The seventies: the great shift in American culture, society, and politics

Abstract

During the past two decades, the 1970s have been trivialized, misunderstood, or dismissed as having kitsch value only. But as we move into a new millennium, the seventies are passing from pop culture into history. Bruce Schulman, the first historian to grapple with the seventies, here provides the only comprehensive history of America between 1968 and 1984. He argues persuasively that the long decade -- from Nixon's election to Reagan's reelection -- involved a crucial cultural and political shift.Beginning with Richard Nixon's strategy in 1968, to the rise of the Sunbelt cities and the explosion of country music, the 1970s saw the decline of the North's cultural dominance. By the end of the decade, the South had shed its rural, agricultural heritage and erased its reputation as hopelessly backward and impoverished. A transformed, commercialized southern white culture flourished and spread across the country.In an engaging blend of anecdote and analysis, Changes in Latitude provides the first real assessment of these crucial years, and the ways in which they changed America forever.