History of America
One of the greatest challenges that Americans faced during 1970s was surging inflation. From 1960s, it was apparent that economic growth was slowing down and the country was going into a recession. However, the impact of the economic growth became apparent only in 1970s as different factors, including OPEC oil embargo, conspired to aggravate the situation. The country had been on an economic growth path since the end of the Second World War but for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans panicked of reversing back to similar sufferings of 1930s Great Depression (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992). Economic inflation experienced during 1970s still haunts the minds of most Americans. It was not until the Federal Reserve became serious and alienated the inflation issues from politics that the inflation was controlled, but it had already done damage on American economic situation.
The 1970s inflation has been widely regarded as peacetime inflation. It was the only time in American history when there was great uncertainty in prices and business decision were mainly based on speculation on the trends in monetary policy. Historians show that the price jumps during 1970s, which resulted from an average of 10 increase in the rate of inflation, was equal to price jumps that had been experienced during war years (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992). This means that though the 1970s inflation took place during a peaceful decade it had similar magnitude to other inflation which happen during war years.
The 1970s inflation was terrible and worse since it took place during the era of Vietnam revolution (OBrien, 1992). The decade saw high demand and low supply of essential social things like jobs, house, cars, and others. It has been speculated that one of the causes of the inflation was political issues which saw no one willing to take up the office as head of Federal Reserve Chairman (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992). This meant that there was no policy which was put in place to curb the inflation until Paul Volcker took helm as Chairman of Federal Reserve that high priority was placed on stopping the high rate of inflation. It has also been highlighted that many people did not take the inflation serious and its effects were widely underestimated. Since there was no one who could stop the inflation, the prices kept on rising day by day. Another factor that contributed to rising rate of inflation was lack of confidence in the banking sector.
Historians account that the real cause of 1970s inflation was the shadow of the Great Depression. The reincarnation of Great Depression fears showed a predisposition on the left and center political opinion which depicted the high rate of unemployment and erosion of the Federal Reserve (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992). There was general feeling that the Federal Reserve was risking unemployment in a bid to control the rate of inflation. The anxiety and discontent that followed the rising rate of inflation emanated from the Federal Reserve power to control the rate of inflation. The rising rate of unemployment also contributed to inflation and poor economy (Schulman, 2001). Due to changing social factors, women were becoming more interested in the job market. Coupled with the soldiers arriving from Vietnam War, the rate of unemployment kept on rising. For example, the number of unemployed individuals rose from 80 million in 1896 to 96 million in 1970s. The rate of unemployment increased from 3.3 at the beginning of the decade to 8 by the end of the decade.
During 1980s, the GDP decreased by 3.1 between 1973 and 1975. The country also sustained a greater trade deficit with other nations. During the decade, America witnessed wage inflations that rose sharply from 1960s 3 to more than 7 by the end of the 70s (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992). Interestingly, inflation was believed to be reducing each and every year but it never did. Private sector forecast showed that the economy was in place but the rate of inflation did not fall.
The country experienced rising stagflation and there was wage and price controls implemented under President Nixon, which in actual sense did not work. Between 1971 and 1972, Breton Woods Agreement collapsed and President Nixon removed America from the Gold Standards in the Federal Reserve. His predecessor, President Gerald Ford introduced the Whip Inflation Now slogan but this did not even work and even when President Jimmy Carter took office in 1976, things did not work and he had to take blame for the inflation woes (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992).
There were compounding political factors that contributed to the high rate of inflation. Before departure from the Federal Reserve, Arthur Burns did not believe in use of monetary policy to control the rising rate of inflations. Arthur Burns was a critic of Kennedy-Johnson policy and acted as counselor to Nixon government (Schulman, 2001). He had been vehemently opposed to the wage-price guidepost. On May 1970, Burns asked Nixon to implement incomes policy in order to reduce the period suppression of demand and restoring stability in prices. However, the most compounding political policy that hindered reduction of inflation in 1970s was evident lack of support in the White House or in the Congress (Schaller and Scharf and Schulzinger, 1992). The White House and the Congress did not put in place any policy that would lead to reduction in the rate of inflation. Nixon did not believe in fighting inflation through increasing unemployment. The Republican Congress called for institution of policies to fight inflation did not receive any attention in the White House and Democrats blamed the inflation and unemployment on Nixon reluctant to take a route to ensure price stability.
It is evident that the great inflation of 1970s was caused by political indecision. The government and the political class were not willing to take measures that would risk their popularity in order to tackle inflation (Schulman, 2001). It was not until the Federal Reserve became serious and alienated the inflation issues from politics that the inflation was controlled but it has already done damage on American economic situation. More and more people were out of work by the time the inflation as controlled and investor confidence had been lost.
Waves of social movements in 1960s and their impact on American political, social, and cultural life
The 1960s, now famously pronounced as the the sixties was another turbulent decade in American history. The decade was marked by culture and political trends that articulated for social changes in American. The sixties are famously associated with counterculture and social revolution movements that came from mid 50s. It was a decade marked by flamboyance and social unrest (Taylor, 2006). The most notable events of the decade were the social movements that called for change in racial relations and gender equality in the country. American social movements in the 1960s shaped the country in different ways and their legacy strongly resounds in the modern social, political, and economic environment.
The period of social movements in 1960s America began with the Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. This was the most important ruling that outlawed desegregation and sparked the civil rights movement that arguably shaped the modern racial relations in the country. By the time 1960 decade ushered, there were many social movements and the call for change in racial relations was gathering storm throughout the United States. The era of social movement ended in 1970s with Kent State Killings and the fall of Saigon in 1975 (Goluboff, 2007). However, civil rights movement had made great impact on American life and this shaped the way races relate. The ultimate impact on these movements came to be realized in 2008 when the first African American president, Barrack Obama, was elected regardless of the color of his skin.
There were many reasons that sparked the social movements of the 1960s. The first reason that brought about widespread social movement was American apartheid that had been practiced since the end of the slavery. Despite the enactment of the chattel slavery in 1865, there continued to be widespread discrimination and segregation of colored people especially in the South (Goluboff, 2007). White supremacy and cultural ethnocentrism was a factor that contributed to the widespread social movement that called for social equality. Discrimination and segregation had been institutionalized, especially in the Southern states, despite the government effort to ensure racial equality. Another reason that sparked the social movements was the disparity in wealth. Statistics shows that in 1960, every 1 in 5 Americans were living in pathetic poor conditions. This led to springing of a number of egalitarian movements that attracted support from disparity members of the society.
Anther factor that contributed to social movement was perceived institutional terror. During the 1960s, large amount of national resources were directed towards building of military power despite poverty facing most Americans (Goluboff, 2007). There were fears that American military industrial complex was likely to absorb social wealth and convert it to non-productive weapons of war. The movements called for deinstitutionalization of military power and take back resources to the society in order to solve various social issues that Americans were facing. The factor that contributed to the social movements was materialism. There was a general fight against the rising American materialism that saw American middle class take center stage in these movements as they wanted to address the issue of materialism.
Though the racial minority races in America had been opposed even with the end of the Jim Crow laws, they mainly employed peaceful litigation means to articulate their causes (Moody, 1968). Moody (1958) gives an account of what it was like to live as a minority group in Mississippi and other areas in United States, and this segregation brough bout civil rights movement. The event that sparked the movements, Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, was itself a civil litigation. This peaceful strategy had been employed for a long time as a weapon for fighting against social inequality and racial discrimination. However, things were starting to change drastically during the 1950s and 1960s and social movement embraced mass movement as a method of articulating their views. The strategy of public education, legislative lobbying, and litigation, become less popular and leaders of mass movements now mastered direct action in order to pressurize for change. The movement were mainly characterized by boycotts, sit-ins, freedom rids, and other direct action tactics that were pushing for action from the government to change landscape of racial relations.
The movements were organized around social institutions like churches, community centers, and grassroots organizations. They had volunteers who mobilized people in the grassroots and the support for these movements grew day by day. Direct action was perceived as a superior method of creating social change unlike the traditional approach that mainly concentrated on litigation and court challenges. In order to understand how these movements were organized, it is important to look at key events.
There were a number of key events that marked the decade of social movement. The first even was Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954. The desegregation ruling fueled the desire for social movements to have more change in the society and paved way for formation of social and organization of other events. The second important event that marked the civil rights movement was Rosa parks and Montgomery Bus Boycott that took place from 1955 to 1956. This was a direct boycott of racial segregation as Rosa Parks refused to give in her sit to a white passenger. These two events provided platform for more movements that took place during 1960s.
During 1960s, the most notable events were sit-ins, notably Greensboro and Nashville sit-in. Students across the nation organization sit-ins at lunch counters and in the local. This was followed by freedom rides in different states (Echols, 1989). After the freedom rides, civil right movements then organized voter registration. This was meant to empower minority races to vote. However, most notable civil mass event was the Albany movement that took place from 1961 and 1962 and Birmingham campaign that took place between 1963 and 1964. Te hallmark of civil rights movement was March on Washington in 1963. This march was meant to fight against employment discrimination which was widespread in Washington. It was during this mass movement that the leader of civil right struggle, Martin Luther King, Jnr made his famous speech (Echols, 1989). The government responded to this march issuing Executive Order 8802 which barred discrimination in the workplace. There were other mass movements that took place in the course of the decade until the Memphis King assignation in 1968 as he went to Memphis to support the strike by sanitation workers. Social movements continued in 1970s.
The civil right movements achieved most of their set objectives. The most important achievement of the civil rights movement was enactment of Civil Rights Act in 1964 that banned any discrimination. The act stressed that all Americans were equal and one could be discriminated based on race, gender, religion, or the nation of origin (Echols, 1989). Another important achievement was the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that gave minority groups in Alabama the right to vote.
The legacy of the social movements of the 1960s resounds today. Apart from bringing about equality in American society, it inspired other countries in the world to fight against oppression and notably contributed to freedom struggle in colonized African countries. They formed the base for Cultural Revolution that has taken place in the Unteid states for the last few decades (Chang, 2005). Today, American races coexist without discrimination. As result of fight against gender discrimination, there are more women and minority workers in American workforce today (Echols, 1989). The country has achieve progress in gender equality and more women are in the working force that any time in history. The hallmark effect of the civil rights movement has been the election of Barrack Obama, an African American, as the president of the United States, something that was not conceivable in 1960s America.
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