The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to Economic Inequality

Keeping contemporary history timely and accessible, Borstelmann (The Cold War and the Color Line) shows the significance of 1970s American politics, culture, and religion on the following decades. As a world-renowned historian at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, he accurately explores political and social crises, gender and racial equality protests, alterations in global market trends, and regional turbulence throughout the Soviet Union, Africa, and the Far East. The flower children, Borstelmann notes, were disillusioned by the endless Vietnam War, Nixon’s arrogant Republican Party firmly in command in Washington. The author’s sterling commentary on the rise of the feminist movement, the decline of the Soviet empire, and the new Christian right’s courtship of Capitol Hill sets this book apart from other surveys of the “Me Decade.” Nuggets of genuine insight without any social agenda are found frequently within these pages. (Dec.)