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Discussions of violence often distinguish between two different dimensions: personal crimes and group violence. The first includes such activities as murder, molestation, robbery rape and assault, while the latter refers to riots, gang warfare, conflicts between labor movements and the police, lynchings, terrorism and political uprisings. Although this is a plausible method of classification, there are violent acts not easily placed into one category or another; for example the Kennedy assassination (1963) or the mass suicide at Jonestown. Moreover, there is frequently a complex interplay between these two dimensions that increases the difficulty of making clear-cut divisions.
The overall rate of personal crime reached a century low period in the mid-1950s and then began a relatively steady climb, peaking in the 1980s and then beginning a steady downward trend for most of the 1990s. Despite the fluctuations throughout this period a number of patterns emerge. Assaults and killings were typically done by young men against other men of similar age and race with whom they were acquainted; rapes and fatal incidents of domestic violence were overwhelmingly committed by men against women; assaults, most homicides and suicides involved the use of a gun; and both offenders and victims of violent crime have been disproportionately black.
The United States had roughly similar crime rates when compared with the other Western nations, but significantly higher levels of lethal violence. There was no shortage of theories as to why it was so or how to resolve it. Several researchers argued that as long as there were significant levels of poverty income inequality and racial segregation, the United States would continue to have high levels of violence. Some argued that strengthening positive cultural institutions, such as marriage and the two-parent family, and attacking negative social practices, such as drug use among the young, would decrease the propensity for individuals to engage in violent crime. Others contended that more effective crimefighting techniques such as community-based policing, along with sentencing reform, and an increase in prisons would discourage the relatively small subset of the population responsible for most violent crimes. Perhaps the most frequently cited difference between the United States and the other Western nations was the powerful role guns play in American culture. While almost all researchers agreed that guns constituted one of the critical contributing causes in explaining the country’s uniquely high levels of violence, there was only intermittent and minimal political action regarding the topic.
Group violence in post-Second World War America followed a slightly different pattern. Labor violence which had been a significant issue in the 1930s generally vanished, although there were some notable exceptions (e.g. the national strike of independent truckers in 1974). Far and away the most intense and widespread source of group conflict centered on the issue of race. The Civil Rights movement, which began to make inroads in the 1950s, was constantly met with verbal harassment, beatings, cross burnings, lynchings, bombings and assassinations. Leaders of the movement capitalized on these reactions by deliberately going into dangerous areas of the South where their presence would frequently lead to savage reactions by the local police and citizens. The media images of peaceful protesters being attacked by fire hoses and police dogs helped galvanize the country and its political leaders to support them in their goal of racial desegregation.
As the gains of the civil-rights movement only partially translated into improvements for African Americans, there began in the mid-1960s a series of riots in almost every major northern city with a sizeable black population. These riots resulted in millions of dollars of damage, the destruction of entire neighborhoods and the deaths of nearly 250 people, most of whom were shot by police or National Guardsmen. By the early 1970s this trend slowed down, but throughout the 1980s and 1990s there were major riots in Miami, FL (1982, 1984, 1987), Philadelphia, PA (1985) and Los Angeles, CA (1965, 1992). Most of these riots involved African Americans or Latinos, and were sparked by incidents involving police and the arrest of a minority suspect.
Political debates about the causes of violence and about how best to prevent it played a significant role in several elections, one obvious example being the 1968 campaign in which both Richard Nixon and George Wallace cast themselves as law and order candidates. Throughout the 1980s a general consensus developed among policy-makers, although not necessarily among social scientists, that more aggressive measures were required to cope with the increasing levels of violence. As a result there was a boom in prison construction, hundreds of laws were added to federal and state criminal codes, increasing penalties and decreasing the discretionary power of the judiciary, the FBI was given increased authority to wiretap and infiltrate suspicious groups and there was a substantial increase in the use of the death penalty.
