60's American Studies Project
By Lily Tischner and Elizabeth Osoinach
Pop Culture: Music, Movies, Media, Fashion
-Affluent Artists: The Beatles, The Archies, The Mamas and the Papas, Bob Dylan, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Rolling Stones, The Animals, Fats Domino, Chubby Checker, Led Zeppelin, Leonard Cohen, Jimi Hendrix
-Influences on Movies: war, segregation
-Influential Movies from the 60's: Romeo and Juliet, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Psycho, Lolita, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill A Mockingbird, West Side Story, Cool Hand Luke
-Media: TV movies, televised war, the evening news with Walter Cronkite, muckraking revived in the 60's, cigarette advertising
-Fashion: black eyeliner, mini skirts, Vidal Sassoon, afros, turtlenecks, hippie dress, Ford mustangs
Current Events
-Lunar landing race against USSR
-Assassination of JF Kennedy
-Building of the Berlin Wall
-Continuation of the gay rights movement (Stonewall Riots)
-Birthcontrol is introduced
-Introduction of the TV to modern homes
-Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream Speech" in Washington DC
-First video game (Spacewar!)
-Second-wave feminism
-Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican ethnic uproar
-Smoking becomes a hazzard
-Nelson Mandelo is sentenced to life in prison
-Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X
-Zodiac Killer
-Manson Family Murders
Literature
-"The Feminine Mystique," "To Kill A Mockingbird," "Slaughterhouse-Five," "The Bell Jar," "A Clockwork Orange," "Silent Spring," "Godfather"
-Affluent Authors: Kurt Vonnegut, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Rachel Carson, Betty Friedan
Politics
-Election of 1960: Kennedy vs. Nixon
-Civil Rights Movement
-Passing of the National Voting Rights Act
-Passing of the Civil Rights Act
-Integration of schools
-Freedom rides
-Rise in Communism during the Cold War
-Cuban Missile Crisis
-Bay of Pigs
-Six Day War