Pivotal Decades
Pivotal Decades

Author: John Milton Cooper

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Published: 1990-08-07

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13: 9780393956559

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Contemporary American began in the first two decades of this century. These were the years in which two of our greatest presidents—Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson—transformed the office into the center of power; in which the United States entered the world stage and fought its first overseas war; in which the government's proper role in the economy became a public question; and in which reform became an imperative for muckraking reporters, progressive politicians, social activists, and writers. It was a golden age in American politics, when fundamental ideas were given compelling expression by thoughtful candidates. It was a trying time, however, for many Americans, including women who fought for the vote, blacks who began organizing to secure their rights, and activists on the Left who lost theirs in the first Red Scare of the century. John Cooper's panoramic history of this period shows us where we came from and sheds light on where we are.

Pivotal Decade
Pivotal Decade

Author: Judith Stein

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2010-05-25

Total Pages: 482

ISBN-13: 0300163290

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In this fascinating new history, Judith Stein argues that in order to understand our current economic crisis we need to look back to the 1970s and the end of the age of the factory--the era of postwar liberalism, created by the New Deal, whose practices, high wages, and regulated capital produced both robust economic growth and greater income equality. When high oil prices and economic competition from Japan and Germany battered the American economy, new policies--both international and domestic--became necessary. But war was waged against inflation, rather than against unemployment, and the government promoted a balanced budget instead of growth. This, says Stein, marked the beginning of the age of finance and subsequent deregulation, free trade, low taxation, and weak unions that has fostered inequality and now the worst recession in eighty years. Drawing on extensive archival research and covering the economic, intellectual, political, and labor history of the decade, Stein provides a wealth of information on the 1970s. She also shows that to restore prosperity today, America needs a new model: more factories and fewer financial houses. --Publisher's description.

Your Guide to Earth's Pivotal Years
Your Guide to Earth's Pivotal Years

Author: Selacia

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2011-05-31

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1450297080

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Earths Pivotal Years is a wonderful guide for anyone desiring a life of purpose during these unique times. The more who act upon the wisdom in this book, the faster we can create a peaceful and loving world with people becoming agents of conscious evolution. Barbara Marx Hubbard, author of Birth 2012 and Beyond The Earth is at a precipice; there is a sense of urgency about the world and our place in it. In Your Guide to Earth's Pivotal Years, author Selacia answers universal questions that are being asked about the future and our role. She addresses these times of great change, prophecies, our future, and the vital role of divine changemakers. Providing a big-picture view, Your Guide to Earth's Pivotal Years helps you accomplish the following: Comprehend what the paradigm shift really means for you and everyone on Earth Understand why this is the most important time you could be alive Gain a new appreciation of Earth's pivotal years with your own take-action guide Recognize the new, more heart-centered world in the making Learn about those known as divine changemakers Through this process of discovery, you will find a new source of inspiration and courage for taking the next steps. Your Guide to Earth's Pivotal Years communicates practical tools for navigating change and advancing spiritually and describes specific options for powerfully creating a more light-filled world. This book has been endorsed by Barbara Marx Hubbard, author of Birth 2012 and Beyond: Earths Pivotal Years is a wonderful guide for anyone desiring a life of purpose during these unique times. The more who act upon the wisdom in this book, the faster we can create a peaceful and loving world with people becoming agents of conscious evolution.

