Something Happened: A Political and Cultural Overview of the Seventies Book

According to Edward D. Berkowitz, the end of the postwar economic boom, Watergate, and Vietnam all contributed to an unraveling of the national consensus in 1970s America. His unique history-which touches on everything from the decline of the steel industry to the blossoming of Bill Gates, from Saturday Night Fever to the Sunday morning fervor of evangelical preachers-argues that the postwar faith in sweeping social programs and a global U.S. mission was replaced in the 1970s by a more skeptical attitude toward the government's ability to affect society positively. Berkowitz explores the decade's major political events and movements, including the rise and fall of détente, congressional reform, changes in healthcare policies, and the hostage crisis in Iran. He traces the "rights revolution," in which women, gays and lesbians, and people with disabilities all successfully fought for greater recognition. He argues that reaction to these social movements as well as the issue of abortion led to the rise of powerful, politically conservative religious organizations and activists. Written by an accomplished historian of modern America and a longtime Washington insider, Something Happened is an engaging look at an important and previously unappreciated decade.