Ebook: Reassessing the sixties: debating the political and cultural legacy

This is an analysis of the enduring impact of the 1960s on America's collective psyche and institutions. Basic conflicts emerged in that decade, and continue to define American politics. These changes included: more egalitarian race and gender relations; an openness with respect to sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular; greater concern with the environment; higher rates of divorce, drug abuse and crime; and a greater willingness to challenge authority of all kinds. For some, America in the 1960s finally took seriously its founding commitments to freedom and equality. For others, the cultural changes wrought by that decade are destroying the moral infrastructure on which a healthy liberal democracy depends. Looking at conflicting views within and without America, this book concludes that the '60s changed the country for ever.