (Jack Kerouac and Frank Sinatra)

                     Jazz (Charlie Parker and Miles Davis)

                     Art (Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art)   

                     Race (Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin)

MEDIA AND MIDDLE CLASS DISCOVER HIPPIES

 1967: Summer of Love

1969: Woodstock/Charles Mason

1970: Altamont

 

Symbols of Counter-Culture: Hair Music Drugs and Sex

 Marketplace co-ops symbols as hedonism of consumer

culture becomes hedonism of counter-culture and the cultural contradictions of corporate capitalism.

 

 

Legacy

The Personal is Political

Meting Pot to Multiculturalism

Self-Exploration Self-Discovery Self-Empowerment

 

1970s Cultural Expressions:

Jonathan Livingston Seagull 

Tom Wolfe and the Me Decade

   “The Third Great Awakening”

   Communal Societies

   Evangelical Christianity

   New Age

   Ethnic Identity (non-WASP)


 

NATIONAL REFORM MOVEMENTS ENDS

  Vietnam War ends

  Economic Growth ends (OPEC oil embargo)

  Youth Ends-first wave of Baby Boomers (family obligations and corrupt politics)

 

SINGLE ISSUE MOVEMENTS

THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL

 

CHICANO MOVEMENT

 Early Civil Rights work: L.U.L.A.C. and American G.I. Forum

Viva Kennedy Clubs and 1960 presidential election

Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers

Harvest of Shame

Grape Strike (1965-1970)

March to Sacramento  

Jose Angel Gutierrez/M.A.Y.O. and La Raza Unida 1967-1969

Immigration Act of 1965

 

WOMEN’S MOVEMENT

 Cultural expectations of 1950s: Engage in Domesticity

Betty Friedan and The Feminine Mystique

President’s Commission on the Status of Women

National Organization for Women

Gloria Steinem and MS. Magazine/Our Bodies Ourselves

Title IX of the Educational Act of 1972

Equal Rights Amendment of 1972

Billie Jean King and the Battle of the Sexes

Roe v. Wade 1973

Phyllis Schlafly and the American Eagle Forum

Cultural expectations of the 1970s: End Domestic Violence

 

 

BLACK POWER MOVEMENT

Black Panthers 1968

Civil Rights Movement, North 1968-1970

National Welfare Rights Organization

Urban Riots, Long Hot Summers 1965-1969

F.B.I. and the destruction of the Panthers 1968-1970

 

AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT

Termination Policy of the 1950s (end Reservation system)

Russell Means, Dennis Banks and Red Power

Alcatraz Island 1968

Sit-ins at the B.I.A. 1972

Wounded Knee 1973

Court Actions 1970-

 

GAY MOVEMENT

Stonewall Inn Rebellion 1969

Gay Liberation Front

Am. Psychiatric Association and Homosexuality/Mental Disorder

Coming Out

Court Actions 1970-

 

ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT

Senator Gaylord Nelson

Earth Day 1970

Clean Air and Water Acts 1970-1972

Environmental Protection Agency 1970

Endangered Species Act 1973 

 

DEFINITION OF AMERICA (Identity Politics)

Melting Pot to Multiculturalism

Consensus to Cultural Nationalism

 

 

 

Nixon Presidency, 1968-1974

Domestic Policy

NIXON AND MIDDLE AMERICA

The Silent Majority

  Peace With Honor (North Vietnam defeats South Vietnam)

  Devolution Policies (Arts, EPA, Family Assistance Program) 

  Southern Strategy: Emerging Republican Majority

  Political compromise over Civil Rights issues

  Philadelphia Plan and Affirmative Action (Quotas)

Watergate (June 1972-August 1974)

  Illegal use of federal agencies and defiance of Congress

  August 9, 1974 Nixon resigns

  Forty-one persons and twenty-five corporations found guilty

 

Watergate revelations

  Illegal tactics to attack Democrats and the “enemies list”

  Secret bombing of Cambodia

  Telephone taps on federal employees and reporters

   Break-in of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office (bombing)

   “Dirty Tricksters” political acts of sabotage (sexual improprieties

  alleged against Senators Humphrey and Jackson, forging press

  releases, associating racist remarks to opposition candidates

  monies for the Tricksters collected illegally through CREEP

  and directed by the White House staff)

  Used CIA FBI and IRS to collect and intimidate opponents or

  critics

 

Watergate Legacies

  Un-elected President, Gerald Ford (pardons Nixon)

  Congress challenges presidential authority

  (support of South Vietnam)

  Credibility Gap evolves into Cynicism

  Re-affirms importance of independent press and court

 

 

Foreign Policy

Nixon, Kissinger and the World

Détente

   Trip to China

   U.S.S.R. and S.A.L.T.

Nixon Doctrine and the Middle East

   America, Israel and Oil

     Middle East Wars 1967 and 1973

       O.P.E.C.

       P.L.O.

       Terrorism

Democracy and Dictators

  Iran and Saudi Arabia

  South Africa

  Philippines

  Pakistan

  Chile

 

Ford Presidency, 1974-1976

Accidental Presidency

Presidential Pardon

Mayaguez

Stagflation

  OPEC

  Demographics

  International Competition

W.I.N.

