TY  - BOOK
AU  - Leonard,Aaron J.
TI  - Meltdown expected: crisis, disorder, and upheaval at the end of the 1970s 
SN  - 9781978836464
PY  - 2024///]
CY  - New Brunswick, New Jersey
PB  - Rutgers University Press
KW  - United States
KW  - Civilization
KW  - 1970-
KW  - History
KW  - 1969-
KW  - Politics and government
KW  - 1977-1981
KW  - Economic conditions
KW  - 1971-1981
N1  - Includes index; Includes bibliographical references and index; The beginning of the end of the '70s -- Marg bar Shah (Death to the Shah) -- From Harrisburg to Svedlovsk -- Economic dislocations -- China on the capitalist road -- Up against the wall -- The use of terrorism -- The FBI, beyond reform -- After disco -- Morality wars -- A shifting chessboard -- The looming '80s
N2  - "Meltdown Expected: Crisis, Disorder, and Upheaval at the end of the 1970s tells the story of how the "Me Decade" transformed into the final phase of the Cold War. Starting in the final months of 1978 and extending throughout 1979 the period of torpor, malaise, and polyester was replaced by revolution in Iran, near-meltdown at Three Mile Island, tectonic shifts in China, the reworking of the intelligence authority, and the onset of a proxy war between the US and USSR in Afghanistan. Through prodigious research, including material obtained through the author's Freedom of Information Act requests, this is a story of how the seventies ended before the decade was over"--; "In January 1978, President Jimmy Carter proclaimed that "There is all across our land a growing sense of peace and a sense of common purpose." Yet in the ensuing months, a series of crises disturbed that fragile sense of peace, ultimately setting the stage for Reagan's decisive victory in 1980 and ushering in the final phase of the Cold War. Meltdown Expected tells the story of the power shifts from late 1978 through 1979 whose repercussions are still being felt. Iran's revolution led to a hostage crisis while neighbouring Afghanistan became the site of a proxy war between the USSR and the US, who supplied aid to Islamic mujahideen fighters that would later form the Taliban. Meanwhile, as tragedies like the Jonestown mass suicide and the assassination of Harvey Milk captured the nation's attention, the government quietly reasserted and expanded the FBI's intelligence powers. Drawing from recently declassified government documents and covering everything from Three Mile Island to the rise of punk rock, Aaron J. Leonard paints a vivid portrait of a tumultuous yet pivotal time in American history. "--
ER  -