1970s Reform Essays

1970s Reform Essays 1970s Reform Essay 1970s Reform Essay The 1970s birthed a series of social and political movements. The opposition to the War in Vietnam that began in the 1960s grew a lot during the early 1970s. One of the best-known anti-war demonstrations was the Kent State shootings. In which national guard soldiers fired upon rioting students at the university. This event caused mistrust and shock throughout the country and became an example of anti-Vietnam demonstrations. Environmentalism also grew big in the seventies on April 22 1970 the United States celebrated its first Earth Day in which over two thousand colleges and universities and roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools joined in. Feminism and Civil rights grew strong in the 70s, which both grew for the need of equality among everyone else in the United States. The Vietnam War was a war that lasted 20 years and ended in 1975 when Saigon fell, it was a war between communists and anti communists. United States President Richard Nixon resigned as President in 1974 while facing charges for impeachment for the Watergate scandal. Roe v. Wade is the historic Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas interpretation of abortion law and making abortion legal in the United States. In the 1970s there was a trial that led to be one of the most important trials in history, the Roe v. Wade decision held that a woman, with her doctor, could choose abortion in earlier months of pregnancy without restriction, and with restrictions in later months, based on the right to privacy. The decline of membership and influence of Mainline Protestant denominations continued in the 1970s. Conservatives charged that these groups had lost their fire, and consequently their membership, to more committed groups. Perhaps more people left the Mainline organizations for new modes of worship or because organized religion had lost its importance to them. The 1970s were perhaps the worst decade of most industrialized countries economic performance since the Great Depression. Although there was no severe economic depression as witnessed in the 1930s, economic growth rates were considerably lower than previous decades. As a result, the 1970s badly made itself from the prosperous postwar period between 1945 and 1973. The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 due to the Arab oil embargo added to the existing ailments and conjured high inflation throughout much of the world for the rest of the decade. Economically, the 1970s were marked by the energy crisis which peaked in 1973 and 1979 . After the first oil shock in 1973, gasoline was rationed in many countries. Europe particularly depended on the Middle East for oil; the U. S. as also affected even though it had its own oil reserves. Many European countries introduced car-free days and weekends. In the U. S. , customers with a license plate ending in an odd number were only allowed to buy gasoline on odd-numbered days, while even-numbered plate-holders could only purchase gasoline on even-numbered days. The realization that oil reserves were not endless and technological development was not sustainable without potentially harming the environment ended the bel ief in limitless progress that had existed since the 19th century. As a result, ecological awareness rose substantially. This had a huge effect on the economy at that time. The birth of modern computing was in the 1970s, which saw the development of: the worlds first general microprocessor, the C programming language, basic personal computers, pocket calculators, the first supercomputer, consumer video games. The earliest floppy disks, invented at IBM, which were 8 inches in diameter, became commercially available in 1971.