Seventies Almanac - Year By Year
Mostly cultural listing of events in the 1970s. Perhaps more valuable for nostalgia than inquiry, but could be used by students for project research.
Ford State of Union 1975
"Now, I want to speak very bluntly. I've got bad news, and I don't expect much, if any, applause. " What would students think about a president saying this to the American people? Teachers should find out by using this quote as a quick "do now" lesson intro.
Blackout History Project (1965/1977)
Articles and personal accounts of the Northeast Blackout of 1965 and New York City blackout of 1977. What do these blackouts tell us (if anything) about the two different time periods?
Love Canal Collection -
An introduction to the history and background of the events that occured at Love Canal. Includes two chronologies of events, scanned documents of the Ecumenical Task Force, database of Love Canal articles, and a glossary of definitions for individuals, organizations, businesses, government agencies, chemical waste dump sites, and major issues relating to the Love Canal and other local environmental disaster areas.
Meltdown at Three Mile Island
Companion site for American Experience documentary. Includes timeline and extra information of people and events in film
Executive orders signed by President Gerald R. Ford
List of all executive orders signed by President Ford while in office with links to the text of each
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum
Extensive collection of resources and exhibits at official presidential library
President Gerald Ford Speech - Pardoning Richard Nixon
Short descriptive article, text and audio of announcement
Kent May 4 Center - Kent State Massacre
The Living Room Candidate - Commercials - 1976 Election Carter vs. Ford
The site includes a searchable database of television commercials and features commentary, historical background, election results, and navigation organized by year, type of ad, and issue
The Trial of Patty (Patricia) Hearst (1976)
Comprehensive collection of articles, artifacts and documents from the "Famous Trials" site at the University of Missouri - Kansas City
Carter-Reagan-Bush: The Bipartisan Consensus
from Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"
The Clinton Presidency and the Crisis of Democracy
from Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"
Hard Hat Riots
Look at Vietnam War protest from the perspective of those who did not oppose the war. Seeds of the liberal conservative divide of the 00s found in 1970.
From Center for New History and Media at George Mason
"Original Godspell Cast on The Today Show" - YouTube
A slice of the seventies counter-culture crossover into popular culture. The original cast of the Broadway musical Godspell appear on a minstream morning program. If we take just this example to understand the 70s is it accurate? Does this mean we overstate the flappers of the 20s?
Searching for the ’70s: The Documerica project at the National Archives (PHOTOS).
Pictures from EPA project to document America in the 1970s.
The Decade Nobody Knows
The first chapter of THE SEVENTIES - The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and Politics. By Bruce J. Schulman.
Bruce Davidson - Subway Photos
Much like Jacob Riis's "How the Other Half Lives", Bruce Davidson's "Subway" exposes environments most people are unfamiliar with. This series of photographs taken of the NYC subway of the 1980s shows a world that few who live in New York would recognize.
WashingtonPost.com: Nixon Forces Firing of Cox; Richardson, Ruckelshaus Quit
Instead of trying to teach Watergate by lecturing the story of the break-in, the plumbers, CREEP, etc. - why not just give students this newspaper article and have them generate questions. If they can't generate a healthy list of questions from this article, no amount of story telling and lecture is going to help them.
George Packer on Rick Perlstein’s “The Invisible Bridge”
Gerald R. Ford: Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress Reporting on the State of the Union.
What is going on in a country when the presidents says "I must say to you that the state of the Union is not good"?
I must say to you that the state of the Union is not good
Now, I want to speak very bluntly. I've got bad news, and I don't expect much, if any, applause.
The Great Textbook Wars - American RadioWorks
Would students believe that elementary schools were bombed because of a controversy over textbooks?
Stevie Wonder - You Haven't Done Nothin' - YouTube
After Stevie Wonder left Motown records and Berry Gordy gave him the free reign he had given Marvin Gaye, his string of pop and soul hits had strong political messages. None was quite as direct as this direct attack on Richard Nixon. Play this to give students a funky start to your seventies class, but remember to project the lyrics so they can see how clear this message really is. Hold the trivia that it's the Jackson 5 (including Michael) in the background.
Cold War Museum - Chile 1973
Have your students used ColdWar.org? This article, written by a high school student and published by the site suggests that the US might have played a role in the 1973 coup in Chile. Yet the CIA not only admits its role in the removal of Allende from power, it provides all of the details. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no3/article03.html
CIA Machinations in Chile in 1970 — Central Intelligence Agency
This article from the CIA itself shows the manner in which released documents involving American actions in Chile in 1973 are used to write history again. At first brush it was through the denial of any role, than a popular conception (perhaps) of a major role in which American actions overseas contradicted foundational principles of democracy at home. This article tries to find a path between the two
Sarasota Herald-Tribune - July 16, 1974 - onair suicide
Students can get a first-hand look at 70s malaise in one issue of a Florida newspaper in 1974. Right alongside the front page story of revelations of President Nixon's role in the break-in to Pentagon Papers figure, Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office, is the story of a local news reporter who committed suicide, live on the air. Some americans seeing such news on a daily basis grew more and more despondent about the future of their country. Give this to students and ask them to find a connection between the two front page stories - would they see it that way?
Archie meets the Meathead - YouTube
For a three minute reflection of the political divide of the early 1970s, show from the 10 to 13 minute mark of this All in the Family episode. Easy for a quick Do Now reflection or additional material for a discussion
The Greatest Play In Baseball - Rick Monday Saves U.S. Flag - YouTube
Four minute video from the baseball game in which outfielder Rick Monday of the Chicago Cubs stops a man and his son from burning an American flag on the field in the middle of the game. The video also includes interviews with Monday and other players of this event that demonstrates the illustrates the decisiveness of the 1970s. This event occurred the months before the Bicentennial.
Boston Bombings to protest Busing June 1976
A month before the celebration of the Bicentennial, June 1976, there were a series of bombings in Boston, including one at tourist attraction landmarks like Plymouth Rock and the gift shop next to the Tea Party ship replicas. Both of these were claimed as resistance to desegrations
Oliver Sipple - Wikipedia, - First he saves a president's life, then his homosexuality is made public
Oliver Sipple saved Gerald Ford's life by deflecting the would-be assassin's arm just as the gun was aimed at Ford. Sipple was an ex-marine and Vietnam War vet whose life experience after this 1974 event was shaped by the manner in which his homosexuality was made public by his heroism.