Week 9 Discussion Assignment – 30 points total

I. Original Message (15 pts) Post a brief (approx. 250 word) message addressing one of the following questions. Be sure to use information and examples from the textbook:

1. A Lost Decade. Very few Americans with memories of the 1970’s look back on the 1970’s with fondness. Popular culture very rarely, if ever, portrays the 1970’s U.S. as any sort of gold age, nothing like the way Americans have nostalgia for World War II and the 1950’s. What are some reasons that explain this lack of nostalgia? In other words, what events or developments of the 1970’s created a kind of anxiety that many Americans have wanted to forget?

Or

2. The ’70’s began in ’68. Explain why the American Yawp textbook treats the year 1968 as such a key turning point in the history of the late twentieth century. One way to think of it: how was American society (for example culture, politics, economics, foreign relations, etc.) different after 1968 than it was before 1968? Another way to think of it: what did events of 1968 bring to an end, and what did they begin?

II. Response on other question (15 pts) In addition, post a short (4-6 sentence) response to someone else’s message about the OTHER question, the one you did not answer

 Answer 

During the 1970s, many Americans had concerns about the Vietnam War, race relations, and gender norms, among other issues. During this time, conservatism gained a lot of new adherents, and the American right gained a lot of influence. Many Americans opposed the Vietnam War, believing it to be a futile struggle that should not have prompted a draft. Those who were adamantly opposed to Communism were dismayed when American forces withdrew in 1975, and many conservatives, in particular, felt betrayed by their country….. Click below to purchase the full answer at $5