Twentieth Century Limited: Cycles and Ironies Since 1900
Stephen R. Fox takes a wide angle lens approach to American history in the twentieth century with an emphasis on the years 1950 to 1997 by identifying the trends, movements, and undercurrents found in this period among five topics: politics, technology, religion, race, and sex. Fox notes the turn against the strong executive that was in vogue until the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, and he rails against the conservatism and policies of President Ronald Reagan. Fox highlights the rise of the environmental movement, and he says that changes in technology are eroding community and increasing social isolation. Fox identifies five trends in religious practice and notes the resilience of religious belief in American society.
Fox’s look at race focuses on the changes in leadership among African-Americans from the days of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, and he notes how the views and attitudes of African-Americans are often markedly different from their contemporary leaders. Fox concludes his survey with a look at the evolution of sexual mores away from Victorian standards to a more permissive stance on issues such as premarital sex.
Three photographs, including one of Fox, and all from the Theodore Roosevelt Association luncheon at Harvard’s Pusey Library, supplement the text.
