Turning Points—Actual and Alternate Histories

America in Revolt during the 1960s and 1970s

Rodney P. Carlisle, J. Geoffrey Golson, Rodney P. Carlisle, J. Geoffrey Golson

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2007
• Print ISBN:
  9781851098835
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781851098842
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

Offering a unique approach to studying one of the most eventful eras in American history, this volume looks at a dozen key events of the 1960s and 1970s and considers the possible paths history might have taken if the outcomes had been different.

This volume in the Turning Points—Actual and Alternative Histories series looks at a tumultuous recent era in American history, a time when pivotal, often tragic, world-changing events seemed to be happening at an alarming rate.

America in Revolt during the 1960s and 1970s looks at 12 significant events, from the assassination of John F. Kennedy to the passage of the Civil Rights Act, from the student killings at Kent State to Richard Nixon's resignation. Drawing on the concepts of alternative history, the book portrays each event as it happened, then considers some plausible alternative scenarios of how history would have been different if these events had not occurred. It is a uniquely thought provoking way of exploring an explosive era, whose aftershocks continue to shape the American experience today.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Civil Rights: TURNING POINT: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a milestone in the quest for equality in the United States. What if the act had not passed?
• 2 John F. Kennedy: TURNING POINT: What if Lee Harvey Oswald had missed on November 22, 1963, and President Kennedy had survived?
• 3 War on Poverty: TURNING POINT: President Johnson’s War on Poverty was largely sidelined by politics and the Vietnam War. What if the War on Poverty had been won?
• 4 The Vietnam War: TURNING POINT: What if President Johnson had not engaged in escalation and South Vietnam had fallen to communists in 1966?
• 5 Martin Luther King, Jr.: TURNING POINT: What if civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. had escaped assassination and had become a force in the Democratic Party?
• 6 The Tet Offensive: TURNING POINT: The North Vietnamese Tet Offensive was a climax of the Vietnam War. What if the United States had invaded North Vietnam in retaliation?
• 7 Kent State: TURNING POINT: The killing of students at Kent State University in 1970 was a national tragedy. What if the incident had happened in the turbulent year of 1968?
• 8 March on Washington: TURNING POINT: The 1963 civil rights march on the nation’s capital was mostly peaceful. What if the march had been suppressed with violence?
• 9 Women’s Rights: TURNING POINT: The Pill, a contraceptive drug, helped launch the “second wave” of the women’s movement.What if the Pill had not been introduced?
• 10 Counterculture: TURNING POINT: What if an AIDS-like sexually transmitted disease had spread in the 1960s, bringing a halt to the counterculture movement?
• 11 Free Speech Movement: TURNING POINT: Mario Savio was a free-speech student leader who protested in 1964. What if Savio had been shot during the violent demonstrations?
• 12 Richard M. Nixon: TURNING POINT: Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency on August 8, 1974. What if Nixon had not resigned and he had been impeached and convicted?
• Appendix I: Excerpts from the Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Appendix II: Excerpts from the Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Chronology of America in Revolt
• Resources
• Index