• Describe Gerald Ford’s political style, and assess the successes and failures of his brief presidency.

• Summarize the symptoms of economic malaise in the United States during the 1970s, and identify the sources of that malaise.

• Discuss changing views of technology and the environment in the 1970s, including sources of both optimism and pessimism.

• Characterize Jimmy Carter’s political philosophy and style, describe his key domestic concerns, and evaluate his effectiveness in dealing with them.

• Assess the Carter administration’s handling of foreign affairs.

•Trace the gains made by racial and ethnic minorities, women, and gays in the 1970s, and understand the continuing challenges each group faced. Account for the anger and resistance they encountered from others in American society.

• Describe the major cultural trends of the Seventies.

• Highlight the key issues motivating conservatives in the 1970s, and account for the outcome of the 1980 presidential election.

1969 Stonewall Riot launches gay liberation movement.

1972 Congress passes the Equal Rights Amendment.

1973 E. F. Schumacher publishes Small Is Beautiful.

Siege of AIM at Wounded Knee.

Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade legalizes abortion..174

1974 Nixon resigns; Gerald Ford becomes president.

Altair begins marketing personal computers.

1974–76 Gerald Ford’s presidency.

1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975.

Helsinki Accords.

Fall of Saigon.

Mayaguez episode.

Microsoft Corporation founded.

1976 Formation of Genentech.

First Apple computer marketed.

1977–80 Jimmy Carter’s presidency.

1977 Carter pardons draft evaders.

1978 Californians approve Proposition 13.

Iranian revolution triggers oil price shock.

Panama Canal Treaty.

In Bakke decision, Supreme Court bans racial quotas in admissions.

1979 Iranian Revolution.

Meltdown at Three Mile Island.

Camp David Accords signed.

Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Reverend Jerry Falwell founds the Moral Majority.

1979–81 Iranian hostage crisis.

1980 Supreme Court approves patents on genetically modified life.

United States boycotts Moscow Summer Olympics.

1981–88 Ronald Reagan’s presidency.

1982 Vietnam Veterans Memorial completed.

Ratification of ERA fails.