One prominent and ongoing feature of the debate about violence in America has been the role of the media. The quantity and graphic nature of violent images in most forms of media, especially those targeted at younger consumers, increased dramatically from the 1950s into the 1990s. The release of John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) introduced a whole new genre of violent horror movies known as “slasher” films (e.g. Nïghtmare on Elm Street; Friday the 13th; Scream) in which several characters per film were brutally slaughtered in explicit detail. Many of the bestsellers of the 1980s and 1990s were by authors who frequently employed violent imagery in their work such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, and R.L. Stein. Supreme Court decisions in the late 1960s that struck down many censorship laws thereby increased availability of pornography, which then subsequently increased the amount of sexually violent material. Although television presented less graphic images than movies, it was frequently cited as a major cause of violence in society both because of the high number of violent crimes presented in news and entertainment shows and because of its enormous audience (see violence and media).
However, social-science researchers were unable effectively to demonstrate causal connections between violence in the media and actual incidents of violence. There were several studies associating extensive exposure of young males to violent television images with an increased probability of aggressive behavior, but even here there have been a number of challenges as to the strength of the evidence to support this claim.
Some researchers concluded that the most significant effect of violence in the media was the perception it created of criminals in American society and how this perception translated into increasingly violent and severe criminal-justice policies.
Industry:Culture
Distinctions between medicinal and nonmedicinal, legal and illegal substances, are the result of a long and continuing debate about the morality of consciousness alteration, the intrinsic dangers of particular substances and the costs and benefits of various regulatory schemes. Including colonial regulation of taverns and alcohol sales to Native Americans, America has had some form of drug policy for over 300 years. The tensions in American drug policy—and recent objections to its application abroad—derive from longstanding conflict about the wisdom of prohibitions.
The template for American drug control was established by the regulation of alcoholic beverages. Until the 1850s or so, Americans drank huge quantities of alcohol, mainly in the form of distilled spirits, beverages with very high alcohol content (usually 40 percent or more). Per capita consumption was much higher than it is today Men drank far more than women, and there is ample evidence that women suffered greatly from the whiskyand rum-related aggression of men. Indeed, the nineteenth-century temperance movement, arguably the most successful mass movement in American history did not begin as an alcoholprohibition movement, but as an anti-spirits campaign. Rooted in Protestant anxieties about self-control and sexual expression, women’s dread of male violence, and the personal discipline required for success in an emerging market regime, the temperance movement successfully stigmatized the consumption of alcohol, particularly in its highly concentrated forms and especially in misogynist settings like the old-time saloon (the “anti-home,” as temperance enthusiasts called it). By the end of the nineteenth century abstinence (or extreme moderation) was a hallmark of middleclass respectability in America and, even today roughly one-third of Americans do not drink alcoholic beverages. They are disproportionately women and are concentrated in regions of the country with long traditions of Protestant temperance agitation (the so-called “Bible belt” of the Midwest and South).
The temperance movement turned resolutely towards a Prohibitionist (rather than suasionist) position after the Civil War (1861–5). Long before the Volstead Act created a national prohibition of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages (effective in 1920), many local and state governments adopted similar measures or created selective prohibitions against sales to minors, Native Americans, slaves, or drunkards. With the repeal of national Prohibition in 1933, a few states and some jurisdictions within states remained “dry”; virtually all retained a selective prohibition against sales to minors and installed or revived systems to oversee the liquor industry and regulate drinking places (to prevent the return of the saloon). Today a few states (notably Pennsylvania) still operate state monopolies of wholesale and/or retail distribution of alcohol. Wholesale monopoly protects state revenues from alcohol sales, whereas retail monopoly (more common) also addresses problems of public order and sales to minors and intoxicated persons. Most states, however, only regulate wholesalers, license premises for on-site or off-site sales and investigate complaints. Since the late 1980s, a national drinking age of twenty-one has been imposed for all alcoholic beverages; most states have tightened their drink-driving laws; some have passed “server liability” laws (which impose civil penalties on irresponsible hosts) or imposed cheap-drink (“happy hour”) restrictions. This recent movement towards closer alcohol regulation has gone under the banner of “neotemperance,” although many of its critics, notably those in the alcohol beverage industry have referred to it (incorrectly) as “neo-Prohibitionist.” The nineteenth-century temperance movement’s turn towards political prohibition profoundly influenced policy towards other consciousness-altering substances.
