That much maligned decade, the 1970s, actually had a bigger impact, and a more enduring legacy than the much romanticized, and consequential, 1960s that preceded it. That is the contention of Boston University professor Bruce J. Schulman in his book, THE SEVENTIES: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics. Despite that mouthful of a title, Schulman’s book, coming in at just over 250 pages, is a short and fast look at the clashing politics, personalities and culture of the decade rather than a deep dive. The author makes his points and moves on, backing up his assertions with facts as he sees them, and extrapolating on the go. It’s a good book for younger readers wanting to get a grasp on the recent past, or for those who want to take a less than sentimental journey and brush up on the history they lived through and have now forgotten. But be warned, Schulman laces his book with a lot of opinion, and often falls into the trap of asserting them as facts.

One of the things that I liked about the book was that Schulman does not just confine himself to the numerical years of the decade, but essentially covers events from 1968 to 1984, taking us from the coming of Richard Nixon to the re-election of Ronald Reagan. In this time, America goes from the counterculture to the entrepreneur; from the hippie to the yuppie; from the dominance of the old Rustbelt to the triumph of the Sunbelt; from activism to self discovery; from integration and equality to ethnic diversity; from community activism to homeowners associations; from Rock ‘n Roll to Punk and Disco to Country Pop; from The Graduate to Star Wars to Rambo; from Jerry Rubin, the antiwar protester, to Jerry Rubin, the stock broker. Along the way, Schulman makes some interesting points: how Nixon used fiscal policy to undermine liberal bureaucracies rather than take them on head as later conservatives would; that Watergate was actually a long term triumph for those who wanted to discredit activist government; the ways the crippling stagflation of the late ‘70s changed forever how Americans saved money, making it possible for the Middle Class to become substantially invested in Wall Street through mutual and money market funds, something that would have been anathema to the Great Depression generation; how said inflation fueled the California tax revolt through Proposition 13 in 1978, a revolt that quickly went nationwide, and helped sweep Reagan into the White House two years later; the way the integrationist ideal to the Civil Rights movement of the ‘60s splintered into the awakening of ethnic (a word very much in use in the ‘70s) identity and pride, not just among Blacks, but Hispanic, Irish, Polish, and Italian Americans, including a White cultural backlash; the way the American South, long scorned as backward and racist, rose to dominate American life. The latter is the main thrust of the book in the way Schulman details how with the end of Jim Crow, the Old Confederacy became an economic powerhouse, as warmer climates, low wages, and state governments hostile to business regulation brought in huge amounts of investment money, supplanting the Yankee Northeast in influence and power. The election of Jimmy Carter gave rise to Redneck Chic, as the South reinvented itself, and went national. But when the IRS sought to revoke tax exemptions from private Christian schools, it provoked an enormous backlash that gave rise to Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority, and the political climate took a turn. The political right, which had little or no traction in American politics since the 1920s, reinvented itself as a populist movement that echoed the cultural and economic grievances of the working middle class, scorning liberals as elitist, permissive, and unpatriotic, lacking the basic values that made America great. Schulman makes an excellent point in how the New Right, powered by the direct mail operation of Richard Viguerie, proved to be very good at building coalitions, and outworking an often clueless and quarreling liberal opposition. He also gives a good quick history of the Feminist Movement, pointing out the good it did in changing antiquated rape and sexual assault laws, making spousal abuse a crime, and pointing out the basic economic inequality most American women faced while making it plain that they were outworked and out hustled when it came to passing the Equal Rights Amendment by Phyllis Schlafly and her anti ERA crowd. Schulman gives a lot of attention to Reagan’s first term in the final section of the book, where a sneering distrust of government and all of its works, and a fervent belief that the private sector, and free markets, had a monopoly on solutions and wisdom, became the governing consensus. It was, he contends, the ultimate end of the upheavals of the previous decade.

You can agree with that or not, this is a very subjective book. Many readers took issue with Schulman’s spirited defense of Disco; I’m not sure I agree with him myself, but it is the kind of contrarian viewpoint that gives one food for thought. I do take issue with his description of country music in the ‘70s as “antiblack” because it was “anticity.” Nixon and Reagan’s actions are often described in unnecessarily pejorative terms, I get it that Schulman is a liberal, it just feels like piling on.

This book came out in 2002, so it does reflect the early part of the second Bush era in which it was written, as many of the cultural and political trends Schulman documents have moved on in very different directions since then. The political divisions of the Me Decade of the ‘70s twisted and turned into the grotesque polarization of the Trump Era. The triumphant conservatism of Ronald Reagan, who spoke of a shining city on a hill, has become a raging mob that attacked the temple of American democracy. But that is subject enough for another book, but for anyone interesting in learning how we got here, Bruce Schulman’s book might give some answers.

This was a very readable survey of the 70s, which is notable particularly because it's such a difficult era to write about, though it should be prefaced with a warning that Schulman's own personal biases and assumptions invade perhaps a bit more than they should. Music is difficult to write about in an historical context (particularly music which is still comparatively recent), but Schulman's distaste for artists like Bowie, Pink Floyd and other similar icons is strange and misplaced, and reads as ahistorical in its context. There's also not much in the way of objectivity expressed when addressing the historical legacies of certain presidents, though perhaps that's difficult to avoid. All told, this was still a brisk and enjoyable read, and it got to many of the issues at the heart of the 1970s.

The Seventies is written well enough to be popular history; it's researched and thoughtful enough to be a college textbook.

