Through primary sources, including films and memoirs as well as narrative accounts, this course will investigate the context, causes, content, and consequences of the political and cultural upheavals in American society between 1950 and 1975. Domestically and internationally, the events of the period were rooted in developments during the preceding years of the late 1940s. We will, therefore, explore relevant precursory threads as well. The focus of the course will alternate between national and local settings. Why did what happened in these years happen and did any of it matter or make a difference? What changed and what did not? Were those engaged in activism unrealistic in their assumptions, discontent, dissent, and protest? Were those years "unreal?" Or was it a time when many Americans, even those who were passive or who opposed the protesters, in fact reflected upon issues of privilege and political, economic, and social power in the United States and in the world?