A comedian once quipped that "If you remember the 1960s, you weren't really there." But we must remember the Sixties to understand today, says Leonard Steinhorn, a professor in the School of Communication at American University. He sees the decade as continuing to reverberate in U.S. politics and institutions, as well as being a period that spawned the polarization and culture wars that now divide Americans the way the Vietnam War did in the past.
From civil rights to feminism to gay liberation to the environmental movement to the silent majority, a period that began more than half a century ago has shaped and influenced our country ever since. To many, the presidency of Barack Obama symbolized the liberation movements of the Sixties. But it’s also important to ask how it produced the presidency of Donald Trump, says Steinhorn. He explores the decade’s meaning and its legacy, one that may be the dividing line in our current politics and society.
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