The sixties in the United States in historical perspective.
Abstract
The decade of the 1960s in the United States is commonly viewed and taught
as a series of traditional dichotomies, white vs. black, male vs. female, liberal vs.
conservative, communist vs. anti-communist. Recent American scholarship on this
period reveals a much more complex interplay of forces and movements. President
John F. Kennedy’s government was attacked for its policy toward the Soviet Union
and communism in general, from both the right and the left. Political conservatism
witnessed a revival at the expense of the then-dominant liberal culture. Martin
Luther King promoted an economic and social agenda that went well beyond the
vision of “I Have a Dream”. Together, these forces enacted a second American “Civil
War”, which was a much more complex struggle than is commonly understood or
taught. The History educator dealing with USA in the FET history curriculum is
exposed to some interesting information to be utilised and debated in classrooms.