The 1960s decade was a decade of turbulence, protests, political unrest as well as disillusionment, in contrast to the 1950s, which was remembered by historians as a decade of consensus, conformity, and prosperity. These labels and pigeonholes are, at large, accurate, although there are exceptions to every perspective in life. The place that the 1960s finds in American history perhaps no other decade can find and so immortalize in Americans memories. Accompanied by the inspiring memories of the Civil Rights Movement, remembered for its art, music, and activism, as well as the prevalence of chaos, tragedies plague conflicts, such as riots in cities. The Vietnam War and assassinations linked with the termination of the youth’s idealism were enough to symbolize a decade of great controversies due to its political unrest, fashion and social norms.
It was a decade of disillusionment and struggle influenced by cultural, social and political turmoil; there were so many changes that occurred to be remembered, and so much can be achieved that didn’t. It was termed The Sixties” by many journalists, historians as well as in other academic literature to pronounce the revolution and counterculture in social norms concerning dress, music, fashion, sexuality, drugs, clothing, schooling and formalities (Ginosar et al. 18). The second phase of feminism gets accelerated focusing on the agenda of changing social and cultural norms as well as demanding women rights. Young people who got estranged from social norms showed resistance and searched for alternatives, thus forming counterculture thus becoming social activists or adopting alternative lifestyles. “Swinging Sixties” is another terminology used to demonstrate the atrocities related to segregation of racial communities and sexism that happened during this time. It was the period when a rigid culture failed to fulfill the demands of superior personal liberty, ignored all the social constraints of the moral and ethical values thus deviated remarkably from the norms (O’Connor & Kelly 1968).
The dominant geopolitical issue during the 1960s was the confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States of America. Both countries were struggling to become a higher power and were trying to expand their influence in developing countries of the entire world. At that time, the Soviet Union was growing progressively and transforming from a regional power to a more significant, truly global superpower (Grossmann et al. 311). President Kennedy’s slaying mounted great tensions between the former USSR and the US that resulted in the start of an era of the Cold War characterized by funding for insurgencies, proxy wars, and dummy governments.
There were worse conditions during the 1960s in contrast to previous decades, with the continued trend of whites leaving the cities and residing in the suburbs, resulting in poor conditions in cities. Crime rates, drug usage and the upsurge of various other social problems were the specialty of this era. Civil rights movements were accelerating their pace against racial segregation in schools, markets and public places (Ginosar et al. 18). Activists and protesters demanded better civil rights legislation, protection for protesters against police brutalities and introducing social reforms.
President John F. Kennedy, a loyal anti-communist and a Keynesian, introduced social reforms in response to civil disobedience and civil rights movements and campaigns. In 1963, the assassination of President Kennedy was a shock, and all the liberal changes he presented were passed during Lyndon B. Johnson’s tenure.
The 1960s era was also recognized for introducing several modern trends in the fashion industry as it was the decade that abolished all the traditional fashion trends, hence familiarizing the public with modern ones. During the middle years of the decade, young, talented designers bring new fashion trends that attract broad public and media publicity, thus appealing to massive investment from mass-market manufacturers as well as elite designers (Grossmann et al. 311). More experimental examples of modern fashion in the 1960s include go-go boots, miniskirts, and culottes.
The 1960s decade, on one side, hailed Americans through their first moon landing in human history and their victory against the USSR, while on the other side reminded them of the disillusions of the Vietnam War, assassinations of their political leadership, brutalities and atrocities committed during racial segregation and riots occurred in various cities.
Works Cited
Ginosar, Shiry, et al. “A century of portraits: A visual historical record of American high school yearbooks.” Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision Workshops. 2015.
O’Connor, Kelly Ann. “The Fashionable Life: Fashion Imagery and the Construction of Masculinity in America, 1960-2000.” (2014).
Grossmann, Igor, and Michael EW Varnum. “Social structure, infectious diseases, disasters, secularism, and cultural change in America.” Psychological Science 26.3 (2015): 311-324.
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