Thomas Borstelmann
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691141565
- eISBN:
- 9781400839704
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691141565.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This book 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 ...
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This book 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, this book creates a new framework for understanding the period and its legacy. It 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. This book 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, this book shows that the decade wrought irrevocable transformations upon American society and the broader world that continue to resonate today.Less
This book 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, this book creates a new framework for understanding the period and its legacy. It 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. This book 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, this book shows that the decade wrought irrevocable transformations upon American society and the broader world that continue to resonate today.
Julian Tudor Hart
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781847427830
- eISBN:
- 9781447303930
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781847427830.003.0006
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
The internal equivalence of humans provides the foundation for medical science, and social inclusiveness is the foundation for effective care systems. Solidarity created state care systems, and their ...
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The internal equivalence of humans provides the foundation for medical science, and social inclusiveness is the foundation for effective care systems. Solidarity created state care systems, and their shortcomings are largely attributable to a lack of it. Consumerism stands opposed to this, with every man for each other as its philosophy. Public belief in solidarity, at least for health care in the UK, has so far generally withstood almost three decades of sustained assault from those with the power to form public opinion. Assumptions that solidarity is natural to the declining industrial working class but not to the rising middle class are illusory. Neither justice nor solidarity were ever natural, they had to be built through experience and struggle by those with most to gain from them and least to lose. Most of the so-called middle class appeared to be the working class in new conditions.Less
The internal equivalence of humans provides the foundation for medical science, and social inclusiveness is the foundation for effective care systems. Solidarity created state care systems, and their shortcomings are largely attributable to a lack of it. Consumerism stands opposed to this, with every man for each other as its philosophy. Public belief in solidarity, at least for health care in the UK, has so far generally withstood almost three decades of sustained assault from those with the power to form public opinion. Assumptions that solidarity is natural to the declining industrial working class but not to the rising middle class are illusory. Neither justice nor solidarity were ever natural, they had to be built through experience and struggle by those with most to gain from them and least to lose. Most of the so-called middle class appeared to be the working class in new conditions.