Particularly as pharmacists and physicians discovered the extraordinary prevalence of morphine addiction during the last decades of the nineteenth century (much of it the result of medical treatment), many states moved to regulate the sale of opiates and cocaine by the mechanism of a doctor’s prescription. In 1914 the Harrison Narcotic Act created a federal registration system for dispensers of opiates and cocaine that was used in conjunction with state legislation to prohibit effectively the non-medical use of these drugs and their furnishing to addicts by physicians. Although its crude distinctions among substances have been greatly elaborated by subsequent federal legislation, the regulatory scheme erected by the Harrison Act has remained fundamental to American drug policy Most contemporary proposals for policy reform—whether concerning the medicinal use of cannabis or the prescribing of methadone or even heroin to opiate addicts—rely on the mechanism of an expert intermediary usually a physician. Even more radical proposals— for the legalization of cannabis, for instance—retain the long-established selective prohibition against consumption by minors that is applied to alcohol and tobacco. Most also incorporate a commodity tax modeled on those applied to alcohol and tobacco.
Current American distinctions between legal and illegal drugs cannot be understood on pharmacological grounds. (For example, no experts doubt that alcohol and tobaccodelivered nicotine are far more addictive and intrinsically dangerous to health than cannabis.) Rather, the legal status of various consciousness-altering substances must be seen in the context of the country’s experience with Prohibition, which was not a happy one. Although alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems declined during the first few years of Prohibition, the gradual organization of illicit supply and the unregulated nature of the illicit market, provided both ample (if often impure) liquor and tremendous opportunity for criminal entrepreneurs. Moreover, after decades of disreputability hard drinking became a mark of sophistication and rebellion among young people of the 1920s in much the same way that the consumption of cannabis and hallucinogens signified cultural dissent during the 1960s and 1970s. Further, the loss of alcohol tax revenue was a major blow to government, particularly during the Great Depression. By the late 1920s, even many women’s organizations thought of Prohibition as a failure and favored a return to the older principles of moderation and a suasionist form of temperance.
The lessons of Prohibition did not extend immediately to policy concerning consciousnessaltering substances other than alcohol, however. Primarily this had to do with alcohol’s status as America’s traditional intoxicant. (Even Harry Anslinger, ironfisted Chief of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930–62, was quite fond of Jack Daniels, a Kentucky whisky.) Other substances were exotic, associated with suspect groups like Mexicans (cannabis) or the Chinese (smoking opium). Moreover, the temperance and medical crusade against morphine, a very widely used substance, changed the social locus of its use. Whereas the typical morphine addict of the late nineteenth century was a middle-aged, rural woman using the drug on a doctor’s order, changing medical practices and cultural mores increasingly isolated the use of morphine (and later, heroin) in “sporting circles” and among nightlife afficianadoes. By the First World War, it had become a drug of young, lower-class men (mainly) and cultural fringedwellers— groups against which sumptuary legislation could easily be directed, especially in the name of moral upliftment. As a practical matter of enforcement, until the 1960s, relatively few Americans used substances other than alcohol. The movement for the decriminalization or outright legalization of cannabis could arise only when that substance became popular among middle-class, white young people.
After Repeal, then, American drug policy incorporated substances developed specifically for medical use into a prescription regime; legalized or kept legal such commonly used substances as alcohol and tobacco (subject to regulation, selective prohibition and taxation); and criminalized or left illegal exotic substances consumed for “non-medical” reasons by small minorities. During the postwar era, international treaties, cemented with financial aid and linked to anti-communist political objectives, internationalized the American model of Prohibition, though it was applied with variable enthusiasm and honesty.
In the twenty-first century Americans may need to relearn the lessons of temperance history In its suasionist form, the temperance movement had a lasting impact on what Americans drank, and how much they drank under what circumstances. In its Prohibitionist expression, the temperance movement supported unenforceable laws that undid many of its accomplishments by creating unregulated manufacture, sale and consumption, and by undermining respect for law and individual restraint. Disillusioned alcohol Prohibitionists recognized that America could not be made alcohol-free, and that responsible regulation was the only practical method for managing its presence in society Many disillusioned drug Prohibitionists now promote a similar message: it is better to reduce the harm associated with the inevitable use of now-proscribed substances than to perpetuate what has become an international system of banditry and political oppression.
