Finally: A Serious Book About the Seventies!

It was long overdue - a serious historical work about the Seventies. Bruce Schulman, a history professor at Boston University, published The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society and Politics in 2001. DaCapo Press published it, and you can find the book for sale online.

Schulman defines the Seventies as the period from 1968 to 1984 - a much broader time frame than I do, including all of the Nixon years (as well as Reagan's first term). He counters the charge that "nothing happened" during the period by identifying several major social trends that started during the Seventies, and which are still with us. These include:

• The Women's movement and changes in sex roles.
• The rise of the Sunbelt as the major political force in America.
  
• Distrust of formal authority (especially government).
• The demise of Integration and the rise of "Diversity" in its place.
• A renewal of interest in religion and personal transformation.
  

Reading this book was "deja vu all over again," as I re-lived the days of Watergate, the Riggs-King tennis match, the rise of punk rock, etc. For that alone, it's worth a look for anyone interested in our decade. As for his analysis of the various trends mentioned above, I would say that Schulman was on-the-mark, although he was a bit simplistic, and sometimes quick to diagnose people's motives. For example, he claims that many people hated disco because

"...it obviously intimidated suburban white boys who found it too feminine, too gay, too black. But its hybrid form also mocked ethnic nationalists dedicated to preserving distinct black and Latino identities."

Wooooah, Bruce! Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes people hate cigars because they hate smoky, smelly things. Anyway, this was certainly not the case in NYC! For one thing, the disco fans I knew of were anything but "feminine" in their appearance and actions. Quite the opposite. Disco culture was the refuge for the greasers in the outer boroughs. And, whether you loved the music or hated it, a discotheque was one of the few places you could visit back then where people of different ethnicities and sexual orientations interacted. And I never heard anyone complaining that the music wasn't "black" enough, whatever that might mean.

Similarly, the rise of interest in Country music during the Seventies just might have been influenced by the fact that people liked it! Country-rock and "crossover" acts like the early Eagles exposed audiences previously unfamiliar with Hank Williams, etc, to C and W, and they found it fun. Its lyrics were also much "cleaner," overall, than other types of pop music.You didn't have to be a Sunbelt surburbanite to like the stuff.

I enjoyed Schulman's account of the rise of the Women's movement, along with the corresponding counter-feminist backlash of people such as Phyllis Schlafly. Indeed, each of the major trends which arose during the Seventies could be seen as sparking a corresponding backlash. Or, as in the case of the anti-government movement, the trend was itself a backlash against what was at least perceived governmental inefficiency and intrusiveness. But one counter-trend on which I think Schulman was really wrong was the much-lampooned "Men's Movement." Yes, we heard plenty of talk about changing roles and expectations for men during the Seventies, but we heard the same during the latter Sixties as well. And still, the talk remained, for the most part, just that for our period. There may have been a few films and books which showed men in different roles, but let's not forget that this was the decade that brought us Rocky, Kojack, etc. And although a "men's movement" did emerge, it wasn't until the late Eighties. Robert Bly's Iron John, the bible of the "mytho-poetic" movement, which Schulman quotes, wasn't even published until 1990. The old roles still applied for most men.

Finally, here are a few trends that I think Schulman missed:

• Globalization, possibly beginning with Nixon's trip to China.
• Urban revitalization and gentrification. While some folks fled the old cities, others moved back.
• "Political Correctness."