John Vurpillat

History 574

Spring 2006

Bruce J. Schulman, The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics

First published in 2001, The Seventies offers a broad interpretation of the Long 1970s (1968-1984) that takes into account the events and trends that shaped American society both from the bottom up and the top down. In the preface, Schulman argues that while our notions of the Sixties as an era of fundamental change persist, events of the Seventies more profoundly influenced the contours of contemporary American life. Among these trends, Schulman includes the booming economy and population shift that transformed the South; the turn away from the social reform aspirations of the 1960s toward a new ethos of personal liberation; and the declining faith in government and other institutions of authority. According to Schulman, “The Seventies seeks to begin [a] process of revision, to challenge the interpretation of the Sixties veterans and recover a history for the wasted generation.”

In the introduction, Schulman discusses the Sixties and the legacy of the postwar period. He suggests that the tumultuous events of 1968 marked the end of the post-World War II era and the beginning of another age. The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, the radical black nationalism of the Black Panther party, and the white backlash that buoyed the third-party presidential campaign of George C. Wallace all began to erode the so called “liberal consensus” that had governed American life since 1945. From the mid-sixties on, this consensus had suffered the most potent attacks not from the conservative right, but rather from the radical left. Schulman argues that students were struggling against the authority of the established order more than for specific grievances. Though the violent confrontations at Columbia and at the Democratic Convention put an end to their political aspirations, the countercultural attitudes they embraced soon spread to the broader society.

In chapter one Schulman discusses the Nixon presidency. Psychological interpretations of Nixon focus on the class resentment he carried with him throughout his life. Those who have focused on his policies alternately see him as the first conservative or last liberal president. Schulman argues that relying exclusively on either view misses both Nixon’s true nature and his decisive impact on American political culture. Winning re-election proved the President’s most important motivation during his first term. His apparently liberal initiatives and conservative political gestures were undertaken as a part of this effort. With his eye on 1972, Nixon sought to create a new majority coalition. His so-called “southern strategy” drew on Democrats from Dixie, but also relied on socially conservative northern blue-collar workers. Succeeding even beyond his own expectations, Nixon won reelection by a landslide, but he would not see this political realignment through to completion. The unfolding scandal of Watergate forced the President to resign in 1974. Critics charged that Watergate was a sign that the “imperial presidency” had become too strong. In the wake of the scandal, Congress limited the power of the presidency through the War Powers Act and the establishment of an independent counsel. The Senate also launched investigations into abuses by the CIA and FBI. Schulman argues that, ironically, Watergate boosted conservatism by confirming its critique of the failures of big government.

Chapter two shifts the focus to the civil rights movement. Schulman recounts how many African-American activists abandoned the integrationist ideal in favor of emphasizing black distinctiveness. In recounting the accomplishments and shortcomings of the civil rights legislation of the Sixties, the author notes that “segregation had disappeared in arenas of casual contact between Americans – restaurants, airports and train stations, hotel lobbies. But schools and neighborhoods remained rigidly separated.” (p.56) The limits of legislative reform eventually undermined faith in the integrationist ideal. Cultural forms that paid homage to it such as The Jeffersons and Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People” gave way to works that celebrated “blackness” per se or emphasized the differences between the races. This transformation reflects not only the limits of reform, but also the limits of militant black nationalists’ revolutionary aspirations. For all their agitation, the revolution never materialized, though the stirring rhetoric of Malcolm X, and the theatrics of the Black Panther party did inspire many community programs aimed at preparing the black masses for future revolution. More importantly, these efforts to build community pride and establish outreach services gave meaning to the concept of “black power,” and led to the modern notion of “diversity” which soon began to shape the political and cultural ambitions of other oppressed minority groups. Indeed, Schulman observes, “by the mid-1970s, cultural nationalism had become the dominant force in minority activism.” Chicano, Asian, and Native American activists all adopted similar methods and forms in the pursuit of their goals. But the advent of the diversity ethos was also assisted by a massive new wave of immigrants, which resulted from the reform of immigration laws in 1965 that eliminated quota systems. As a result of these changes, “the nation’s diverse subcultures would no longer submit to a single dominant, universalizing, WASP superculture.” (p.73)

In the next chapter Schulman explores many Americans’ turn away from the public sphere toward the pursuit of “authentic” personal experiences and self-exploration and discovery in smaller, self-styled communities. He argues that rise of New Age pursuits and the wave of evangelical revival were both responses to the problems many saw in American society. He also describes how the influence of cultural nationalism spread to white ethnics. Jewish, Polish, and Italian-American cultural organizations emerged, contributing to the success of movies such as The Godfather. New Agers gathered in rural communes that emphasized humanity’s place in the environment. The elderly moved into communities across the Sunbelt designed to fit their lifestyle. The signs of apparent decay in American society spurred an evangelical revival. This vast “Third Great Awakening” went largely undetected among the mainstream culture. Christian churches, schools, bookstores, and musical events formed a “parallel Christian culture” during the 1970s. The New Age movement also sought transcendental experience by synthesizing Western psychology, the occult, and Eastern spirituality. Both New Agers and New Right evangelicals agreed the individual must personally experience the divine – yet another manifestation of the shift in emphasis away from the public sphere toward the private. This arguably obsessive concern with individual needs, Schulman adds, often glorified the self at the expense of all other social connections.