Author Bruce Schulman claims the 1970's were more influential than the 1960's and substantiates his argument. He shows how disparate events developed into trends that influenced the rest of the century. The book is engaging to read, both for its social and political history.

I give the book only four stars because the book underplays, I think, the effects of the Women's Movement and the predominant hedonism of the decade. I recommend the book to anyone interested in the1970's.

I have a confession to make. I've been enlightened and now need to do some serious penance. Back in the 70s, I was a chauvinistic, misogynistic, homophobic racist. I must repent of my sins. I just thought I hated disco and liked good rock and roll music, but now, thanks to Mr. Shulman, I see the errors of my ways. Shulman points out how those who shunned disco were guilty of a host of society's evils. (73-75) Or maybe I'll just revert to my redneck and anti-elite ways and ask, "what do you expect from a professor in tweed at from the northeast?" Of course, in this way, I'm sounding a lot like Richard Nixon who hated the Northeastern elite! (24) Bruce Shulman teaches at Boston University.



Now, despite what you might think by my opening comments, I mostly enjoyed this book. Although I disagree with some of his comments on disco, and also felt that he looked disdainfully on the South, Shulman provides a good cultural and political history to that decade in which I came of age (I became a teenager just a few days into the decade and had a bachelor's degree slapped on my wall by its end).

The 70s is often seen as a lost decade, squeezed between the optimistic 60s and the opportunitistic 80s. Interestingly, as Shulman recalls, the 60s which had begin with the Kennedy Camelot ended with the widowed queen of Camelot (Jackie) marrying a rich Greek tycoon, twice her age. (4) Shulman strives to interpret several wide cultural shifts that occured between the 1969 and 1984. In this work, he explores music, books, television and movies, economics and politics. Several things are happening. America loses a broad cultural consensus as the era of special interest groups begin to rise. Many of these are explored such as ethnic groups which not only included an interest in African-Americans (black power movements to the mini-series "Roots"), but also Hispanics, Italians, Irish, etc. In addition, the 70s saw women's issues rise to the forefront (remember the Rigby/King tennis match and the ERA), age groups (America began graying in the 70s and the elderly became a major political force in which Tip O'Neil referred to as the third-rail in American politics: Touch it and die! [86]), and the gay rights movement. In addition, there were shifts in region. Shulman refers to the decade as the “Southernization of America." (256) There were also religious shifts. Although religion became more important, it also became more personal and less able to lift up a common vision for society. There were also great changes in the American economy. The era gave rise to the “rustbelt" as factories in the northern parts of the country closed. The inflation of the late 70s caused Americans to begin to use credit (why put off buying when it will cost more tomorrow). Also, due to regulation changes, Americans began to look at saving differently and investing became more important than savings (which were being eaten up by inflation). And finally, the era saw the end of the old liberalism in American politics which saw the government as a force for the good with certain obligations to help those unable to help themselves to a new era that bemoaned any government involvement. Shulman discusses the tie between government involvement and civil rights in the 60s and how it took the decade for a new conservative coalition to arise out of the old conservative coalition. Racial prejudices slid into the background as the new conservatives found other issues to excite their cause.



Although I took offense at Shulman's defense of disco, I must say that I think there is a lot to ponder in his view of the roles region, religion and race played in the shifts in American politics during this era. However, the nature of this book requires that it be very subjective and one could draw other conclusions (like I did with my opposition to disco). I do recommend this book for anyone interested in a trip down memory lane.

This was a fun read!

I ran across this title while I was researching my book Uncommon Threads: Ohio's Art Quilt Revolution, and selected it to read for perspective. I really enjoyed it. Not only is it well-written, but there are some great connections made. Even though I was alive during that time, it is interesting to look at the decade from an historical perspective. Nice work, Mr. Schulman!

There are half a dozen scholarly works on the 70s, and this is arguably the best book on the decade. It covers politics, pop culture, public policy, demographic shifts, technology, etc. Everything from Watergate to The Godfather to the “Sun Belt” to energy policy. Powerful analysis of complicated trends, but with an easy narrative style accessible to the general public.

A good introductory history of the 1970s - was the only book on the seventies for many years, but has kind of been surpassed by more recent work

This is an excellent history of the 1970s. While we tend to "lose" the 70s between the political and social impacts of the 1960s and transformative disruptions of the 1980s, the 70s represent a crucial period of adjustment and normalization around ideas presented in previous decades. This book does a beautiful job of mapping out the subtle, but important shifts in the decade and provides new context to the transformations associated with 1980s political, social, and economic shifts.

It took me a while to finish this, but it was worth it. A well-researched and entertaining survey of American politics and culture from the late ‘60s to early ‘80s. Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Watergate, stagflation, minority rights movements, rednecks, televangelism, New Age mysticism, disco, hip hop, punk rock, New Wave, the “war of the sexes”, environmentalism, tax revolts, Reaganomics… so much that directly prefigured and continues to inform today’s major public debates. Sprinkled with captivating anecdotes about legendary figures like Evel Knievel and Billie Jean King. I would have liked more on pop culture, but Schulman squeezes so much in—while still keeping the book at a manageable length—that I can’t be mad.

Interesting read but book is full of typos. Maybe hire a proofreader.

Read for History 352 freshmen year at Illinois Wesleyan University. This was an interesting book with lots of cool information about the 1970s. I never knew what a dark decade it was until I read more in depth about it.