E-raamat: Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s

As the nation prepares to mark the two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of its founding, its easy to forget that the two hundredth wasnt exactly smooth sailing. . . . The simmering resentments of the Bicentennial reached their fullest expression, unsurprisingly, in Philadelphia, as the historian Stein recounts in Bicentennial: A Revolutionary History of the 1970s. -- Jill Lepore * The New Yorker * The United States marks its semiquincentennial in 2026, and Stein looks back at the differences and similarities to the US Bicentennial in 1976. . . . Stein shows that, outside the official planning and programming, the values and rhetoric of the Revolutionary era sparked a spirit of 76 that pushed for LGBTQIA+ rights, womens equality, and justice reforms unimaginable two centuries earlier. It also exposed a grimmer history, as white supremacists and anti-immigration activists surfaced to claim the celebration. A comprehensive and critical look at the Spirit of 1976. * Library Journal * Drawing on extensive research, this engaging book promises to be the definitive account of how the bicentennial celebrations were planned, enacted, and protested both in Philadelphia and at large. Stein does a superb job of weaving together the national and the local stories and of bringing to life the activism and agency of African Americans, LGBTQ+ Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and womengroups that often found themselves at odds with, ambivalent about, or organizing radical alternatives to the officially sanctioned events and commemorations. With themes that resonate with our current political moment, Bicentennial is an original, insightful, and important contribution. -- Simon Hall, School of History, University of Leeds, author of "Three Revolutions: Russia, China, Cuba and the Epic Journeys That Changed the World" This ambitious book is so neededat a moment when the cultural and political divides Stein details offer both lessons from the past and key strategies for navigating our ever-changing national landscape as we approach the semiquincentennial. In Steins eloquent hands, the 1970s become not a period of fragmentation and loss (though there is some), of siloing of activists, but rather a decade that bore witness to broad coalitions that included, for the first time, LGBTQ+ individuals/groups and their goals and the emergence of what today we would term intersectional approaches. He has crafted here a history of city planning and urban development alongside a meticulously detailed and persuasive analysis of the ways in which local, state, and national politics and politicians framed the bicentennial. It is a richly layered, powerful book. -- Leisa Meyer, American Studies Program, College of William and Mary, author of "Creating GI Jane: Sexuality and Power in the Womens Army Corps During World War II"