 

ORIGINS OF MODERN REPUBLICAN PARTY

 

Radical Right challenges East Coast Leadership

    Senator Barry Goldwater’s 1964 Presidential Bid

    Party leadership separates itself from extremist groups

    Young Americans For Freedom, 1964-1980

 

Party Realignment, 1960-1980

  Conservative Democrats change party

      Civil Rights, Cold War and Neo-Conservatives

    Working Class change party

       Governor George Wallace and the Politics of Rage

       Race and Class and Resentment (counter-culture movement)

  Economic Decline (OPEC and transition to service economy)

         Political Left and the Democratic Party of 1972

  Political Malaise and the Democratic Party 1976-1980

        “Malaise” speech economy (Prop 13) Iranian Hostage crisis

 

Racial Politics

Reaction to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts

  Five Southern states vote for Goodwater in 1964

  Nine Southern states vote for Wallace in 1968

Reaction to Court and Federal Race based policies

  Busing (South Boston violence)

  Affirmative Action (Nixon’s Philadelphia Plan)

  Quotas (Bakke vs. Regents of the University of California)

The Republican Party’s Southern Strategy (Silent Majority)

  Kevin Phillips, Emerging Republican Majority 

  Nixon promises to reduce desegregation efforts in the south

  Recruit conservative Democrats (New Deal coalition)

 

Cultural Wars and the Religious Right

   The Moral Majority (1980s) Christian Coalition (1990s)

  Cultural issues: prayer abortion homosexuality secular humanism

 

MEMORY AND THE NARRATIVE OF THE SIXTIES

Ronald Reagan and the Crisis of Confidence

1980: 50.7% voted for Reagan (only received 28% of eligible     vote, 53% of eligible voters cast a vote)

Ronald Reagan and the Politics of Culture

1984: 58. 4% voted for Reagan (52% of eligible voters cast a vote)

The Religious and Radical Right of the Republican Party use Sixties cultural markers to energize and organize voters.

 

The Politics of Nostalgia: History as Political Weapon

Control public memory of past events to justify contemporary criticism of society.

 

1950s versus 1960s

 

1950s: global dominance, personal satisfaction, social harmony,  economic security, small government and family unity

 

1960s: military weakness, personal indulgence, social unrest,

economic decline, big government and family breakdown

 

Presidency of Ronald Reagan 1980-1988

Cut Taxes Anti-Communism Cultural Values

 

Domestic Policy

  Tax Reduction and Reduce size of Government

    Supply Side Economics (Laffer Curve)

      Arthur Laffer Jude Wanniski Jack Kemp

    Work with Congress

    Shooting by John Hinckley

  Tax Bill: 23% tax reduction over three years

                 Reduce upper tax from 70% to 50%

   Cut social programs    Increase Defense Spending

  PATCO Strike

  S&L Bill (S&L scandal, cost taxpayers $132 billion)

 

Economic Results: deficit spending, debtor nation ($700 million to $3 trillion), reckless speculation (S&L scandal, market loses 23% of value Monday 1987), inflation decreases to 4.4 in 1989, unemployment decreases to 5.4 in 1989, slow but steady economic growth. Taxes were 19.4 of national income in 1980, 19.3 in 1989. Top tax rate dropped to 28%. CEO income was 25 times of hourly worker in 1960s, in 1980s, 93. Top one per cent held 22% of wealth, in 1989 held 39%.

 

 Civil Rights: Southern Strategy

 Abortion: ignored

 Supreme Court: appointed three justices (first women)

 AIDS/HIV: ignored between 1981-1986

Cultural Wars: ignored

 

1984 Election: Reagan vs. Mondale

Religious Right Claims Victory

 

Reagan Foreign Policy

Cold War Returns: The Evil Empire

  From Détente to Confrontation

  Increase in Defensive Spending   

  Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)

  Selective Response

    Soviets shoot down Korean air liner (269/61 die)

    Terrorist bombing in Beirut (241 die)

      Hezbollah murders and kidnappings increase

    Invade Grenada and Bomb Libya

U.S.-U.S.S.R. Relations

  Soviet leadership 1982-1985

  Mikhail Gorbachez

  Nov 1985 first of five meetings with Regan

  Oct 1986 eliminate all weapons in ten years but S.D.I.

  Feb. 1987 eliminate weapons in Europe, visits

          1988 reduce Soviet troops

          1989 Berlin Wall and withdraw from Afghanistan

          1990 Soviet system collapses

  Dec. 1991 U.S.S.R. dissolves

Iran-Contra Scandal

1979: Sandinista defeat Somoza support of El Salvador

          Boland Amendment (411-0)

          N.S.C. ( John Poindexter and Oliver North) and      

         covert operations  

         Contras aided by arms deal to Iran (to release    

          hostages-increased kidnappings). Noriega and

          Medelin drug cartel of Columbia smuggle in arms

         

Results: drugs, alienate L.A., expose C.I.A., imperial presidency