Post Modern and Contemporary Period in the United States

The 1960s-1970s, the Peace Movement, the Hippie Movement, the Antiwar Movement, the Protest Movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Postmodern and Contemporary period; These names, periods, epochs, eras, and movements all have different meanings, however they refer to the same time in history and the emotions related to it. For these purposes it will simply be called the Postmodern and Contemporary period in the United States. This epoch was one of peace, individualism, spiritualism, unity, change, progress, mass harmonic assemblies, war, death, destruction, discontent, fear, hope, expression, free speech, questioning, and development of the arts. The emotions of the period are now trapped in the literature and art we see today. In the Postmodern and Contemporary period of the United States, the previous and current diplomatic and military relations with other nations as well as domestic peace movements of the time generated an anti-war and pro-peace sentiment as we see in the literature and art of the period. The Vietnam War was a major instigator for many of these ideas at the time. The foreign policy of the United States at the time was called by many critics as, "Vietnam Syndrome" and showed contempt and unwillingness to be over-involved in an "unwinnable and morally dubious war" (Mullin). To many of the supporters of the Vietnam war at home watching the protesters on T.V., the protesters looked bizarre, due to the media's biased reporting methods. "Focusing in on the bushiest beards, the longest hair, the grubbiest bellbottoms and sandals. Despite this public face of protest, opposition to the war was spreading rapidly" (Fighting the war at home). The supporters claimed that the United States had no business to intercede in a country with a corrupt and unpopular dictatorship such as North Vietnam. Many poets and artists who were also critical of governmental activity in Vietnam picked up on the mass political views of the people at the time,

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