Presidential Elections, 1960-1980
Course | Available (Membership Required)
In this four-week course we will look at six presidential elections which, taken together, marked a significant turn in the trajectory of American politics. The old New Deal Democratic Party coalition cracked and collapsed over the course of these two decades and opened the door for the ascendency of Ronald Reagan and his new brand of conservatism. If we want to understand today’s fractured political landscape, we must study this period closely. The seeds of MAGA are all there, hiding in plain sight.
Mick Chantler
Mick Chantler, MA, concluded his 36 year career in teaching at Sonoma Valley High School and currently teaches courses in the OLLI programs at Dominican University of California, Sonoma State University and UC Berkeley. As a lifelong student of the Civil War era, he is a member of the Lincoln Forum and was pleased to organize the Lincoln Bicentennial Celebration for the City of Sonoma in 2009. In 2010 he coordinated the American History Series at the Sonoma Valley Library. Mick’s other interests include the history of baseball and he is a long-standing member of the Society for American Baseball Research.