Chapter four examines the factors that led to the so-called “southernization of America.” The booming economy across the South, powered by both pro-business politics and an ever-expanding electrical grid to meet the growing demand for air-conditioning, produced significant cultural, social, and political changes throughout the 1970s. Racism did not disappear, but a wave of racial moderates such as Georgia governor Jimmy Carter swept into southern statehouses promising modernization and economic development. Under their watch, economic growth and the tempering of its most racist elements allowed southern culture to flourish. New arrivals to the Sunbelt from the North embraced many of the forms of this domesticated “faux Bubba” culture including country music, stock car racing, and the National Football League. The South’s rapidly expanding population brought it more congressional seats and more political influence. The spread of country music reflected and fostered a growing populist, conservative political philosophy. According to Schulman, the sunbelt conservatives created by these converging trends eventually accomplished what Sixties radicals never could – they captured a political party and elected a president.

In chapter five Schulman describes the struggles of the Carter presidency. Jimmy Carter arrived in Washington as a staggering economic decline plagued the entire nation. To make matters worse, as he set out to solve the nearly intractable problems of inflation and the energy crisis, the new president was constrained by the deep disillusionment that the Watergate scandal had unleashed. Still, Carter’s engineering mind-set and his non-partisan approach to reform initially appealed to a nation deeply divided along lines of race, ethnicity and economic status. His obsession with detail and insistence on a “comprehensive” approach, however, produced initiatives that were often contradictory and politically unrealistic. But, Schulman notes, Carter should not bear all the blame, for the President realized far sooner than his congressional colleagues that traditional Democratic remedies could not tame inflation. Indeed, persistent inflation ultimately proved instrumental in reshaping the financial habits of Americans. Though thrift had long been trumpeted as an American virtue, leaving money in a savings account in the midst of runaway inflation was a prescription for financial disaster. Recognizing that new conditions had created new opportunities, financial service providers introduced money market funds and low-fee investment accounts that offered returns higher than the rate of inflation. People whose money was losing value as it sat in traditional savings accounts eagerly embraced these new forms to protect their assets. Finally in 1979, Carter moved decisively to contain inflation by appointing Paul Volker chairman of the Federal Reserve. Volker sharply and directly contracted the money supply by limiting bank reserves. The resulting recession indeed began to curb inflation; unfortunately for Carter the accompanying economic downturn came during an election year.

In chapter six, Schulman turns to Seventies popular culture. He argues that a new sensibility emerged across various forms in which traditional themes of youth rebellion were shaped by a newly ironic stance. Schulman argues that the same discontent that undermined traditional sources of authority also provided the motivation for many creative, personal, highly charged works of art during the period. Citing examples such as Bob Dylan’s “The Hurricane” or Martin Scorcese’s Taxi Driver, Schulman maintains that the films, music, and literature of the era often pitted a self-styled outlaw against the institutions of authority. Resistance to the encroachment of media corporations into the arts also produced a wave of independent music, film, and literature. American punk rock in particular spewed forth an insistent anti-corporate message. In addition to its critique of institutional authority and arguably anti-corporate political message, the reliance on irony more than anything helped shaped the Seventies sensibility. As Saturday Night Live lampooned the presidency, groups like the Talking Heads and the Ramones assaulted the painfully earnest heroes of rock music bloated on corporate largess and unending arena tours. Schulman concludes that this omnipresent skepticism functioned as a kind of remedy to the melodrama of the Sixties.

The next chapter assesses the cultural impact of the women’s movement. For the first time in American history a majority of women worked outside the home. While the particular factions of the women’s movement splintered, the consciousness raising ideas articulated by radical feminists spread throughout the society. Issues surrounding the new career woman empowered interest groups to lobby for the equal rights amendment, legalized abortion, childcare legislation, and the reform and enforcement of sex discrimination laws in employment and housing. Liberal and radical women, however, were not the only ones organized in the Seventies. Conservative women formed grassroots organizations that challenged Roe v. Wade and helped defeat ERA at the state level. The women’s movement also gave rise to a cultural feminism that stressed the positive aspects of female biology. This increased attention also engendered shifts in social behavior – especially sex as feminism encouraged freer forms of sexuality that placed new emphasis on the female sexual experience. “In the Seventies,” Schulman notes wryly, “Americans discovered the clitoral orgasm.” (p.175) The dissemination of these sentiments inevitably impacted male social behavior and identities. In the 1970s, the archetypal American male, exemplified by John Wayne, faced the challenge of a new male, Alan Alda, who exhibited stereotypically female traits such as awareness of feelings and interest in appearance. The widespread and often aggressive agitation for women’s rights led to many reforms, but also stirred a reaction on the right that ushered in the politics of family values and helped build a conservative coalition.

