An epic account of how middle-class America hit the rocks in the political and economic upheavals of the 1970s. This wide-ranging cultural and political history re-writes the 1970s as the crucial, pivotal era of modern times. Edgy and incisive - part political history, part labour history - with large doses of American musical, film and TV lore. From the factories of Ohio to Nixon, Ford and Carter's Washington, Cowie connects politics to culture, exposing how the 1970s saw a widening on inequalities and poverty.