The New American Revolution: Cultural Politics, New Federalism and the 1976 Bicentennial

Summary

The "New American Revolution" is a study of the visual, performative, and material forms used to commemorate the 1976 Bicentennial of the nation's founding. The dissertation investigates the ways that the federal government conceptualized the national celebration; it also explores how grass roots activists and cultural, intellectual, and business leaders shaped national policy over time, how various constituencies implemented that policy, and how ordinary Americans experienced and interpreted the era's commemorative events. The dissertation delineates the ways in which the political vicissitudes and cultural fissures of the 1970s shaped the Bicentennial celebrations and elucidates how, in turn, the Bicentennial catalyzed the emergence of a post-modern American political culture and paved the way for the "Reagan Revolution."

Subject

• Reagan, Ronald
• Bicentennial of the American Revolution
• American Revolution Bicentennial Administration
• American Revolution Bicentennial Commission

Category

Smithsonian History Bibliography

Notes

Dr. Myhaver was a predoctoral fellow at Smithsonian Institution Archives, Institutional History Division

Contained within

Ph. D. dissertation, Boston University

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

• 2014
• 20th century
• Revolution, 1775-1783

Topic

• Postmodernism
• Anniversaries
• Social evolution
• Counterculture
• Nineteen seventies
• New Federalism
• Social movements
• History
• Social change
• Social movements--History
• Counterculture--History

Place

United States

Physical description

Number of pages: 303

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