Generation Formation in the Post-War Era: The Impact of Civil Rights and Vietnam War Memories

• In Event: 2483 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 08. Narratives and Storytelling

Abstract

This study examines the effects of collective memories of civil rights and Vietnam War on the formation of generation. Formative years hypothesis suggests that experience of historical events in the late adolescence and early adulthood creates a generation’s collective identity. Previous studies have examined how collective memory is formed by people’s shared experiences in their formative years, but they have rarely paid attention to collective memory’s role in shaping people’s attitudes and behaviors. Using 1993 General Social Survey, this study examines how Americans’ racial attitudes and voting behaviors in the presidential elections in 1988 and 1992 were affected by the memories of civil rights and Vietnam War in their critical ages, taking into consideration the external impact of education. This paper finds that the role of education in recalling the historical events in the post-war era was stronger than the effect of a generation. While civil rights memory had a generation effect on support for racial liberalism (Griffin and Bollen 2009), Vietnam War memory shows the generation effect on voting for liberal Democratic candidates in the presidential elections. These findings contribute further understanding of the role of a generation in American politics.

Author

• Joonghyun Kwak, University of Connecticut