Readings: Boyer, Paul S. et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People

Chapter 28: The Liberal Era, 1960-1968

Chapter 29: A Time of Upheaval, 1968-1974

Discussion Questions:

  1. What were the real accomplishments and failures of John F. Kennedy’s thousand-day presidency?  How do these differ with the popular conception of JFK?  What accounts for the difference?

  2. Discuss the developments of the 1960s civil-rights movement.  What were its successes and its frustrations?  How and why did it change?

  3. Compare and contrast the United States in the 1950s and the 1960s.  How do you account for the great differences between these two decades?  What trends of the 1960s actually started in the 1950s?

  4. What are the differences between the reality of the 1960s and the popular conception of the decade prevalent today?

  5. What did Richard Nixon contribute to the success of the Republican party in the early 21st century?

  6. Some historians claim that the outcome of Watergate proved the constitutional system worked. Others believe that it further eroded trust in government and the ability of presidents to lead effectively. What is your interpretation of the outcome of Watergate and its impact on the United States?

Identifications:

Civil Rights

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Emmitt Till

Autherine Lucy

Greensboro and other sit-ins, 1960-1961

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) 

Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee

Freedom Riders

Civil Rights Act, 1964

Mississippi Freedom Summer Project, 1964

Voting Rights Act, 1965

Malcolm X and the Black Muslims

Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and Black Power

 

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, and the Black Panthers

Kerner Commission

César Chávez

National Organization for Women (NOW)

 

Kennedy

Peace Corps

Alliance for Progress

Bay of Pigs invasion 

Cuban missile crisis

New Frontier

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

 

Johnson

Great Society

Economic Opportunity Act Job Corps, VISTA, Head Start) and war on poverty

Barry Goldwater

Medicare and Medicaid

Immigration Act, 1965

National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities

Baker v. Carr

Miranda v. Arizona

Gideon v. Wainwright

Mapp v. Ohio

Ralph Nader

Vietnam

Ngo Dinh Diem

National liberation Front (Vietcong)

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Students for a Democratic Society, the Port  Huron Statement, and Tom Hayden

Kent State

Jackson State killings

Tet offensive

My Lai massacre

1968

Eugene McCarthy

Robert Kennedy

Hubert Humphrey

George Wallace

Chicago, 1968 - Mayor Richard Daley versus the Yippies

Henry Kissinger

SALT I

Neil Armstrong and Apollo II

 

Nixon

Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

Spiro Agnew

George McGovern

Committee to Reelect the President (CREEP)

 

the White House “plumbers” and the Watergate break-in and cover-up

Saturday Night Massacre

Gerald Ford