The Psychedelic Sixties: a Social History of the United States, 1960-69
The Psychedelic Sixties: a Social History of the United States, 1960-69

Author: Richard T. Stanley

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2013-05-28

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1475991177

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The Psychedelic Sixties were turbulent times filled with periods of ecstasy and despair. Who could have predicted that President Kennedy's Camelot would end with his televised assassination? Or that Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary's "Concord Prison Project" would evolve into his becoming the pied piper of LSD, the Psychedelic Revolution, and the Hippie Movement? To the credit of many Americans, a key characteristic of the Psychedelic Sixties was the search for solutions to society's social problems. But who could have predicted that President Johnson's "Great Society" would soon fall victim to race riots, student protests, and an increasingly unpopular war in Vietnam? Throughout the sixties, regular folks tried to find relief by watching TV comedies, motion picture musicals, and major sports events. And music --- from The Beatles to The Rolling Stones. Despite all the decade's chaos and bloodshed, public and private schools at all levels grew at unprecedented rates. And corporate America and our schools were more in cahoots than ever: "Want a good job? Get a college degree!" And, in 1969, as some Hippies still exclaimed, "Tune in, turn on, drop out!", an American named Neil Armstrong WALKED ON THE MOON!

Disco Days: a Social History of the 1970'S
Disco Days: a Social History of the 1970'S

Author: Richard T. Stanley

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2015-06-19

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 1491767960

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By 1972, President Richard Nixon had reached the heights of political power and popularity, only to self-destruct due to his role in a third-rate burglary called Watergate. Nixon resigned in disgrace, and, for the first time in history, Americans came to be led by an unelected President and Vice President -- Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller. But Americans had much more on their minds than mere politics -- movies, TV, sports, earning a living, etc. Hollywood motion pictures, including The Godfather, Jaws, and Star Wars, captured their imaginations, while weekly TV shows such as All in the Family and Happy Days made them laugh, and Monday Night Football kept their competitive juices flowing. To no ones surprise, UCLA continued to win NCAA basketball championships, and such schools as Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Penn State, Texas, and USC remained dominant on the gridiron. And professional sports, thanks to such super-stars as BIllie Jean King, Kareem Abul-Jabbar, Henry Aaron, Jack Nicklaus, Muhammad Ali, Al Unser, and Terry Bradshaw, became more popular than ever. But who could have predicted at the beginning of the decade that a young high school dropout named John Travolta and a band called the Bees Gees would become the kings of Disco Dancing? Or that a peanut farmer from Georgia would be elected President during our Bicentennial Year?

The Reagan Years: a Social History of the 1980’S
The Reagan Years: a Social History of the 1980’S

Author: Richard Stanley

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2017-12-15

Total Pages: 309

ISBN-13: 1532037716

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Ronald Reagans legacy as president is nearly unparalleled in American history due to his domestic and foreign policy leadership. Reagans contrarian insistence on advocating limited government and supply-side economics drew much bipartisan criticism, causing the Great Communicator to take his argument that lowering taxes would encourage economic growth directly to the people. The result? Congress granted $750 billion in tax cuts in 1981. The Reagan Revolution had begun. By mid-1983, the nations economy was booming. On President Reagans first day in office, the Iran Hostage Crisis finally came to an end. Fifty-two American embassy personnel held hostage by a defiant Iran during the last four hundred-plus days of the Carter administration were freeda definite win for all Americans. But Reagan soon was widely criticized for insulting Russias leaders by calling the Soviet Union the evil empire. Later, Reagan was criticized at home and abroad for challenging Soviet premier Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Reagans most criticized proposal of all, however, was his insistence on developing his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)space weapons to defend America from incoming Soviet nuclear missiles. Domestic critics dismissed his proposal as a Star Wars fantasy (but the Soviets feared SDI). By December 1991, it was clear that Reagans Star Wars fantasy helped cause the bankruptcy and total collapse of the Soviet Union, bringing a peaceful end to the decades-long Cold War.

America's Favorite Holidays
America's Favorite Holidays

Author: Richard T. Stanley

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2013-10-30

Total Pages: 75

ISBN-13: 1491713135

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Many of America's favorite holidays, including Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Valentines Day, originated far beyond our shores and long before our Founding Fathers were born. Some holidays, including Thanksgiving Day, the Fourth of July, Flag Day, Labor Day, Lincolns Birthday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, Veterans Day, and Washingtons Birthday, were uniquely grounded in Americas past. New Years Day has become a feast of college football bowl games. Still others, such as Cinco de Mayo, Columbus Day, and St. Patricks Day, are largely the products of Americas rich ethnic and cultural diversity over time. And some have a very personal and specific purpose, such as Mother's Day and Father's Day. Americas favorite holidays provide us with much more than opportunities to simply goof-off or spend money. Celebration, commemoration, contemplation, and remembrance are powerful forces that stimulate us to become better people, to enjoy life more, and to be more productive over time. Therefore, Happy Holidays!, everyone.

Acid Dreams
Acid Dreams

Author: Martin A. Lee

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 9780802130624

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Provides a social history of how the CIA used the psychedelic drug LSD as a tool of espionage during the early 1950s and tested it on U.S. citizens before it spread into popular culture, in particular the counterculture as represented by Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, Ken Kesey, and others who helped spawn political and social upheaval.

