A concise overview of a neglected decade in American history as the nation reflects on its 50^th anniversary.

While historians have revisited every aspect of America history in the tumultuous 1960s, coverage of the following decade is sparse. As America reflects on the 50^th anniversary of the 1970s, Blaine Browne reexamines the decade’s major international, political, social, cultural, economic, and intellectual developments, giving special attention to how its developments continue to impact American life. He views the decade as a major transitional era, given the death of many of the promises and hopes of the Sixties, the collapse of the post-World War II consensus, and the uncertainties of a new age in which the America might well not enjoy the preeminent global position it had held for the previous quarter century. Growing fundamental economic challenges, as well as concerns about the viability of the nation’s political leadership and democratic institutions added to these anxieties. A general angst permeated national life. Whether readers are reliving the years when they came of age or exploring the 1970s for the first time, Dazed and Confused will introduce the topics and cast of characters who defined this pivotal decade in American life.

Preface

Prologue

Chapter I – “I’m Wasted, and I Can’t Find My Way Home:” The End of the Sixties

Close – Ups: Jimi Hendrix / Abbie Hoffman

Chapter II – “A Decent Interval:” America Leaves Vietnam, 1969 - 1973

Close – Ups: John Paul Vann / John Kerry

Chapter III – “Should Have Destroyed the Tapes:” The Collapse of the Nixon Presidency.

Close-Ups: Richard Nixon / Spiro Agnew

Chapter IV – Bringing the War Home: Last Spasms of the Radical Left

Close-Ups: Bernardine Dohrn / Donald De Freeze

Chapter V – “The American Ride Is Ending:” Energy Crises and a Post-Industrial Economy

Close-Ups: Bill Gates / Lee Iacocca

Chapter VI – Looking Out for Number One: The Me Decade and the Endurance of Social Commitment

Close-Ups: Robert Ringer / Paul Watson

Chapter VII – “What Is Special Order 937?:” Film and Television in the Seventies

Close-Ups: Sam Peckinpah / Stephen Spielberg

Chapter VIII – “Bridge Over Troubled Water:” Popular Music in the Seventies

Close-Ups: Jackson Browne / Patti Smith

Chapter IX – “A Crisis of Confidence:” National Politics and Foreign Policy

Close-Ups: Shirley Chisholm / Phyllis Schlafly

Epilogue: “Are You Better Off Now….:” The Promise and Reality of the Eighties

Bibliographic Essay

Index