Questions

Political Science Question: How did the Watergate scandal lead to the loss of innocence that permeated the 70’s?

Literary Question: What characteristics of New Journalism make it different from traditional journalism?

Musicology Question: What musical signifiers of traditional African music can be found in funk music?

Questions

1) What political occurrences caused the general sense of disillusionment that was present in the early Seventies?

2) How did the newer styles of television, journalism, and New Hollywood film reflect the changing nature of American society during the time?

3) How did funk music play into black politics of the time, and what has this genre become or influenced today?

questions

1. Was the white ethnic movement a reaction to the civil rights movement earlier in the decade or do you think it was more independently generated?

2. What were some of the major characteristics of new journalism and where was New Journalism most likely to be published?

3. Who were some of the major funk artists during the late 1960's and how did their music relate to the Black Power Movement?

Final Questions

1) (Poli Sci) How did 'Deep Throat' know that President Nixon was behind the break in at Watergate? Did he also work for the government?

2) (Literature) When (if ever) did white ethnics stop being considered a separate group from WASPs? How were they discriminated against?

3) (Music) How popular was psychedelic music really considering that most people in alive in the 60s weren't really part of the counterculture? How do you explain this difference?

Q

1. What specific social conditions helped to catalyze the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley and other student protest movements across the country?
2. What do the development of the Bakersfield sound and the rise of other country musicians reveal of the social climate of the 60s?
3. What was "new" about New Hollywood?

Questions by Holly Di Maggio

1) How does group identity play a role in political elections?

2) How and when did the term new journalism begin to emerge as a new writing style?

3) When did psychedelic music become less popular and why?

Questions

1. Is there such a thing as insincere psychedelic music? Or is psychedelic music a state of being as opposed to a set of signifiers?

2. How was New Journalism a response to the changing media of the decade?

3. How did George Wallace get away with drastically changing his platform? Why didn't people notice and/or question his legitimacy?

Questions

1) How did the Weatherman Underground Organization affect America's view of the protest movement?

2) How did the media differ from the 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's?

3) What signifiers contribute to Funk music and why was this genre significant?

Questions

1.War World I and World War II were followed by a post war era where the economy either experienced recessions as well as prosperity. Did a post war era proceed after the Vietnam War as well?

2.How did history gave an impact to fictional films and they way they treated sex and violence? Do you think the way violence was depicted changed?

3.What was jazz/blues artist’s response to psychedelic music since they were a large influence to the genre. Did they approve of this “noise”?

Review Questions

1. What did Nixon accomplish with an administrative presidency? What effect did this type of structure in the White House have on the other branches and the American Public?
2. What was the effect of the TV in the 1950s? Did producers know how to use this medium wisely?
3. How did "black" and "white" music interact?

Questions:

1. Describe the strategies of protest music--were any of these actually used to bring about significant change in the 1960s?

2. What caused Americans to favor Kennedy over Nixon in the 1960 election when they later favored him over Humphrey in 1969?How did American society change in between these two election years?

3. What are some examples of "New Journalism"?

Questions

1. I wrote in my notes from discussion last week that group based identity is more important than person based identity. Why is this?

2. How did the Black Panther Party use music to illustrate their pride in Black Power and Afro-funk?

3. How was New Journalism/Hippie Lit received by the general public? How was it received by those associated with the Conservative Backlash?

Questions

1.What exactly is the connection between New Journalism and the Psychedelic experience? As I re-read my notes I'm a little confused.

2. Do students still hold the same kind of power today that they did in the 1960s? Or has the protesting power shifted somewhat? If so to who and why?

3.Was there any affect on music as drug-used declined. Obviously there was, but I mean was there a specific sort of rebellion against the drug age seen in music?

Questions

1. How was George Wallace able to extend his appeal beyond segregationists and racists when running for president?

2. Are the obscenity trials concerning Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" more responsible for change in society than the poem itself?

3. Does Bob Dylan's manner of singing in "Highway 61 Revisited" demonstrate authenticity?

Questions

Poli-sci- By the 1970s, was the south still primarily Republican or how far had the shift towards a Democratic south come?

Musicology- How do gospel music, soul, and funk all relate? Do they have any similar signifiers?

Literature- What was the effect of hippie literature? Did the masses get ahold of it? Or were things like the "ULTRA Research Project" and "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" just read by members of the counterculture?

Operation Abolition

I forgot to post this last week while I was working on my paper, but I found something I thought the class might find interesting. I don't know if you guys remember from the Berkeley in the Sixties movie that we watched segments of in class, but they mentioned a video created by HUAC called "Operation Abolition", which took the footage from some of the first 60s protests in Berkeley and said that they were the work of the Communist party. In the video they showed a clip of the film in which the student all stood up and sang the national anthem in solidarity with the students. Anyway, I found the entire video through Google videos and its actually a really interesting depiction of the HUAC-early student protest clash that started off the free speech movement. The video says its an hour long but after 45 minutes its actually just some cartoon (random I know).

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2501072550238174626#

Soul Music

I know the soul music lecture was from a while ago, but I came across this when searching for music for my paper and I thought it was really interesting.
I like how Gil Scott Heron is just speaking the words to "The Revolution will not be Televised" over a drumbeat. His ideas are expressed so eloquently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGaRtqrlGy8

Evaluating Nixon and Presidents

Because he is so often criticized for things like the Watergate scandal and his corrupt nature, people tend to overlook the accomplishments that the fatally paranoid Richard Nixon had, like improving relations with China and the Soviet Union and his environmental policies, for example. He was far from a saint, but that is not to say that he didn't achieve anything beneficial at all. This leads into the question, how are we to ultimately judge Nixon? And furthermore, how are we to judge our presidents in general? Should they be scrutinized more in their personal actions (consider also, for instance, Bill Clinton), or for their political ability?

Hypocrisy in Government?

After reading and watching the documentary on the Nixon Administration, my reaction was "WOW, government is corrupted!" Nixon and his administration passed many boundaries to prevent the publication of the "Pentagon Papers" in the New York Times. Similarly, police forces arrested about 7,000 people during the May 8 Protests. These actions got me wondering about our freedoms documented in the first amendment.How much freedom to the people actually have in terms of freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly?

Furthermore, the Declaration of Independence says "...that whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government, laying its foundation on such Principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. However, if you think about it, if one did try to "overthrow" the government, government would most likely jail/sentence the people with treason. So, who has the ultimate power? and to what extent are our freedoms as the American people restricted?

Administrative Presidencies

I thought that Aberbach's lecture on Nixon's Administrative strategy was really interesting. I though it was very surprising how much Nixon had changed: he had started by letting his secretaries make their own appointments, and then in his second term tried to root out all that opposed him, even several levels down in the bureaucracy, by coercion.
What caused this shift in Nixon's policy? Should the president really be able to run the entire bureaucracy, as it is in his branch of government?

On a side note, Aberbach also talked about signing statements, where presidents will sign laws and then not enforce them, or not enforce parts of them. I think this is completely ridiculous, because it is a way to have an unlawful line-item veto. The constitution gave congress the power to write laws for a reason. Do you think that presidents should hold such a large amount of power in this sense?