All Shook Up
All Shook Up

Author: Glenn C. Altschuler

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2003-08-07

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0198031912

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The birth of rock 'n roll ignited a firestorm of controversy--one critic called it "musical riots put to a switchblade beat"--but if it generated much sound and fury, what, if anything, did it signify? As Glenn Altschuler reveals in All Shook Up, the rise of rock 'n roll--and the outraged reception to it--in fact can tell us a lot about the values of the United States in the 1950s, a decade that saw a great struggle for the control of popular culture. Altschuler shows, in particular, how rock's "switchblade beat" opened up wide fissures in American society along the fault-lines of family, sexuality, and race. For instance, the birth of rock coincided with the Civil Rights movement and brought "race music" into many white homes for the first time. Elvis freely credited blacks with originating the music he sang and some of the great early rockers were African American, most notably, Little Richard and Chuck Berry. In addition, rock celebrated romance and sex, rattled the reticent by pushing sexuality into the public arena, and mocked deferred gratification and the obsession with work of men in gray flannel suits. And it delighted in the separate world of the teenager and deepened the divide between the generations, helping teenagers differentiate themselves from others. Altschuler includes vivid biographical sketches of the great rock 'n rollers, including Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly--plus their white-bread doppelgangers such as Pat Boone. Rock 'n roll seemed to be everywhere during the decade, exhilarating, influential, and an outrage to those Americans intent on wishing away all forms of dissent and conflict. As vibrant as the music itself, All Shook Up reveals how rock 'n roll challenged and changed American culture and laid the foundation for the social upheaval of the sixties.

The NFL's Pivotal Years
The NFL's Pivotal Years

Author: Brad Schultz

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2021-03-26

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1476684391

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Recent years have been among the most challenging in NFL history, culminating in the 2020-21 coronavirus and social justice issues. Yet a complete understanding of where the NFL is today begins with a five-year period that was the most transformative for the league. From 1957 to 1962, the NFL saw: the advent of unionization, with a landmark Supreme Court decision; the legendary 1958 title game, the first to go into sudden death overtime; a challenge from the American Football League that would have important consequences for decades; the introduction of computerization and statistical analysis; the first steps towards globalization; and the hiring of legends Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, who both contributed to the league's growing mythology. This book describes in detail the key events that helped shape the modern NFL, and why this period was so momentous to the league and its fans.

The Opposition Presidency
The Opposition Presidency

Author: David A. Crockett

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 9781585441570

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When a president’s governing philosophy is out of step with the dominant ideology of the culture, his options for leadership are much different FROM those of a leader more in sync with the times. Such opposition leaders face distinctive challenges and opportunities for effectiveness. They should be judged by different standards, argues political scientist David Crockett. Crockett has analyzed presidents from Whig times through the Clinton presidency to develop a model for understanding presidential success and the strategies that are appropriate to the circumstances. Focusing on the terms of TWELVE opposition presidents, Crockett details the approaches they have taken to maximize their own goals and maintain political power. He illustrates vividly how these leaders must balance personal and partisan success and he lays out the relationship between personality or character and the larger political context. All opposition presidents face roughly the same type of leadership situation governing in an era in which they do not control the power to define politics but Crockett’s broad historical perspective demonstrates that they do not all handle this situation in the same way. Studying the presidency in such a political context enables Crockett to break free of the one-size-fits-all model of presidential leadership. Leadership strategies are contingent and context-bound, and the wise president understands the constraints history places on his leadership. In the case of opposition presidents, history demonstrates that pursuing a path of moderation is far healthier than launching a frontal assault on the governing party. It is healthier for the president and his party and healthier for the political system as a whole. Breaking free of the standard focus on post-World War II presidencies, this historically rich, analytically sophisticated, and extremely readable volume offers challenging understandings of presidential effectiveness. Students of American politics will join scholars of the presidency in welcoming its innovative and tightly argued perspectives.

This Rebellious House
This Rebellious House

Author: Steven J. Keillor

Publisher: InterVarsity Press

Published: 1996-10-03

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 9780830818778

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Examining United States history from Columbus to Clinton, Steven J. Keillor disabuses us of the notion that our nation has ever been a genuinely "Christian" one. He focuses on various political, economic and cultural policies or events (the Civil War, westward expansion) that are now often cited to "disprove" or "debunk" Christianity.

