Having lived through a decade of profound social and political upheaval — the Vietnam War, protests, riots, Watergate, recession — many Americans were exhausted and cynical by the mid-1970s. But while some retreated to private concerns, others took reform in new directions. Civil rights battles continued, the women’s movement achieved some of its most far-reaching aims, and gay rights blossomed. These movements pushed the “rights revolution” of the 1960s deeper into American life. Others, however, pushed back. Social conservatives responded by forming their own organizations and resisting the emergence of what they saw as a permissive society.