The Sixties
The Sixties

Author: Arthur Marwick

Publisher: A&C Black

Published: 2011-09-28

Total Pages: 1444

ISBN-13: 1448205425

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If the World Wars defined the first half of the twentieth century, the sixties defined the second half, acting as the pivot on which modern times have turned. From popular music to individual liberties, the tastes and convictions of the Western world are indelibly stamped with the impact of this tumultuous decade. Framing the sixties as a period stretching from 1958 to 1974, Arthur Marwick argues that this long decade ushered in nothing less than a cultural revolution – one that raged most clearly in the United States, Britain, France, and Italy. Marwick recaptures the events and movements that shaped life as we know it: the rise of a youth subculture across the West; the sit-ins and marches of the civil rights movement; Britain's surprising rise to leadership in fashion and music; the emerging storm over Vietnam; the Paris student uprising of 1968; the growing force of feminism, and much more. For some, it was a golden age of liberation and political progress; for others, an era in which depravity was celebrated, and the secure moral and social framework subverted. The sixties was no short-term era of ecstasy and excess. On the contrary, the decade set the cultural and social agenda for the rest of the century, and left deep divisions still felt today.

No Country for Old Age
No Country for Old Age

Author: Mischa Honeck

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2025-01-14

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 146968098X

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Since the birth of their nation, Americans have acted on the belief that theirs was a land of youth, a place destined to offer a fresh start to an aging world. No Country for Old Age tells this story from the founding period to our present moment, but not without exposing its darker side: rejuvenation has often bred grand expectations that end in division and despair. Mischa Honeck reveals how Americans of diverse backgrounds have sought not only to feel and look younger but also to breathe new life into their communities. Whether marching under the banners of science, public health, sexual liberation, physical fitness, nation-building, or world peace, these youth seekers have tended to paint their ventures in utopian colors. However, from the founders to today’s Silicon Valley elites, anti-aging ventures have repeatedly magnified social inequalities, often projecting visions of society that have been unmistakably classist, racist, misogynist, and ageist. Today we are experiencing rejuvenation’s Janus-faced legacy: As transhumanists rhapsodize about cyber-enhancing human bodies, ghastly pandemics, old-age poverty, and shrinking life expectancies are poised to become the new normal for many twenty-first-century Americans.

Social History of the United States [10 volumes]
Social History of the United States [10 volumes]

Author: Brian Greenberg

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-10-23

Total Pages: 4860

ISBN-13: 1598841289

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This ten-volume encyclopedia explores the social history of 20th-century America in rich, authoritative detail, decade by decade, through the eyes of its everyday citizens. Social History of the United States is a cornerstone reference that tells the story of 20th-century America, examining the interplay of policies, events, and everyday life in each decade of the 1900s with unmatched authority, clarity, and insight. Spanning ten volumes and featuring the work of some of the foremost social historians working today, Social History of the United States bridges the gap between 20th-century history as it played out on the grand stage and history as it affected—and was affected by—citizens at the grassroots level. Covering each decade in a separate volume, this exhaustive work draws on the most compelling scholarship to identify important themes and institutions, explore daily life and working conditions across the economic spectrum, and examine all aspects of the American experience from a citizen's-eye view. Casting the spotlight on those whom history often leaves in the dark, Social History of the United States is an essential addition to any library collection.

The Harvard Psychedelic Club
The Harvard Psychedelic Club

Author: Don Lattin

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2011-01-04

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0061655945

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This book is the story of how three brilliant scholars and one ambitious freshman crossed paths in the early sixties at a Harvard-sponsored psychedelic-drug research project, transforming their lives and American culture and launching the mind/body/spirit movement that inspired the explosion of yoga classes, organic produce, and alternative medicine. The four men came together in a time of upheaval and experimentation, and their exploration of an expanded consciousness set the stage for the social, spiritual, sexual, and psychological revolution of the 1960s. Timothy Leary would be the rebellious trickster, the premier proponent of the therapeutic and spiritual benefits of LSD, advising a generation to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." Richard Alpert would be the seeker, traveling to India and returning to America as Ram Dass, reborn as a spiritual leader with his "Be Here Now" mantra, inspiring a restless army of spiritual pilgrims. Huston Smith would be the teacher, practicing every world religion, introducing the Dalai Lama to the West, and educating generations of Americans to adopt a more tolerant, inclusive attitude toward other cultures' beliefs. And young Andrew Weil would be the healer, becoming the undisputed leader of alternative medicine, devoting his life to the holistic reformation of the American health care system. It was meant to be a time of joy, of peace, and of love, but behind the scenes lurked backstabbing, jealousy, and outright betrayal. In spite of their personal conflicts, the members of the Harvard Psychedelic Club would forever change the way Americans view religion and practice medicine, and the very way we look at body and soul.

Making Youth: A History of Youth in Modern Britain
Making Youth: A History of Youth in Modern Britain

Author: Melanie Tebbutt

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-09-16

Total Pages: 287

ISBN-13: 1137604158

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This new study explores how British youth was made, and how it made itself, over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Urbanisation and industrialisation brought challenges that altered how young people were both perceived and understood. As adults found it difficult to comprehend the rapidity of societal change, focus on the young intensified, and they became a symbol of uncertainty about the future. Highlighting both change and striking continuity, Melanie Tebbutt traces the origins and development of key themes and debates in the history of modern British youth. Current issues such as the ageing of western societies, high levels of youth unemployment and the potential for social and political unrest make this a timely study.