Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.This week in our series, we look back at some of the social issues and cultural changes in America in the nineteen seventies and eighties.In some ways, the nineteen eighties seemed like the opposite of the nineteen sixties.The sixties were years of protest for social justice and change. Many Americans demonstrated against the Vietnam War.Blacks demonstrated for civil rights. Women demonstrated for equality. Many people welcomed new social programs created by the government.By the nineteen eighties, however, many people seemed more concerned with themselves than with helping society.To them, success was measured mainly by how much money a person made. People wanted to live the good life, and that took money.The changes started to become evident during the nineteen seventies.For a while, these years brought a continuation of the social experiments and struggles of the sixties.
