1960s Summary

1960s: Commerce Until the 1990s, the 1960s marked the longest uninterrupted period of American economic expansion. The American economy was the largest in the world. Its giant corporations, such as Ge... Read more

The Innocent 1960s: Politics in the Kennedy Years In the early 2000s, President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63) was widely esteemed as one of the most important leaders in U.... Read more

Sixties Counterculture: the Hippies and Beyond When people in the early 2000s think about the 1960s, they might think first about the "hippies." Along with the civil rights movement, ant... Read more

The Arts in 1960s America The arts—literature, art, dance, and theater—went through a fascinating period of growth and change during the 1960s. New, experimental art forms like pop art a... Read more

In the Beginning Rumblings of the Counterculture Political Awakenings Revolutionary Musical Changes Escalating the War in Vietnam Resisting the War Make Love, Not War 1968: The Year of Chaos Radicali... Read more

The Final Frontier. The new frontier of outer space captured the imaginations of scientists and of the public in the 1960s. Astronomers discovered quasi-stellar objects, or quasars, and beamed radio ... Read more

Not a Revolution. In the media, if not in other segments of American life, the 1960s were a decade of consolidation, not revolution. After the radical change brought about by television in the 1950s,... Read more

Change versus Consolidation. During the 1960s major changes took place in American attitudes toward and about the law. At the same time the law itself was consolidating a trend in the direction of in... Read more

A Time of Transition. The 1960s were a time of transition in every aspect of American life, and the world of taste and fashion was no exception. To move from conservative Jacqueline Kennedy dress sui... Read more

Cracks in the System? Read more