In chapter eight, Schulman details the emergence of a “New Right.” As late as the mid-1970s, the conservative right was still tainted in popular perception of the extremism of the Goldwater campaign. The journey from the ideological fringe to majority status required the organizational talents of New Right activists, a consistent ideology that reflected popular discontent, a populist revolt against taxes, and a genuinely convincing spokesman for the movement. From the 1930s through the 1960s, the old right had inevitably been associated with the interests of big business and mustered little support when pitted against the politically potent New Deal coalition. In the 1960s, just as New Leftists became the most ardent critics of liberalism, the New Right denounced eastern establishment Republicans as alternately corrupt and irrelevant. In the postwar period, conservatives began both articulating their ideological outlook in the pages of William F. Buckley’s National Review. Young conservative activists formed the Young Americans for Freedom and helped nominate Goldwater in 1964. By the 1970s, the New Right had developed a loose network of affiliated interest groups that in many ways imitated the successes of interest groups on the left. The growing success of these New Right groups was due in part to organization, but, more importantly, they had developed a set of issues that increasingly reflected public sentiments toward government, the public sphere, and foreign policy. A crucial aspect of this New Right agenda was anti-elitism. Though the conservative critique was gaining popularity, to sustain itself the movement still had to jettison its most reactionary positions and attitudes and welcome others into a “bigger tent.” Schulman argues that this was achieved primarily through the defection of many urban liberal intellectuals, so-called neoconservatives, whose deliberative intellectual approach to conservatism presented thoughtful rationales for the more populist conservative notions. While these necessary pre-conditions were falling into place, a tax revolt in California stirred popular resentment against government’s intrusive presence in the lives of individuals and opened many Americans to the ideas that had long been promoted by the New Right minority. The successful passage of Proposition 13 in California slashed property taxes and touched off a nationwide tax revolt. According to Schulman, the tax revolt concerned more than just money. The excessive taxation represented to many Americans the indifferent attitude the government had taken toward them. Ronald Reagan spoke to these general grievances, offering a less shrill conservative message that emphasized not states rights but family values, not the dismantling of the government but initiatives against waste, fraud, and abuse. This message, Schulman notes, was something new, and not a nostalgic remnant of an idealized past.

In chapter nine, Schulman examines the impact of both Reagan’s election and his first term in office, arguing that the President transformed American life during those four years by reshaping the political landscape, restructuring the economy, and altering the way ordinary Americans live their lives. Through policy and effective stagecraft Reagan renewed confidence in American institutions and public life. If he adopted a new assertive posture in foreign policy it was an assertiveness of rhetoric. His actions still reflected the recognition of limits that began in the post-Vietnam era. In U.S.-Soviet relations Reagan proved that rhetoric can be decisive, his rigid stand against the Soviet Union and firm adherence to developing SDI altered Soviet perceptions about American power and gave Reagan the credibility to propose historic reductions in nuclear arsenals in his second term. Domestically, Reagan drastically redefined the relationship between business, labor, and government. His varied initiatives unleashed market forces and stimulated the economy by reducing government regulation, providing stable monetary and fiscal policies, and taking actions to limit the influence of organized labor. To be sure, Reagan ran up deficits in pursuing his initiatives, but he realized that as long as economic growth continued, the debate over the deficit would remain peripheral. Schulman also explains how the incipient economic recovery spawned the rise of the Yuppie ethos. Yuppies brought over aspects of the counterculture and New Age movements that emphasized personal freedom and fused them to the pursuit of consumerist desires. While overt displays of yuppie consumption soon became clichéd, a broad consensus soon emerged that confirmed the benefits of consumerism and the superiority of the private sphere to the public sector. This privatization of everyday life was an ongoing trend in Seventies America. People abandoned public parks for private health clubs, moved from the town square to the shopping malls, from subdivisions to private gated communities. Reagan popularized this new consensus built around free market exceptionalism.

Schulman concludes that 1984 marked the culmination of the long 1970s. The economy had recovered, the malaise of the Seventies had been overcome, and America was standing tall again. In 1984, Reagan won reelection in a landslide. The demographic and cultural ascendancy of Sunbelt America proved decisive in this regard. In the long 1970s capitalist accumulation ceased to be an evil and instead became a tool for pursuing some of the reformist dreams first hatched in the 1960s. Authenticity, freedom, and political transformation through personal liberation remain the ongoing legacy of the Seventies.