America's best days

[SingingAnalyst]

What were/are America's best days? When was/is the best time to be an American, when did Americans have the most hope for the future, etc. I think our best days are yet to come, but in terms of sheer dreamworthiness I'd say 1966-1973, because of the moon landings, futurism, optimism, emphasis on science and improvement, etc. (especially early in the period, and despite all the obvious and not-so-obvious problems inherent in America during that time period).

I have excluded 1974-1986, the early 1990s, and the G.W. Bush years, because in my opinion, few would argue those were good times for America. (Though I have included an Other option).

Spolier alert: I was born in 1966, and have little interest in history from before I was born.

[Santander]

America stops being America when we believe its best days are not yet to come.

God isn't done with America yet.

[Bismarck]

I would say our best days were from after WW2 and continuing to the present, but if forced to pick a smaller segment of time I would say the Reagan-HWBush-Clinton years so I voted late eighties and Clinton years.

[Devout Centrist]

America stops being America when we believe its best days are not yet to come.

God isn't done with America yet.

That sounds like a threat

[Hindsight was 2020]

The Clinton years had Twin Peaks top that

[Inmate Trump]

America stops being America when we believe its best days are not yet to come.

God isn't done with America yet.

According to Comrade Trump, America hasn't been great for a long time.

Anyway, whatever the answer is, it's clear that our best days are behind us.  We are more and more a puppet state for Trump's man, Putin.

[Green Line]

America stops being America when we believe its best days are not yet to come.

God isn't done with America yet.

Amen.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

1945 to 1970.

[SWE]

All of history was terrible

[SingingAnalyst]

1945 to 1970.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. From 1945 to 1970 we defeated Nazi Germany; virtually ended legal segregation (but see Palmer v. Thompson); explored space; and landed men on the moon, learning a lot about our own Earth in the process (which would help the environmental movement).

I think you and I are both fully aware of the sins of that era (the Tuskegee experiments, the Vietnam War, forced sterlizations, etc.) but the overall movement of the country was in the right direction; science and knowledge were valued; and, for what it is worth, religious fundamentalism (at least among the urban and learned classes) reached an all-time low (probably in 1970).

[SingingAnalyst]

All of history was terrible

I'm sure you're a shining exception, SWE. :-)

[kyc0705]

The Clinton years had Twin Peaks top that

Twin Peaks was 1990–91, and H.W. Bush was president then. Anyway, if the new season turns out to be amazing, I'll point out that it was produced during the end of the Obama era, and therefore should be credited to him.

[dead0man]

future

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

1945 to 1970.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. From 1945 to 1970 we defeated Nazi Germany; virtually ended legal segregation (but see Palmer v. Thompson); explored space; and landed men on the moon, learning a lot about our own Earth in the process (which would help the environmental movement).

I think you and I are both fully aware of the sins of that era (the Tuskegee experiments, the Vietnam War, forced sterlizations, etc.) but the overall movement of the country was in the right direction; science and knowledge were valued; and, for what it is worth, religious fundamentalism (at least among the urban and learned classes) reached an all-time low (probably in 1970).

My focus is rather on the (at least perceived) availability of movement into the middle class, which I view as both particularly foundational to a stable and relatively comfortable lifestyle, yet at the same time sadly containing many of the elements which undermined this stability in the forty years to follow. It is rather sad that the "right" was willing to undermine this stability for the sake ideology; the left in this regard is not entirely blameless, however.

I have little attachment to perceptions of secularism; the rise of religious fundamentalism in the decades to follow could easily be seen as the product of such secularism.

[The_Doctor]

2030s - 2060s. America's technological, economic, and geopolitical dominance will be at at a peak after the troubled epoch between 2000-2030s. (And I do believe we are in a second American century)

[mvd10]

America's (and Europe's) best days always are ahead of us. Unless we talk about geopolitical dominance.

[Skill and Chance]

The future.  Thus far, it was clearly 1940-70.  Honorable mentions would be 1866-76 and 1900-10. 

[Technocracy Timmy]

Roughly 2028-2048 will be the next great American High similar to that of 1946-1964.

[Suburbia]

1980-2000.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

May 09, 1965 to Jan 20, 2017.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Whatever our best days were, they're behind us now and they ain't coming back.

[OSR stands with Israel]

America's (and Europe's) best days always are ahead of us. Unless we talk about geopolitical dominance.

[Skill and Chance]

America's (and Europe's) best days always are ahead of us. Unless we talk about geopolitical dominance.

Yeah, it's looking very bleak for Continental Europe going forward.  If growth stays as slow as it is there, there will basically be 2 classes of developed countries going forward, with the US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan (which seems to have finally fixed its long economic woes) in the top tier.  China will quickly join them if it ever gets a democratic government that recognizes fundamental rights.  Natural resource and food exports to Asia will get much more important in Western economies.  Having a Pacific coast will be an increasingly big deal.

The UK probably ends up halfway in between.  It does have a fighting chance at gaining economic ground in the coming decades, but it was flying so high in the 18th century that its best days are almost surely in the past.

And of course, there's the absolute carnage that likely awaits the wealthiest parts of the Middle East when electric cars take over the developed world.  The electricity doesn't even have to be generated by renewables for this to happen.  Shifting from oil to natural gas will be bad enough as North America would be the main exporter of gas.

[Skill and Chance]

Optimism has been on the wane for about fifty years.

Forget judgments about what is "best" for a moment. We know the figures on life expectancy, poverty, income, unemployment, access to consumer goods, percentage of adults with an effective right to vote, etc. What I think we can never understand is what history looked like to many well-educated people living in the United States between the Civil War and ~1968.

But back to the figures. Consider the numbers on mental illness. Consider the numbers on mortality. Consider the numbers on productivity. Consider the numbers on income, education, housing, student debt, personal savings, and medical costs. What do they say?

Their message is clear: For most of us, today is better than tomorrow will be.

Treading water isn't the same as decline, though.  Economically, we treaded water from the late 1870's to the 1890's and on civil rights and inequality things got much worse.  A bad 20 years can be recovered from.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, we sure as hell ain't living through them right now.

I'd say ca. 1935-1965. Starting with the New Deal and ending with the escalation of the Vietnam War. Except for blacks in the South for whom it weren't really the "best days". However, that period saw at least a string of presidents who started to remedy that situation. If we include minorities, I'd say 1980-2000 were the "best days".