An interpretive survey of the political, social and cultural history of 1960s America. Arguing that the period marked the end of the country's two-century-long ascent toward widespread affluence, domestic consensus, and international hegemony, the authors take readers on a tour of the turbulent decade, exploring what did and did not change in the 1960s, and why American culture and politics have never been the same since. Considering the factors which led up to the 60s and issues such as the changing mind and condition of black America, the heyday and limitations of liberalism, youth culture, Vietnam, the New Left, the conservative revival, Nixon and the search for spirituality, the text explains what made the 1960s a decade in which people felt they could make history and why, in the following decades, the history that was made has been so troubling to Americans.