Significant Political, Social, and Economic Changes in America from the 1930s to the 1970s
From the 1930s to the 1970s, America modernized. Women gained suffrage in 1920 with the 19th amendment (The American Yawp, 2018), and America as a country was on the move, having just asserted itself abroad by helping to end WWI. Now with peace restored, America began to metamorphose. It transitioned from being a traditionally-minded country of various ethnicities—struggling from a decade of Prohibtion to a decade of Depression to the sequel to the Great War, which resulted in a victory for the Allies and a Baby Boom back home—to being a country torn apart by revolution, social unrest and a deep distrust of government that started with a string of assassinations in the 1960s (JFK, MLK, Malcolm X, RFK) and culminated in the resignation of Nixon in the wake of the Watergate cover-up (Dean, 2014; Stone & Kuznick, 2012). Two groups impacted in big ways during this period were American women and Jewish Americans. For both groups, the changes began with WWII: for women because they were finally introduced into the workforce, while the men were overseas fighting the Axis; for Jewish Americans because they obtained their own state in the aftermath of the War—Israel, founded in 1948, first recognized by the U.S.—a state that every Jew could call his home.
Both women and Jews were in the ascendancy following the war, socially, politically and economically. The Women’s Movement got underway with Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963. Friedan (1963) lamented the woman’s lot in bitter terms: “We have made woman a sex creature…She has no identity except as a wife and mother. …She waits all day for her husband to come home at night to make her feel alive. And now it is the husband who is not interested. It is terrible for the women, to lie there, night after night, waiting for her husband to make her feel alive” (p. 29). The Feminine Mystique was the bugle call for women. As Horowitz (1998) pointed out, Friedan argued “that she came to political consciousness out of a disillusionment with her life as a suburban housewife” (p. 2) and her book was her manifesto. Women had gotten along fine during the War, had gotten a taste of the independent life, and had had their fill of Mary Tyler Moore type characters representing them on the screen. The 1960s were ripe for revolution—and Friedan (an American Jewish woman, no less) helped get the revolution going for women. Another Jewish American woman named Gloria Steinem would found Ms. Magazine that same decade and become the face of the Feminist Movement going forward. Steinem was a direct advocate of women’s liberation: the old world patriarchal order of the past had to be dismantled. Women’s liberation was their opportunity to dismantle it.
References
The American Yawp. (2018). The new era. Retrieved from http://www.americanyawp.com/text/22-the-twenties/
Cooke, R. (2011). Gloria Steinem: ‘I think we need to get much angrier.’ The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/nov/13/gloria-steinem-interview-feminism-abortion
Bazelon, E. (2009). The Place of Women on the Court. The NY Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12ginsburg-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all&
Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. NY: Routledge.
Dean, J. (2014). The Nixon defense: What he knew and when he knew it. NY: Viking.
Friedan, B. (1963). The Feminine Mystique. NY: W. W. Norton.
Horowitz, D. (1998). Betty Friedan and the Making of The Feminine Mystique. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Rosen, J. (1993). The Book of Ruth. New Republic. Retrieved from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/politics/the-book-ruth
Stone, O. & Kuznick, P. (2012). The untold history of the United States. NY: Gallery. Wall Street Journal. (2008). Rahm Emanuel on the opportunities of crisis. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mzcbXi1Tkk
America's Medical System is Broken: Can it Be Saved and at What Cost? It is not an undisclosed reality that the health care system of the United States of America is the most expensive in the world. The American government spends almost two times as much per individual as compared to other advanced nation-states for achieving better health outcomes. However, they are neither better nor satisfactory and are much poorer in
..) the subsequent U.S. occupation of the island tied its economy ever closed to the United States as U.S. military governors promulgated laws giving U.S. firms concessionary access to the Cuban market. By the late 1920s U.S. firms controlled 75% of the sugar industry and most of the mines, railroads, and public utilities." (Leogrande and Thomas, 2002, 325-6) The economic dependence on the United States and in particular the high degree
America's Cuban Conundrum The Helms-Burton Act and the Cuban-American Trade Relations The United States and Cuba have had increased amounts of hostility toward each other present in their relations ever since the Cuban revolution. Not only did Cuba nationalize property held by U.S. interests during the revolution, but also Cuba became an ally to Russia during the Cold War; which was critical to the Soviet strategy since Cuba is in close proximity
America and Diversity Impacts of Immigration on U.S. America has indeed a true diverse population and challenges of having such a diversified group of people range from the most serious issues such as terrorism to minor issues of hygiene. In a nutshell the most important challenge is inculcating the American way of life in people from different races, believing in a same cause of freedom and future that is flourishing for both
America's Cuban Conundrum Issue that prompted the EU to take the Helm-Burton dispute to the WTO The stances of the U.S. government in the suctions issued upon Cuba were heavy and non-beneficial to many countries and subsidiary organizations. The benefits of the sanctions were felt with no role in bringing consistency of access to the exciting opportunities for business activities in Cuba. Many organizations, countries, and independent business people were willing to
Argument against colonization While the American government pursued this expansionist policy, many citizens expressed concerns and dissent, for many disparate reasons. Ironically, while expansionism was based on ideas of racial superiority, so did the counter-arguments. For example, labor leader Samuel Gompers argued against the acquisition of colonies, for fear of being swarmed by "the Negritos, the Chinese, the Malays" and the other "semi-savage races" from coming to the United States? Similar
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now