123hop at comcast.net wrote:
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> Yes, if I remember right Eric Hoffer made a study of it and reported that militancy increases when times are good and people feel relatively safe.
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> On the other hand, there was a fair amount of miliancy in the thirties.
I'm sorry to find out that Eric Hoffer and I agree on anything. Oh well.
The 30s were not monolithic. Most of what we think of as The '30s was after 1935, that is during a period when relatively speaking expectations were rising, in contrast to the earlier part of the decade. I believe it could be called a period of rising expectations.
In the past (though I can't remember the specific works now) conservative historians have expressed shock and outrate that the French and Russian Revolutions occurred when economic conditions were (at least relatively) improving.
The final nail in the coffin of "The Sixties" was the slump of 1974.
Carrol