Pt. I. Spirit and Context -- 1. The Spirit of the Sixties: An Age of Activism -- 2. The Sixties in Perspective: Society, Economy and Polity -- Pt. II. Politics at Home and Abroad -- 3. The Politics of Hope: From Kennedy to Johnson -- 4. The United States in the World: From Hubris to Humiliation -- 5. The Politics of Reaction: From Johnson to Nixon -- Pt. III. Popular Protest and New Movements -- 6. The African American Revolt: From Civil Rights to Black Power -- 7. Protest: Youth, Peace and Women's Movements
Summary
"Focusing on the public affairs of America, Michael Heale introduces the reader to the major changes which governed life in the sixties. Economically America saw the move from an 'industrial' to a 'post-industrial' society while in political terms there was a parallel change with the collapse of the New Deal political order and the transition to a divided system of politics. The optimistic leadership of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson was supplanted by the suspicious conservatism of Richard Nixon. Finally it was in the 1960s that the global role of the USA was first called seriously into question: the country's relatively benign image became malign as Vietnam exposed the imperialist, racist and capitalist aspects of American power." "The book examines the 1960s in this context - as a decade caught between one America and another."--BOOK JACKET
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 160-168) and index
