To hear some tell it, when America finally woke up and smelled the seventies, something stank.
Gone was the sweetly perfumed peace, love, and understanding of prosperous post-war America. Gone, too, was the fresh-faced idealism and clean-cut complacency of a million year book photographs. In their place: Disillusionment with big government, big enterprise, and big institutions; dissatisfaction with the status quo, and a disturbing rise in crime, inflation, and mistrust. By the time The Exorcist was nauseating movie-goers and Tony Orlando and Dawn were singing about yellow ribbons and oak trees, the American landscape was littered with the political detritus and lingering shock of Kent State, Vietnam, Watergate, double digit inflation, war in Cambodia, and the Arab oil crisis. And that was only 1973.
The seventies. Considering their political, social, and economic legacies.
(Hosted by Jacki Lyden)
Guests:
Bruce J. Schulman, author of “The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics”
and David Frum, author of “How We Got Here: The 70s: The Decade that Brought You Modern Life — For Better or Worse.”