The future shape of American drug policy remains to be seen, but the growing number of states that have passed “medical cannabis” laws, the growing interest of policy-makers in needle exchanges, physician prescription of methadone and even heroin, and the first discussion of safe-injection rooms—all increasingly common features of Central European drug policy—suggest that the American policy model is in decline.
Industry:Culture
Distinctive “soft” rock music that emerged in the mid-1960s, embodied by bands like The Mamas and the Papas. Influenced by the new folk music of the 1950s and 1960s, their music was harmonyrich with complicated vocal arrangements that stood apart from hard rock, which features lead guitar and solo vocals. The sound, best heard in the song “California Dreaming,” came to represent the more mellow, melodic sounds of the 1960s.
Later, in the 1970s, with the Californian groups The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac—and vocalist Linda Ronstadt—the folk roots of the music gained a country influence.
Industry:Culture
Downtown Charleston (population 80,414) preserves classic wood-frame houses, elegant churches and streetscapes that remind us of its colonial power in the coastal “Low Country” its connections to the West Indies and the antebellum divisions of master and slave. Continuing divisions between black and white underscore both conservatism and conflict in Southern society although generally far away from tourist eyes. Charleston is also a military center, with multiple naval facilities as well as the Citadel, a military college forced to admit women in the 1990s.
Industry:Culture
Downtown convention centers became late-twentieth century strategies for cities to promote tourism and consumption. Trade shows, business groups, religious associations and fraternal organizations are prime clients, but the plum is a national political party convention like those held in Philadelphia, PA (Republicans) and Los Angeles, CA (Democrats) in 2000. These events, held every four years before the elections, bring together thousands of party representatives in summer assemblies to formally choose presidential and vice-presidential candidates. Since the nine-teenth century these delegates have generally been chosen by primaries or caucuses at the state level, although elected officials and party bosses have also held power. The convention also establishes the party platform and national leadership.
Twentieth-century conventions have become battlegrounds at times; even after the Second World War the triumph of John F. Kennedy at the 1960 Democratic Convention and Ronald Reagan’s 1980 victory over Gerald Ford added drama to television coverage. These meetings have also been arenas for debates on critical issues like civil rights, Vietnam, abortion and the representation of women and minorities. These debates were especially divisive for Democrats in the 1960s and 1970s, before reforms in 1972 (that led to George McGovern’s nomination; see Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party). Conventions also faced popular protest outside halls, like those that erupted at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago and smaller protests at subsequent events.
Yet, with primary reform, conventions have become stages for propaganda and coronation of incumbents or victors decided months before, as is the case with Al Gore or George Bush, Jr. in 2000. Hence public interest has dropped with regard to spectacles and speeches, and networks no longer offer gavel-to-gavel coverage of political pep rallies/infomercials.
Industry:Culture
Dr Ethel Andrus founded AARP in 1958. Now the nation’s largest and oldest organization of older Americans, its membership is over 33 million. A non-profit, nonpartisan organization, AARP is governed by an elected, twenty-one member volunteer Board of Directors. Its extensive volunteer network makes it one of America’s most effective lobbying groups, both nationally and locally. AARP also co-chairs the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, a coalition of non-profit organizations that represents the public-policy interests of older Americans. AARP members receive a variety of discounts, services and products, ranging from health insurance to prescription drugs.
Industry:Culture
During the early Cold War, the anarchist tradition was kept alive by Dwight Macdonald’s lively journal, politics (1944–9). Avoiding the era’s Manichean politics, Macdonald published independent thinkers who rejected the platitudes of both Cold-War America and Soviet-style state socialism. By the 1960s, some of the New Left’s less dogmatic members rediscovered anarchist thought. Murray Bookchin’s “post-scarcity anarchism” served as a rejoinder to Marxist-Leninist sectarianism, while Noam Chomsky, the prolific linguist-activist, rekindled interest in anarcho-syndicalism.
