Synopses & Reviews
Prize-winning historian William Chafe here offers a vibrant chronicle of America's roller-coaster journey through the past forty years.
Since World War II, the U.S. has witnessed both stunning progress and profound social divisions. The economy boomed, suburbia blossomed, college became the norm for half the younger population, and social liberation movements swept away barriers of racial and sexual discrimination. Yet in the midst of affluence, poverty remained a blight affecting half the nation; war divided the country; and a new generation, with little faith in reform, emerged.
Proceeding from the chill of the Cold War to the heated social protests of the 1960s, Chafe shows how the conflict of forces in American life led to a turning point in 1968 and the ascendancy of a conservative coalition. Although set back by Watergate, this coalition re-emerged triumphant with the election of Ronald Reagan, even though enormous problems of inequality persisted in its midst.
In this gripping, brilliantly written narrative, Chafe brings our recent history to life. Highlighting the paradoxes of postwar reform and reaction, he cogently and passionately demonstrates how things might have been different.
Synopsis
This popular and classic text chronicles America's roller-coaster journey through the decades since World War II. Considering both the paradoxes and the possibilities of post-war America, Chafe portrays the significant cultural and political themes which have colored our country's past and present, including issues of race, class, gender, foreign policy, and economic and social reform. Chafe examines such subjects as the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the origins and the end of the Cold War, the culture of the 1970s, the Reagan years, and the Perot phenomenon and the rise of the independent third party as a major force in presidential politics. This new edition has been updated to include an entirely new chapter on the Clinton presidency as well as an expanded discussion of the recent cultural and political issues facing America today. A thoroughly revised epilogue offers a compelling and controversial final commentary on Americas past and its future. Brilliantly written by a prize-winning historian, this fourth edition of The Unfinished Journey continues to be an essential text for all students of recent American history.
Synopsis
In this gripping, brilliantly written narrative, prize-winning historian William Chafe offers a vibrant chronicle of America's roller-coaster journey through the past forty-five years. Now revised and expanded to assess the impact of the Reagan years, The Unfinished Journey offers substantial new material on Reagan's first legislative victories, the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev and improved relations with the Soviet Union, and the Iran-Contra affair. Chafe examines the Reagan credo in detail, explores the conditions in American society that helped Reagan gain the presidency and stay in power for eight years, and surveys the effects of conservative policies on the economic, social, and cultural fabric of America. In addition, Chafe looks briefly at the first years of the Bush administration, and adds an epilogue analyzing America's prospects in the 1990s. Compelling and controversial, The Unfinished Journey captures the pulse of the nation, and brings its recent history to life.
Table of Contents
Preface
1. The War Years
2. Origins of the Cold War
3. Truman and the Cold War
4. "The Other Half of the Walnut": Social Reform and Activism in the Postwar Years
5. The Paradox of Change: American Society in Postwar Years
6. The Civil Rights Movement: "The Gods Bring Threads to Webs Begin"
7. John F. Kennedy: The Reality and the Myth
8. LBJ: The Tiral of Consensus
9. Vietnam -- The Early Years
10. "Lyndon's War"
11. Coming Apart at Home
12. 1968
13. "Bringing Us Together"
14. New Rules, Old Realities: The Continuing Intersection of Gender, Class, and Race in the Seventies
15. The Reagan Years
16. The 1990s: A Referendum on the Post World War II Years
Epilogue
Biographical Essay
Index