Lost Decade

To many Americans, the 1970s seem a "lost" period, a pale and undistinguished decade compared with the 1960s and the 1980s, just as the presidents of the time -- Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter -- were far less colourful and distinctive than Kennedy, Nixon or Ronald Reagan. In addition, the 1970s were marked by economic recession and a national identity crisis in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Watergate and the energy crisis. Not even the 1976 Bicentennial celebration was able to break this feeling of collective lethargy and disillusion. Issue 26 of Aarhus University Press's arts and humanities journal "The Dolphin" demonstrates that while the 1970s were indeed rather grey in many respects, they were also a time of reassessment and dynamism in many fields of popular American culture. This point is illustrated by examples from different contexts: Western movies, the National Park Service, self-help psychology, grass-roots activism and popular music.