More recently, younger “post-leftist” anarchists have questioned the anti-authoritarian credentials of Bookchin and Chomsky. This new tendency distinguished by a militant opposition to technology, received considerable media attention during protests against corporate globalization during the 1999 Seattle, WA meeting of the World Trade Organization.
Industry:Culture
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States experienced a surge of immigration from Afro-Spanish Caribbean communities such as Cuba and Puerto Rico.
Within these newly formed immigrant communities emerged a unique institution called the “botánica.” Located throughout major urban cities in the United States, botánicas are small stores and shops devoted to the distribution of religious artifacts and supplies such as oils, candles, music, books, beads, powders, charms, amulets, statues, ceramic pots, baths and incense. The name “botánica” refers to the science of botany or plants. Hence, assorted herbs and plant life are some of the chief products sold there.
The items sold at botánicas are primarily used for the purposes of sacred ritual and spiritual healing. Much of the herbal pharmacopeia and spiritual supplies are related to the practice of various African-derived religious traditions such as Santería, Palo Mayombe, Espiritismo and Haitian Voudou. Practitioners of these traditions utilize local botánicas as sources for medicinal supplies, religious paraphernalia and spiritual consultation.
Industry:Culture
During the latter half of the twentieth century, following the advent and rise of first film and then television, live theater in the United States scrambled to find a niche in American culture. Because producing live theater is extremely laborintensive, mounting professional productions necessitates selling tickets at a prohibitive price for many Americans. Despite vigorous efforts on the part of many producing organizations to diversify their audiences, theater audiences remain largely white and affluent.
Contemporary American theater falls into several categories. It varies according to location, size, the physical configuration of the performance space and the financial structure of the producing organization, among others. All of these factors must be taken into account when theaters decide what kinds of plays to produce. While theater struggles to maintain its role in American culture, an audience member can still view some type of live theater in virtually every community in the country. Performances occur in a variety of buildings and spaces, from converted warehouses to state-of-the-art Broadway houses.
(Broadway refers to both the location of theater within a several-block radius of the intersection of Broadway and 42nd Street in midtown Manhattan, as well as to the financial structure of the producing organization.) An audience member can have an intimate performance experience in a ninety-nine seat black box theater, or be part of a thousandplus throng at a Broadway musical.
Throughout the twentieth century, New York City has remained the center of live theater in the United States, boasting a full range of theater spaces and showcasing works from minimalist performance art to Broadway extravaganzas. Tourists from across the country and abroad flock to New York’s Broadway musicals, but the more seasoned or adventurous theater-goer can find a wide range of performance styles in what are called the off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway theaters. In counterpoint to the highly commercial aspect of Broadway theater, New York’s avant-garde venues boast some of the most innovative and experimental performances in the country, showcasing works from across the cultural spectrum, including the voices of African American, Latino, Asian American and gay and lesbian playwrights and performers.
In the early 1960s, led by such pioneers as Tyrone Guthrie, founder of the Guthrie Theater, in Minneapolis, the United States saw a renaissance of regional theaters. These medium to largesized theaters became established in communities with an affluent population large enough to fill the theater’s seats, as well as a large enough “giving” community to subsidize productions with personal, corporate, foundation and public donations. Consequently cities such as Seattle, Chicago, IL and Minneapolis/St. Paul have become dynamic theater centers in their own right. In the wake of the arrival of well-established regional theaters, a host of smaller theaters have sprung up offering an eclectic range of styles. For example, St. Paul is the home of Penumbra Theater. Founded in 1976, it is one of the country’s oldest and most wellestablished theaters dedicated to presenting theater from an African American perspective.
While successful professional theaters have usually been established in large urban areas, some American Shakespeare Festivals are a noted exception. Ashland, a small town in central Oregon, hosts the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. With three separate stages, the festival is in operation from mid-February through October playing to a steady stream of tourists from across the country. The town has become primarily a support industry for the festival. In addition, professional dinner theaters and amateur community theaters, some old and well-established, others nearly as ephemeral as the 2 hours traffic on their stages, can be found throughout the country.
