economic and social change in the late 20 th century © 2003 wadsworth group all rights reserved....

Economic and Social Change in the Late 20th Century

© 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved.

Chapter 30Chapter 30

A Changing People

• Demographics of the United States– Population was becoming:

• Older

• More urban

• More ethnically and racially diverse

• Center of Power shifted away from the Northeast, towards the West and South

(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

An Aging Population

• Growth rate almost halved between 1970 and 2000

• Age of marriage delayed

• Median age of population– 28 was the average age in 1970– 34 was the average age in 2000

• The “graying of America”


The Rise of the Sunbelt

• 1980 Census: More Americans in West and South than in North and East– Over 1 in 10 Americans live in California

• Factors influencing rise of the Sunbelt– Air-conditioning– Tourism– Retirement communities– Lower labor costs and absence of strong unions– “Silicon Valley”– National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)



Regional Shifts in Congress

New Immigration

• Between 1960 and 2000 5 times as many immigrants came from Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America than Europe– Mexicans were the largest group

• Immigration Act (1965)• Refugee Act (1980)• Immigration Reform and Control Act (1986)• Immigration Act of 1990


Urbanization and Suburbanization• Metropolitan areas continued to expand• “Urban corridors” connected city centers and

adjacent suburbs• “Edge cities”• City centers transformed

– Financial, administrative and entertainment

– Upper and middle income residents leave

– More lower income residents moves in

• Major challenges in: urban sprawl, traffic, affordable housing

• Community Reinvestment Act(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved


Percentage of Goods-Producing and Service-Producing U.S. Jobs, 1920-2000

Economic Transformations• The pace of technological change brought

astonishing transformation in – consumer products– production processes– the structure of the labor force


New Technologies

• Biotechnology– Human Genome Project

• High-performance computing– Microchips, parallel processors, & artificial intelligence

• Communications• World Wide Web (WWW)

– “information revolution”

• Telecommuting


Big Business

• Credit cards

• Automatic teller machines (ATM)

• Franchises and chains– McDonald’s– Holiday Inn– Wal-Mart

• “Dot-com” businesses– Amazon.com and E-Bay

• Global Production(c) 2003 Wadsworth Group All rights reserved

Postindustrial Restructuring

• Downsizing and mergers• Increase in service sector jobs• Decrease in union jobs• Cesar Chavez

– United Farm Workers (UFW)

• Microsoft– Bill Gates– MS-DOS


Media and Culture

• By 2000, almost every residential unit had at least one television and a VCR

• Over one-third of population use a personal computer in daily work

• Omnipresent video screens– On airplanes, in doctors’ offices, sports bars,

museums, etc.


The Video Revolution• Television programming

– “Narrowcasting”

– All in the Family and Mary Tyler Moore Show

– Charlie’s Angels and Three’s Company

• Fox network– The Simpsons

– Professional Football (1993)

• Cable television (CATV)– Cable News Network (CNN)

– 2003 CATV wins more Emmys than network TV


The “New Hollywood”

• Movie attendance stagnates• Volatility in the movie mark causes

filmmakers to play it safe• Small-scale movies flourish

– Woody Allen– Sundance film festival

• VCR and DVD sales become important to Hollywood

The Changing Media Environment

• Music Television (MTV)– MTV aesthetic– The Real World

• Compact disk (CD)

• Music on the internet


The New Mass Culture Debate

• FCC regulations

• Self-censorship

• Mass Cultural studies:– No longer made distinctions between lowbrow

and highbrow– Analyzed the cultural icons and the way

consumer integrated products of mass culture into their everyday lives

– “Multiculturalism”


Social Activism

• 1960s style activism embeds itself in American life

• "Million Man March“ (1995)

• "Promise Keepers“ (1999)

• “Take back the night”

• Media coverage slips as protest activity increased


Women’s Issues• The pill

– Greater control over reproduction– Affected sexual behavior

• Struggles over gender issues– Consciousness-raising

• “Feminization of poverty”• “Glass ceilings”• Sexual harassment ruling, 1986• Thomas-Hill hearings (1991)• Political gender gap• "Tailhook" (1991)


Sexual Politics

• "Stonewall"

• Gay Liberation Front (GLF)

• Act Up

• Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)

• “Gay rights”


Race, Ethnicity, and Social Activism

• Emphasis on group identity as the fulcrum of social activism

• Cultural difference should be celebrated

African American Activism

• "Afrocentrism”

• Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.

• Toni Morrison

• O.J. Simpson trial (1995)

• “Racial profiling”

• Confederate flag issue

• Congressional Black Caucus


American Indian Activism

• American Indian Movement (AIM)

• Civil Rights Act (1968)– “Indian Bill of Rights”

• Tribally Controlled College Assistance Act

• Native American Rights Fund (NARF)

• Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (1988)

• Powwows


Activism in Spanish-Speaking Communities

• “Latino”• “Hispanic”• Great diversity in Spanish language America• Chicanismo• La Raza Unida movement• COPS (Communities Organized for Public Service)• Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational

Fund • UNO (United Neighborhood Organization)• Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Educational Fund


Asian American Activism

• Asian-American studies

• 1988: Reparations to Asian Americans interred in WWII camps

• 1976: Asian Pacific Planning Council (APPCON)

• API (Asia or Pacific Islanders) – single pan-ethnic category, 1990


Dilemmas of Antidiscrimination Efforts

• “Affirmative action“• Quotas and the issue of reverse

discrimination• Proposition 209• “Mixed race”

– Tiger Woods


The New Right

• Mid-1970s: diverse coalition called “New Right”

• Anti-communist and anti-domestic spending programs

• “New Right” members came from:– Older activists– Phyllis Schlafly – William F. Buckley’s Firing Line


New Conservative Institutions

• “Neoconservatives”– Claimed Democratic party retreated from an

anticommunist foreign policy and catered to social activists

– True to their Cold War era roots

– Wanted a rededication to limited government

• Government regulation endangers economic freedom

• American Enterprise Institute and Heritage Foundation


The New Religious Right

• The “New Right” attracted grassroots support from Protestants in fundamentalist and evangelical churches

• Effect of Roe v. Wade mobilized fundamentalist and evangelical leaders– Conservative Catholics

• Jerry Falwell• Constitutional dilemma: strict separation of church

and state perceived as infringing on the “free exercise of religion


Religious Preferences in the United States (Persons 18 Years of Age or Older)


The New Right’s Agenda

• National Conservative Political Action Committee (1975)

• Conservative Caucus• Moral Majority• Family values• “Politically correct”• Pat Robertson

– 700 Club

• Pat Buchanan


Conclusion• Sweeping changes in U.S. in last quarter of 20th

century:– Demographics– Economics– Culture– Society

• Mass Culture: the video screen• Suburbs and urban sprawl• Social activism centered around sexual, ethnic and

racial identities• New Right movement


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