Running against the Grain
Running against the Grain

Author: David A. Crockett

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2009-03-01

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9781603441315

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Some presidents enter office with an uphill climb in front of them: their political party represents a different governing philosophy than the dominant strain of the day. These, David A. Crockett says, are “opposition presidents.” If they are, in a sense, out of step with their times, how do they ever get elected in the first place? In Running against the Grain: How Opposition Presidents Win the White House, Crockett employs historical comparisons to draw conclusions about what it takes for these candidates to win the office. He focuses on seven presidents in twelve elections: William Henry Harrison (1840) and Zachary Taylor (1848), Grover Cleveland (1884 and 1892) and Woodrow Wilson (1912 and 1916), Dwight Eisenhower (1952 and 1956) and Richard Nixon (1968 and 1972), and Bill Clinton (1992 and 1996). Crockett draws on the work of Stephen Skowronek and others in the tradition of American political development to establish the periodization for his study. Through a comparative analysis of victorious opposition candidates, Crockett finds explanations that transcend specific campaigns or even specific eras. He contends that, because the way one acquires the office may have an effect on the practice of leadership in the office, “running against the grain” has implications far beyond Election Day.

Americanos
Americanos

Author: John Chasteen

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0195178815

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In 1808, world history took a decisive turn when Napoleon occupied Spain and Portugal, a European event that had lasting repercussions more than half the world away, sparking a series of revolutions throughout the Spanish and Portuguese empires of the New World. These wars for independence resulted eventually in the creation of nineteen independent Latin American republics.Here is an engagingly written, compact history of the Latin American wars of independence. Proceeding almost cinematically, scene by vivid scene, John Charles Chasteen introduces the reader to lead players, basic concepts, key events, and dominant trends, braided together in a single, taut narrative. He vividly depicts the individuals and events of those tumultuous years. Here are the famous leaders--Simon Bolivar, Jose de San Martin, and Bernardo O'Higgins, Father Hidalgo and Father Morelos, and many others. Here too are lesser known Americanos: patriot women such as Manuela Saenz, Leona Vicario, Mariquita Sanchez, Juana Azurduy, and Policarpa Salavarrieta, indigenous rebels such as Mateo Pumacahua, and African-descended generals such as Vicente Guerrero and Manuel Piar. Chasteen captures the gathering forces for independence, the clashes of troops and decisions of leaders, and the rich, elaborate tapestry of Latin American societies as they embraced nationhood. By the end of the period, the leaders of Latin American independence would embrace classical liberal principles--particularly popular sovereignty and self-determination--and permanently expanding the global reach of Western political values.Today, most of the world's oldest functioning republics are Latin American. And yet, Chasteen observes, many suffer from a troubled political legacy that dates back to their birth. In this book, he illuminates this legacy, even as he illustrates how the region's dramatic struggle for independence points unmistakably forward in world history.

The Condor Years
The Condor Years

Author: John Dinges

Publisher: New Press, The

Published: 2012-03-13

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1595589023

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A “compelling and shocking account” of a brutal campaign of repression in Latin America, based on interviews and previously secret documents (The Miami Herald). Throughout the 1970s, six Latin American governments, led by Chile, formed a military alliance called Operation Condor to carry out kidnappings, torture, and political assassinations across three continents. It was an early “war on terror” initially encouraged by the CIA—which later backfired on the United States. Hailed by Foreign Affairs as “remarkable” and “a major contribution to the historical record,” The Condor Years uncovers the unsettling facts about the secret US relationship with the dictators who created this terrorist organization. Written by award-winning journalist John Dinges and updated to include later developments in the prosecution of Pinochet, the book is a chilling yet dispassionately told history of one of Latin America’s darkest eras. Dinges, himself interrogated in a Chilean torture camp, interviewed participants on both sides and examined thousands of previously secret documents to take the reader inside this underground world of military operatives and diplomats, right-wing spies and left-wing revolutionaries. “Scrupulous, well-documented.” —The Washington Post “Nobody knows what went wrong inside Chile like John Dinges.” —Seymour Hersh