Live theater in the United States is financed under one of two systems, either for-profit or notfor-profit. Broadway productions are for-profit endeavors with investors. Their contracts with such labor unions as Actors Equity Association (AEA), representing actors, dancers and stage managers, and the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), representing stage hands, requires that they pay union members top wages. To fill the large Broadway houses, producers also employ highly paid star performers for leading roles and spend lavishly on spectacular sets, lighting, costumes and special effects. The fact that Broadway productions are so costly to mount and also require a return of profit to the investors dictates the repertoire. Broadway relies on appealing to a broad-based, largely tourist audience to fill the seats and turn a profit for investors. Some off-Broadway theaters (defined by the smaller size of their houses and the nature of their labor contracts rather than by their specific location within New York City), dinner theaters (which exist across the nation and range in size from intimate dining rooms to multi-stage complexes serving up mostly musicals and romantic comedies, along with cuisine for the patrons) and a smattering of other theater companies are also for-profit. But the majority of producing organizations in the country are organized under the not-for-profit model.
Not-for-profit organizations generally rely on contributions to supplement revenue from ticket sales. Live theater in America has never enjoyed the kind of widespread governmental support found in many other nations. Indeed, even the pittance allocated to performing arts through the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and through various state or local government funding agencies has been, since the late 1980s, under continuous attack from political conservatives and the Christian Right. Already minimal public funding has actually declined. However, in the United States not-for-profit organizations may register under a provision of the tax code allowing them to solicit taxdeductible contributions from corporations and individuals. Contributors receive no return on their investments, but are able to deduct their contributions from their taxable profits or income. Many not-for-profits, such as San Diego’s Old Globe Theater and Chicago’s Goodman Theater, are thus heavily endowed with donated funds. Others constantly struggle to keep their financial heads above water. But, even though pundits in every decade in the latter half of the twentieth century wrote the obituary of theater in America, a portion of the population continues to find the immediate and engaging experience of live performance irresistible.
Industry:Culture
During the second half of the 1980s, Yugoslavia’s ethnically and religiously diverse republics—Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia—started to push for greater autonomy In response, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, an avowed Serbian nationalist, endeavored to consolidate the position of Serbia in various ways.
Slovenians and the Croatians declared their independence. Forced to accept Slovenian independence, since almost no Serbs lived in that province, Milosevic went to war with the Croatians. The Bush administration remained onlookers (hoping that Yugoslavia would not break up into small provinces and not wanting involvement in another war so soon after the Gulf War) until news reports of “ethnic cleansing” prompted government officials to push for peace negotiations. The Clinton administration followed a more active policy favorable to the Muslims. Following accords between the disputing provinces, the United Nations sent in peacekeeping forces to Croatia.
The Serbs then turned their attention to Bosnia, with a multi-ethnic, generally harmonious population centered in the historically cosmopolitan capital, Sarajevo. Bosnia was now painted by Milosevic as a province marked by centuries of ethnic strife, with a Christian Serb minority at the mercy of the Muslims. Serbs bombarded Sarajevo, which had received no peacekeepers and which, with the international arms embargo on the region, was essentially defenseless. During this conflict (1992–5), the leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Radovan Karadzic, is alleged by the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague to have established concentration camps and to have sanctioned torture, rape and massacres. As many as 200,000 Bosnian Muslims, Croats and Serbs may have been killed in this genocidal civil war.
The intervention of the United States, and the diplomacy of Richard Holbrooke, helped bring about the Dayton Agreement in November 1995, which partitioned Bosnia. The establishment of a NATO mission in the country brought peace, but the settlement’s partition appeared to validate some of the Serbs’ territorial demands and strengthened Milosevic’s position in Yugoslavia, leading him to respond in a similar way to Kosovar nationalists as he had done to the Bosnians. Milosovic’s refusal to recognize independence for Kosovo was followed by a Yugoslav onslaught on Albanian Kosovar forces in 1999, allegations of renewed genocidal activity and NATO military intervention (including the presence of US troops) that established greater independence for the province.
Industry:Culture
