1974-1980 Best Years to be an American
10 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act
1 year after Vietnam
1 year after Nixon resigned in disgrace
6 years before Reagan
Strong vibrant middle class
Progress made on equal rights for women
Progress made on LGBTQ rights
Progress made on environmentalism
Great music
Fantastic movies
America at its best.
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...the economy was sputtering thanks to the oil shock of 1973, and inflation was high thruout this whole period. It became known as the era of "stagflation", because we had inflation and flat growth. Watergate left us in moral and political shellshock, and cynicism was at an all-time high--even higher than today, in some respects. The social progress of the 60s and early 70s was largely over by 1974--the EPA, for instance, was Nixon's doing, Gawd help us. Roe was decided in 1973, and this era was the beginning of the unrelenting attacks on women's reproductive rights. Our cities, with NYC as poster boy, were at their lowest ebb. Filth, crime, fear, breakdown of the social order were everywhere. The films of the time show how we regarded it all--The Parallax View, Deathwish, Taking of Pelham One, Two, Three, Serpico, Fort Apache, the Bronx. That we were entering a conservative era was a cliché, and the Watergate backlash that led to the 1974 Congress, and the Carter presidency, was just a short holding action. The Congressional elections of 1978 was the real beginning of the "Reagan" era, and the Hostage Crisis of 1979-80, and the rampant inflation of 1980, sealed the end of the Liberal Era of 1930-78. For better or worse--mostly, of course, worse--the country was ready for St Ronnie. And we've never regained our equilibrium and buoyancy, in many respects...
Bad politicians, diseases, and new drugs pop up in other decades too. The good far outweigh the bad. Your 70'd didn't have this:
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Or this:
