America in the 1960s

Paper Summary:

The paper explains that Americans have a historical perspective rooted in the concept of the "American Dream" and this distorts historical interpretations of numerous events in this society's past. The paper examines John Lewis' "Walking with the Wind" and Philip Caputo's "A Rumor of War" as valuable pieces of history because they capture features of the overall social milieu that was the 1960s. The paper concludes that many people today look back at America's achievements in the name of equality, namely, emancipation and the civil rights legislation and conclude that America is the land of opportunity, instead of the more reasonable belief that America can become the land of opportunity.

From the Paper:

"Characterizing historical periods--particularly those that saw numerous forms of change--is an extremely daunting task, wrought with many hazards and pitfalls. Specifically, with reference to the United States, Lawrence Goodwyn identifies one of the most glaring problems, when attempting to discuss historical change, as being our national conception of progress. He writes, "The reigning American presumption about the American experience is grounded in the idea of progress, the conviction that the present is 'better' than the past and the future will bring still more betterment." Such a perspective--rooted in the concept of the "American Dream" as our national ideology--necessarily skews historical interpretations of numerous events in our society's past. For this reason, it is fundamentally difficult for people today to imagine precisely what the 1960s in America were, both with respect to individual perspectives and with respect to the period's overall historical impact. The latter is most troublesome because precisely what people choose to remember about the 1960s, and put into textbooks, are those things that tended to bring about the most desirable changes, as costly as they may have been. So, perhaps the best way to understand a specific time period is to investigate singular accounts of those who lived through the time."

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