No other decade evokes such contradictory images as the 1970s: reform and emancipation on the one hand, crisis and malaise on the other. In The Global 1970s: Radicalism, Reform, and Crisis, Duco Hellema portrays the 1970s as a period of global transition. Across the world, the early and mid-1970s were still years of political mobilization with everything seemingly an object of public controversy and conflict, including economic development, education, and family matters. Social movements called for the reduction of social inequalities, for participation, and the emancipation of various groups at the same time as the rise of ambitious and reform-oriented governments. Ten years later, a different world was emerging with the call for state-controlled social and economic changes in decline and new economic policies centred on liberation and deregulation taking their place. This book examines a range of explanations for this radical transformation, highlighting how economic problems, such as the oil crisis, political battles and dramatic confrontations resulted in a free-market-oriented conservatism by the end of the period. Divided into nine broadly chronological chapters and taking a global approach that allows the reader to see the familiar themes of the decade examined on an international scale, The Global 1970s is essential reading for all students and scholars of twentieth-century global history.
Author(s): Duco Hellema
Series: Decades In Global History
Publisher: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 256
Tags: Nineteen Seventies, History, Modern: 20th Century, History, Modern
Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 4
Copyright......Page 5
CONTENTS......Page 6
Foreword......Page 9
Introduction......Page 10
1 Legacies of the 1960s: the start of the long seventies......Page 16
The welfare state......Page 17
The revolution that failed......Page 19
The Tet Offensive......Page 22
The Prague Spring and the Cultural Revolution......Page 23
Upheavals......Page 25
Conclusion......Page 26
2 Everything is political: the early and mid-1970s......Page 29
Prosperity......Page 30
Students......Page 31
Worker militancy......Page 34
Emancipation......Page 36
The environment......Page 40
Vietnam......Page 43
Violence and terrorism......Page 45
Conclusion......Page 48
'A mania for large scale reforms’......Page 53
Southern Europe......Page 58
Britain and France......Page 62
Nixon......Page 68
The state......Page 70
Western divisions......Page 73
Conclusion......Page 75
Self-reliance......Page 79
Africa......Page 81
Latin America......Page 87
Asia......Page 93
Miracles of growth......Page 97
The Middle East......Page 99
The October War......Page 101
A New International Economic Order......Page 104
Conclusion......Page 106
5 The communist states: the early and mid-1970s......Page 110
Détente......Page 111
The Soviet Union......Page 115
Eastern Europe......Page 118
Soviet expansion......Page 122
The Sino-Soviet split......Page 125
Conclusion......Page 127
6 Crisis in the world economy: from the mid- to the late 1970s......Page 131
What crisis?......Page 132
Monetary problems......Page 133
Globalization......Page 135
The oil crisis......Page 137
Unemployment......Page 142
Fighting the crisis......Page 145
The non-Western world......Page 147
Communist states......Page 150
Conclusion......Page 152
7 The free market alternative: the mid- and late 1970s......Page 156
The Me Decade......Page 157
Self-help and identity politics......Page 159
The Great Awakening......Page 161
The New Right......Page 164
Grass-roots mobilization......Page 167
Neoliberalism and supply-side economics......Page 169
Human rights......Page 171
Neoliberal experiments......Page 174
The newly industrializing countries......Page 176
Conclusion......Page 177
Deadlock......Page 181
Watergate......Page 183
Carter......Page 185
A German Autumn......Page 188
Governing Western Europe......Page 190
The Winter of Discontent......Page 192
Southern Europe......Page 193
Eurosclerosis......Page 195
Debts and violence in the Third World......Page 197
Charter 77......Page 201
Conclusion......Page 203
The personal computer......Page 206
Revolution in Iran......Page 208
The second oil crisis......Page 210
The lady’s not for turning......Page 213
Reagan’s ‘Second American Revolution’......Page 214
Western Europe......Page 216
Weakening Left......Page 217
The Second Cold War......Page 220
Solidarnosc......Page 222
The end of the Third World......Page 224
Deng Xiaoping......Page 226
Conclusion......Page 227
Postscript: the end of progress?......Page 231
Bibliography......Page 236
Index......Page 246
