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The Millennium in History:
The U.S. in 1976 -- Triumph and Trial

Jeff Livingston, Department of History, has a quiet and calm demeanor that covers a pentrating and critical commentator on American History. Still waters run deep. He will share his insights -- which may disturb rather than soothe -- during his Friends of History Lecture Series presentation, "Triumph, Decline, and the Rapture: America at the Millennium," on February 17, at 7 p.m., in the Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall (PAC 134).

Originally from Waynesville, Ohio, Livingston got his B.A. at Miami University of Ohio and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Toledo. His dissertation was on Ohio Congressman John Vorys.

Livingston is nothing if not determined. In fact, he's known he was going to be a history teacher since the second grade when he studied a unit on Lewis and Clark. Yet for all the provinciality of his early studies, Livingston's world view is the opposite of isolationist. For him, all parts are connected.

Livingston has been at Chico State since 1989 and teaches a variety of courses, including American Diplomatic History, which covers the interaction between the United States and other nations, including Native American tribes. He's keenly interested in how Americans see their country relative to others -- in what they feel their responsibilities are to other countries, in how they believe foreign policy should be determined, in whom they think should call us to war.

"Most Americans realize we have an awful lot. How do we justify this?" Livingston asked. "We used to think we were blessed by God. And we've believed that we are smarter and have used our resources better. Many of us concede there's been an element of luck, too."

Livingston keeps his classroom vital by connecting American history to personal history. "We can't talk about World War II without having known someone who was at the D-Day invasion," he explained. "We can't talk about Vietnam without having been around it ourselves. For Native Americans, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century issues are still alive."

For his lecture, Livingston will examine the United States at its bicentennial. "One might argue," he posited, "that while 1976 should have been a time of triumph for the U.S., the country actually was at rock bottom. We'd lost the Vietnam War and kicked a president out of office. The economy was doing terribly: oil prices and unemployment were high. Poll after poll showed our lack of confidence in every aspect of life, including government, science, education, and medicine. After a period of optimism in the '60s, young people had turned cynical. It was a curious juxtaposition: how do you celebrate triumph at a time of decline?"

Livingston will explore three important texts written in the '70s which highlight that sense of decline. The Late Great Planet Earth, written by apocalyptic-enthusiast Hal Lindsey was the biggest-selling work of non-fiction in the '70s. Lindsey warned that the U.S. and the world were on the brink of Armageddon.

Democracy in Crisis, written by Harvard political scientist Samuel Huntington, argues that the biggest problems in the U.S. came from "an excess of democracy."

The Report of the Committee on the Present Danger," compiled by a citizen's lobby group composed of hard-line cold warriors, advocated for the U.S. to remilitarize.

The subsequent popularity of Ronald Reagan's presidency in the 1980s, Livingston will argue, is that it addressed the major issues brought up by these texts.

From Rome to Russia and now to Reagan, each lecture in this year's Friends of History's Lecture Series suggests the interconnectedness of all times -- past and present. -- Thomasin Saxe, Humanities and Fine Arts