The 1960s as a Period of Change in California
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This study will examine the 1960s as a period which can be seen as pivotal in terms of the change it precipitated in the state of California. The decade and its impact on the state will be examined in a historical context, as part of the evolution of the state from the 1930s to the 1990s. On first glance, it might appear that the decade was an anomaly, a "freak" decade, with little relationship to what came before or after. In fact, the 1960s, like the Depression years of the 1930s, or the World War II years of the 1940s, were just as integral to the state's evolution, change and growth as the more "traditional" decade of the 1950s. If we look at this decade in its historical context, then, we see more clearly the events leading up to it (including those very same 1950s), and the events leading logically away from it into the future. Like the rest of the country, California in the 1930s was a Depression-stricken state. Economic and physical survival was the number one concern of Californians: "With the spread of mass unemployment in both city nd country, the number of Californians dependent upon public relief in 1934 was more than 1,250,000---about one-fifth of the whole population of the state." The same sense of despair and bewilderment reigned in politics as well: "Through the whole decade . . . politics and government in California remained confused, demoralized and ineffectual" (Rawls and Bean 308). The 1940s were dominated by the concerns of World War II and its aft
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wayward culture as expressed in the Manson family and the Rolling Stones concert in Altamont in the last years of the decade. It certainly lets us see that the 1960s were indeed a natural part of the state's evolution, as McWilliams saw even in the 1940s: "National currents of thought, passion, aspirations and protest . . . have a way of boiling up in the Pacific sun" (McWilliams 370).
Writing of the political spirit of the 1960s in California, Rawls and point out that "One of the key factors in California politics . . . was the emergence of vividly colorful but startlingly eccentric new varieties of fanaticism at both ends of the political spectrum" (Rawls and Bean 360). There was the John Birch Society on the far right, and the new left as represented by radical students. There was very liberal Governor Edmund Brown and very conservative Governor Ronald Reagan. The state's many responses to desegregation of the public schools (some districts did it voluntarily, some were forced to do so by the law) reflected the nation's split views on race.
The state after the 1960s has continued to show such stark political and social diversity. Major liberal and conservative initiatives in the state (marijuana, taxes, immigration, term l
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Approximate Word count = 2170
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
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