Gary McDonogh. Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture
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Wallace
pointed the way with his “law-and-order” attacks on liberals, black militants,
hippies,
student activists and feminists. Richard
Nixon
modified Wallace’s appeal to his
Southern strategy of 1968 and proceeded to mobilize successfully his “Silent Majority”
hardhats in the name of patriotism, traditional moral values and racial
backlash
.
The Right flourished because the challenges posed by the 1960s and early 1970s were
so profound and, therefore, frightening (e.g. racial, gender and sexual-choice equalities, a
more permissive approach to sexuality language, dress, environmental constraints and
challenges to “my country right or wrong”). During the 1970s, the Right was augmented
b
y the rise of a religious Right under the leadership initially of Jerry Falwell and his
Moral Majority and by the emergence of the neo-conservatives, mostly ex-liberals
chastened by what they saw as the excesses of the 1960s. With the deepening economic
stagflation of the late 1970s, combined with foreign-
p
olicy crises, such as hostages in
Iran and Soviets in Afghanistan, the Right marched into power under the sunny Ronald
Reagan.
The end of the Cold War has fragmented the Right, as has the relative success of Bill
Clinton
’s New
Democratic
strategy of co-opting conservative issues like
crime
and
welfare
. The Right, since the high point of the 1994
Gingrich
congressional victory has
suffered from the mistrust between economic conservatives, mostly focused on pro-
business, anti-tax policies, and its cultural conservatives, intent on rolling back what they
perceive as secular humanism and cultural relativism.
Further reading
Brennan, M. (1995)
Turning Right in the Sixties,
Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press.
Judis, J. (1988)
William F.Buckley, Jr.,
New York: Simon & Schuster.
Nash, G. (1976)
The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America,
New York: Basic.
Siegel, F. (1984)
Troubled Journey,
New York: Hill and Wang.
PAUL LYONS
Ringgold, Faith
b. 1930
Painter, quilt-maker and storyteller. Ringgold has been particular notable in
transforming memories of and observations on the
African American
family, social life
and political economic context into vivid painted and stitched quilts intertwining
multiple, complex stories. These take black folk traditions into
museums
and, at the same
time, open them to new audiences as in her classic
children’s
story
Tar Beach
(1991)
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 966
(part of her “Woman on the Bridge” series in New York’s Guggenheim collection).
Raised in
Harlem,
Ringgold has become a global teacher and artist.
GARY McDONOGH
CINDY WONG
rivers
Early settlers in America clung to rivers to find safe ports, sustain settlements and then
open up the continental heartland. Rivers have provided lifelines for
trade
and
agriculture
and power for industry. With
deindustrialization,
they have opened vast
opportunities for recreation in post-industrial
cities
and
suburbs
. Villages, cities and
regions are bound to the identities of their waterways. Rivers also demarcate state and
international boundaries, like the wandering Rio Grande between the
Southwest
and
Mexico.
Early
Northeast
colonies depended on multiple exploitations of rivers—the Charles in
Boston,
the Hudson and the East River in
New York
City, the Delaware and Schuylkill
in
Philadelphia, PA
and the Savannah in
Savannah, GA
. Some rivers are connected to
fertile watersheds, while others became impassable as the land rose inland, producing
fall-line divisions in the societies of the
South
.
Further inland, twenty-two states are united by the Mississippi-Missouri system,
roughly 4,000 miles (6,400 km) in length. Tributaries like the Ohio and the Red River
linked cities and markets from
Pittsburgh, PA
to
St. Louis
to
New Orleans
. The
“mighty” Mississippi also influenced art, literature and other media, from Mark Twain to
the
musical
Showboat
or Pare Lorentz’s 1938
documentary
The River
.
In the dry
West,
the 1,400 mile (2,240 km) Colorado, which carved the Grand Canyon,
also sustained many Native American groups. Yet this river has been tamed for both
energy and the population demands of
Sunbelt
cities like
Phoenix, AZ
and
Los Angeles,
CA
. The Colorado now operates under a contentious seven-state compact representing
those who claim its water and hydroelectric power. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles River
has been reduced to concrete channels. The Columbia in Washington and the Sacramento
in Northern California also represent important Western watersheds.
The relationship of human and river has been transformed throughout the growth o
f
industrial America. Dams on the Niagara, above its majestic falls, and Hoover Dam on
the Colorado have powered regions; other dams have been used to control the devastating
floods of the MississippiMissouri system or to recreate the upper South through the
Tennessee Valley Authority
. Industrial pollution also killed off the aquatic life before
stricter pollution controls began to revitalize rivers as centers for boating,
fishing
and
even swimming. Hence, rivers have become landscapes for post-industrial development
from the Charles to Savannah. This has also led to movements to remove century-old
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dams and to reconstitute nature.
