Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990: Decades of Discord

(Hardback)

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Students, teachers, and interested readers can use this important resource to examine the evolution of the everyday lives of ordinary people in the United States from 1960 to 1990. The volatility of the civil rights movement; the impact of the baby boom generation; the influences of television, advertising, and other media; the emergence of environmental and consumer-protection movements; and the effects the Vietnam War and Watergate had on the American public are just a few of the issues examined and outlined. From the space age to the computer age, the user can explore how change-induced discord and adjustment to postmodern times led to cultural standoffs, affecting everyday lives. For the first time the social history of the United States is examined in four chronological periods: 1960-1966, when modern ideals flourished and then began to fade; 1967-1974, when cultural changes began to remake America; 1975-1980, when the cultural changes led to standoffs between opposing sides; and the 1980s, when postmodern conditions broadened their influence and discord became more pronounced. Marty explores the details of everyday living that these time periods reflected:* the American dream home in suburbia* the influences of new technologies such as computers, portable stereos, and microwave ovens * the initial excitement of space exploration * the growing realities of dual-income and single-parent families and a vast number of other topics that help the user trace the evolution of this mutable and exciting time period.

Reviews

"Students need to look at their present through the clarifying lens of the past. Myron Marty's Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990: Decades of Discord allows them to see how much the ground has shifted in a mere thirty years and how this has shaped the context of their own lives."-Elizabeth A. Kessel Professor of History, Anne Arundel Community College OAH Task Force on History in Community Colleges Arundel
[T]he reader is in for a pleasant surprise and satisfying learning experience....Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990 has many features of a textbook. It is an outstanding reference volume. It is reader friendly, written in an interesting style filled with interesting facts.-Michigan Historical Review
The scope of the topics Marty presents is impressive....work can provide a starting point for students and the general public seeking to understand recent American histroy.-History
"The reader is in for a pleasant surprise and satisfying learning experience....Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990 has many features of a textbook. It is an outstanding reference volume. It is reader friendly, written in an interesting style filled with interesting facts."-Michigan Historical Review
"The scope of the topics Marty presents is impressive....work can provide a starting point for students and the general public seeking to understand recent American histroy."-History
"[T]he reader is in for a pleasant surprise and satisfying learning experience....Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990 has many features of a textbook. It is an outstanding reference volume. It is reader friendly, written in an interesting style filled with interesting facts."-Michigan Historical Review

Author Bio

MYRON A. MARTY is the Ann G. and Sigurd E. Anderson University Professor and Professor of History at Drake University. His other works include Nearby History: Exploring the Past Around You (1982), Your Family History: A Handbook for Research and Writing (1978), Retracing Our Steps: Studies in Documents from the American Past (1972), and Lutherans and Roman Catholicism: The Changing Conflict: 1917-1963 (1968).