1968 is often remembered as a time of revolution, when liberal activists stood up to the powers that be and established progressive movements that endure to this day. However, 1968 was also the year the GOP’s Richard Nixon won the White House – and the start of more than two decades of nearly unbroken Republican power in the executive branch. Arizona State University’s Donald Critchlow explains that this didn’t necessarily occur in spite of the left-wing protest movement – it may have happened directly because of it. As the unrest on campuses and in inner cities was beamed into Americans’ living rooms through television, millions of voters embraced Nixon’s promise to bring back “law and order.”

Read more in this article from Donald Critchlow: Politicians have long used the ‘forgotten man’ to win elections

Music: “Moonlight Reprise” by Kai Engel, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 3

Archival sound: 1968 Democratic Convention part 1

Preview - 1968 DNC in Chicago - CBS News Coverage

span.org/video/?443976-4/washington-journal-matthew-dallek-robert-merry-discuss-conservative-politics-1968">Matthew Dallek and Robert Merry on Conservative Politics in 1968

Goldwater concedes to LBJ 1964

Future Pres. Nixon on Face the Nation

Election Shocks (1966)

Inauguration of President Richard M Nixon 1969, Part 7

Gerald Ford: Swearing In Ceremony - Aug 9, 1974

Inauguration of President Ronald Reagan 1981, Part 1

President George H.W. Bush takes the oath of office administered by Chief Justice William Rehnquist

USA: PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON GIVES ACCEPTANCE SPEECH UPDATE

Bernie Calls Out Weak Centrist Democrats

Trump tells police officers “don’t be too nice” when arresting gang members

Hands Up Don’t Shoot/ Berkeley, CA

Arrests made in anti-ICE protest in Brooklyn

“BUILD THAT WALL!” Donald Trump Chants After Major Endorsement

Lindsey Graham erupts: Kavanaugh hearing an unethical sham

‘This is the beginning’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s victory speech

The white Christian left was once a powerful influence on American politics, in an era when faith did not dictate political inclination. Then came the 1968 declaration against the Vietnam War by the National Council of Churches. President-elect Richard Nixon would later reject liberal Christian leaders – and become the first of a series of presidents who built their base on the anxieties of white Christian conservatives. Phillip talks with professor Jill Gill of Boise State University in Idaho, whose parents were a conservative evangelical and a secular liberal. She tells us how evangelicals became synonymous with conservatism in today’s political landscape.

Read more: Anti-war protests 50 years ago helped mold the modern Christian right, by David Mislin

Music: “And never come back” by Soft and Furious, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1

Archival audio: Martin Luther King, “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam”

Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr.: The Role of the Church Militant

Lecture by William Sloane Coffin on the Vietnam War, November 19, 1972

They’ll Know We Are Christians Peter Scholtes 1966

NIXON TAPES: Vietnam is Kennedy’s Fault (Billy Graham)

LBJ and Martin Luther King, 11/5/64. 3.20p.

Ann Coulter - Godless: The Church of Liberalism

President Obama sings Amazing Grace (C-SPAN)

Obama links raising taxes to Christianity

Evangelicals turn on Trump over immigration

A computer may have been the size of room in 1968, but it was still a watershed year for tech industry. That year saw the founding of the Intel Corporation that would revolutionize microprocessors and "the mother of all demos," a landmark event that featured the first public demonstration of a computer mouse. Our guest, Margaret O’Mara, a professor of U.S. history at the University of Washington, became fascinated with the story of the Silicon Valley through a circuitous path that involved time spent in the White House and a close encounter with the Little Rock Nine. She tells Philip how this place, once a pastoral agricultural community, became a technological and economic powerhouse – and what that meant for the people who lived there.

Read more in this accompanying article from Margaret O'Mara: In 1968, computers got personal: How the ‘mother of all demos’ changed the world

Music: “By Grace” by Podington Bear, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1

“Motions” by Rafael Krux, found on FreePD.com, licensed under CC0 1

Archival audio: Mother of All Demos - The Mouse

HAL 9000: “I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that”

The First Microprocessor TV Commercial

Deactivating Hal 9000 HD (COMPLETE)

Apple accused of failing to protect workers

The 68’ Salute

It was my mistake’: Facebook CEO speaks out on privacy scandal

Jeff Bezos: The $100 Billion Dollar Man | CNBC

The Disruptors: The ‘Uber effect’ on the Taxi Industry

New video shows moments before fatal self-driving Uber crash

The Little Rock 9 - Arkansas 1957

As 1968 began, the city of Detroit was dealing with the aftermath of some of the worst race riots the country had ever seen. That year, the Kerner Commission, appointed by president Lyndon Johnson, placed the blame squarely on the way the police and the city government had handled the response. In this episode, Jeffrey Horner, a professor of urban studies at Wayne State University, speaks with Phillip about how race and class divisions met with economic and social upheaval to shape the city as it tried to rebuild... and also how the city shaped them, as they themselves grew up in Detroit at the time.

