Wednesday, November 28, 2018

American Decades

So I was thinking about the last century, and what would be the textbook-required issues for each decade, in American History:

2010s

Trump
Social Media Culture and Violence
Paris Accords
Occupy and Arab Spring
Opioid Crisis and Healthcare

2000s

9/11
Great Recession
Smartphones
Obama
Afghanistan and Iraq

1990s

End of Cold War
Internet and Digitization
Globalism and Peace Movements
Partisan Politics
NAFTA and Automation

1980s

Home computers
Reagan
VHS and Cable
Decline of Unions
AIDS Epidemic

1970s

Watergate
Feminist Movement
Earth Day and Environmental Movement
Opening Asian Trade
Decline of the Cities

1960s

Vietnam and Hippies
Civil Rights
Moon Landing and Space Race
Kennedy/Assassinations
Great Society

1950s

Suburbia and Car Culture
Television and Advertising
Desegregation Begins
Red Scare
Korea

1940s

U.S. Entry into WWII and Internment
Atomic Technology
Post-War Global Order (U.N., Brenton Woods, GI Bill etc)
Computers
Plastics

1930s

Great Depression
FDR and New Deal
Dust Bowl
Resurgent Klan
Hollywood

1920s

Suffrage
Tenements and Immigration
Moving Pictures
Jazz on the Radio
Prohibition


They also tend to have, in most American History textbooks, a section on the water-cooler, second-tier items, so here are five more pieces for each decade as well, of stuff not covered in the main, above:

10s

LGBT Rights
#MeToo
Self-Driving Car
Streaming Services
Citizens United v. FEC

00s

Bush v. Gore
Human Genome Project
NSA
YouTube and Memes
MCU

90s

Gulf War
Americans with Disabilities Act
Coffee Shop Culture
Dream Team
The Simpsons

80s

Challenger Disaster
Hip hop
Spielberg  Movies
Video Games
WalMart's National Expansion

70s

Disco
Oil Crisis
Hijackings
Wounded Knee and AIM
Bruce Lee

60s

Bob Dylan
UFW and Cesar Chavez
To Kill a Mockingbird
British Invasion and Psychedelica
First Superbowl

50s

Military Industrial Complex
Modern Vaccinations
Jet Age Travel
Beat Generation
Rock n Roll

40s

J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI and the CIA
National Laboratories
Woody Guthrie and the Almanac Singers
Merrill Lynch: Insurance and Shareholders
Oklahoma!

30s

Blues
Superman
Skyscrapers
Jesse Owens and Joe Louis
Alcoholics Anonymous

20s

Capone and the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
Edwin Hubble and Robert Goddard
The Great Gatsby
Newspaper Comics
Scopes Trial

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