Read more in this accompanying article from Jeffrey Horner: Police killings of 3 black men left a mark on Detroit’s history more than 50 years ago

Music on this episode: Something to save" by Komiku, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1

“This tuning is so dramatic” by Monplaisir, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1

Archival audio WKNR Contact News - Detroit 1967

Address to the Nation Regarding Civil Disorder, 7/27/67. MP594.

Racism in America Small Town 1950s Case Study Documentary Film

Misconduct allegations mount inside Detroit Police Department

Police misconduct costing Detroit millions of dollars

Ex-DPD officers charged with misconduct

Detroit police officer charged with assault and misconduct in rough arrest at Meijer

Police brutality at Detroit Meijer 8 mile and Woodward

The Detroit 1967 Riots: A Community Speaks

In 1968 America, a country where interracial marriage had been legal nationwide for only a matter of months, the idea of romance between the races was still a controversial proposition. That made it all the more shocking when, in November of that year, William Shatner, a white man, kissed Nichelle Nichols, a black woman on the sci-fi show “Star Trek.” In this episode, Phillip discusses why the racial climate of 1968 made an interracial kiss seem so far-fetched that it caused a stir even when it took place on a show set centuries in the future with historian Matthew Delmont of Arizona State University. Delmont’s connection to the topic is more than academic – his parents, one white, one black, met in 1968. Warning: This episode contains a racial slur.

Read more in this accompanying article from Matthew Delmont: TV’s first interracial kiss launched a lifelong career in activism

And find out about other aspects of 1968 in other articles from The Conversation and our global sister sites on our website.

Music on this episode: “And never come back” by Soft and Furious, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1

Archival Audio: Star Trek_Kirk & Uhura kiss

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1/8) Movie CLIP - Pleased to Meet You (1967) HD

Supreme Court Clips - Loving v. Virginia - interracial marriage

Malcolm X in Speaks in Solidarity With the School Boycotts in NYC (1964)

In 1968 the “Norman Rockwell” picture of the American family – the husband as breadwinner, the stay-at-home wife and mother, two kids, a white picket fence – was still widely accepted as the ideal. But things were starting to change. The feminist movement was encouraging more women to enter the workforce and protest traditional American ideals of femininity – including the 1968 Miss America pageant. At the same time, the manufacturing jobs that employed many men were starting to move overseas. For many Americans this wasn’t just a change in the structure of the typical family – it was a sign that essential American values were in danger.

In this episode, Phillip talks with historian Natasha Zaretsky about how worries about the state of the American family led to fears about the decline of American society – and how this continues to galvanize conservatives across the country to this day. It’s a phenomenon Zaretsky has been driven to understand since her childhood in liberal San Francisco after she discovered the disdain many people around the country had for people like her activist parents, a dynamic that continues to fascinate her today as she teaches conservative students in Southern Illinois.

Read more in this accompanying article from Natasha Zaretsky: Red-state politics in and out of the college classroom

Music on this episode: “How to Evade a Place With No Wall” by Komiku, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1.0 “This Tuning Is So Dramatic” by Monplaisir, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1.0

Archival Audio: Ms. America, Up Against the Wall Ward Cleaver Teaches Walley About A Woman’s Place Women’s Movement 1960s-70s Bob Hope Christmas Special (1966) – Miss America, Vietnam Equal Rights Amendment Crowning of Miss America 1969 – Judy Ford President Reagan’s Radio Address on Family Values on December 20, 1986 Video rewind: May 19, 1992 – Dan Quayle vs. Murphy Brown Moyers Moment (1980): Jerry Falwell on The Equal Rights Amendment Anita Bryant - Save Our Children Campaign

The radical student takeover of Columbia University in 1968 sparked a worldwide student protest movement: From Eastern Europe to South America, students rose up against authoritarian governments, racial inequality and, most passionately, against the war in Vietnam. Host Phillip Martin talks to African American studies professor Stefan Bradley about how the Columbia uprising inspired similar events at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 28, 1968, and to historian Michael Kazin, who was arrested for his activism at that DNC.

Both guests were student organizers: Kazin orchestrated a takeover of Harvard University in the ‘60s, and Bradley combatted racial discrimination at Gonzaga University. Bradley was also on the ground in Ferguson, Missouri, among the young people protesting the killing of Michael Brown. He reflects on what current movements can learn from the protests of 1968.

Read more in this accompanying article from Stefan M. Bradley: 1968 protests at Columbia University called attention to ‘Gym Crow’ and got worldwide attention.

Music: “How to Evade a Place With No Wall” by Komiku, found on FreeMusicArchive.org, licensed under CC0 1.0.

Coming August 28th, The Conversation US presents Heat and Light: Stories from 1968, the year that changed America.

1968 was a year of huge social upheaval for the United States. We go deep into six key but lesser known stories from that year, guided by people who were personally affected by them. So much so that they have devoted their lives to studying the history of 1968 -- and how it continues to shape our society today.

From the students who challenged their schools' military connections and the tortured set up of American TV's first interracial kiss to the roots of Silicon Valley and the beginning of the end of the "traditional" American family. What was just heat? What brought light, too? Read more about 1968 on The Conversation's website.