Human versus the river—running the rapids in Georgia in
Deliverance
(1972) or
fighting the floods of the Missouri in
The River
(1984)—has become an American
emblem of strength and endurance, while Robert Redford’s
A River Runs Through It
(1992) nostalgically explores family and love through fly-fishing in Montana. Rivers
figure in generations of popular songs (“Sewanee,” “Ol’ Man River,” Ike and Tina
Turner’s “Proud Mary”), reflective journals about
nature
and Sunday family outings.
Reflecting the bright lights of Manhattan, the red walls of the Grand Canyon, or the ivory
tranquillity of
Washington, DC,
rivers frame the image of American lives as well.
S
ee also:
waterfronts
GARY McDONOGH
road movies
Characteristically American genre synthesizing the road (the
automobile
or
motorcycle)
and a person’s individual quest for meaning and improvement. The road movie has a long
heritage in American literary quests
(Huckleberry Finn, Travels With Charley, On the
R
oad)
. It also has been adapted into other national cinemas in France, Australia, Germany
and Finland, while remaining deeply American.
While the postwar road movie shows special affinities with the
western,
we must
recognize other important filmic roots. These include the moving albeit comic quests o
f
Chaplin, Keaton and Preston Sturges’
Sullivan’s Travels
(1941). Frank Capra also used
road elements effectively in the comic
It Happened One Nïght
(1934) and in a more
somber vein in
Meet John Doe
(1941). The presence of comic and tragic elements
continues to challenge the boundaries of any genre classification.
In the postwar period, certain key movies demarcate complex changes in spectatorship
and meaning generation by generation. In the 1950s, for example, the road movie allows
the rebellion of
Brando
in the
Wild One
(1954). The 1960s extended this rebellion in the
nihilistic crime spree of
Bonnie and Clyde
(1967) or
Easy Rider
(1969), whose
motorcycle pilgrimage and violent denouement underscored the tensions of the decade.
After a spate of comedies (e.g.
Smokey and the Bandit,
1977) and interesting foreign
perspectives like Wim Wender’s
Paris, Texas
(1984), more reflexive road movies
returned with David Lynch’s
Wild at Heart
(1989). In the 1990s, this new take allowed
the genre to rethink
masculinity,
whether through the female liberty underpinning
Thelma and Louise
(1991) or the gay/hustler explorations of
My Own Private Idaho
(1991).
Further reading
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 968
Sergeant, J. and Watson, S. (1999)
Lost Highways: An Illustrated History of Road
Movies,
New York: Creation Books.
Cohan, S. and Hark, I. (1997)
The Road Movie Book,
London: Routledge.
GARY McDONOGH
CINDY WONG
roadside attractions
Alligator farms, tigers at
truck
stops,
homes
of historical personages and monuments o
f
kitsch, from giant animals to theme villages, grew up with and along American
highways
to service and amuse its mobile families. Offering respite for children and drivers, with
souvenirs,
fast food
and
motel
rooms, they also reflect generations and class in road
development. Those huddled along slow, two-lane roads seem quaint and crude beside
the sophisticated advertising of regional tourist boards, highway
hotels
and major
theme
parks
dominating interstate landscapes. Countless guides exist to both serious and tacky
stops somewhere between democracy and chaos.
GARY McDONOGH
Robeson, Paul
b. 1898; d. 1976
Landmark
African American
athlete, singer, actor and activist, Robeson also
epitomized the complexity of black elites in the late twentieth century. A preacher’s son,
he emerged as a scholarathlete at Rutgers, and combined acting with his work at
Columbia Law School. Becoming famous on stage and screen, he also became involved
with leftist and Africanist causes from the 1930s onwards. This led to red-
b
aiting in the
1940s and 1950s, including suspension of his passport (Robeson sued and won). In the
1960s, he became honored as an international leftist and paterfamilias of the
Civil Rights
movement
.
GARY McDONOGH
Robinson, Jackie
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b. 1919; d. 1972
An outstanding
college
athlete at UCLA, Jackie Robinson served in the Second World
War and received an honorable discharge after being court martialed for refusing to
conform to
segregation
in his army base. Later, he played professional
baseball
with the
Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues until recognized by Branch Rickey of the
Brooklyn Dodgers for his “great experiment” of desegregating major-league baseball.
Signed by the Dodgers organization in 1945, Robinson played for the minor-league
Montreal Royals. Joining the Dodgers in 1947, he became the first
African American
to
play major-league baseball, enduring opponents’ racist comments and runners’ attempts
to spike him with their cleats. Nevertheless, he went on to a
Hall of Fame
career with the
Dodgers and became a spokesperson for
civil rights
. The burden of the “great
experiment,” however, took its toll—he aged rapidly and died only fifteen years after
retiring from baseball.
ROBERT GREGG
Rockefellers
As proverbial measures of wealth in American society the Rockefeller family have cut a
b
road swath through American business, politics and philanthropy for more than a
century. The family’s wealth emerged with John D.Rockefeller, Sr (1839–1937), stern
founder of Standard Oil (1870) who came to monopolize oil refining and marketing,
b
ecoming the enemy of unions and antitrust legislation. Nonetheless, Rockefeller
established a health research institute (1901) that grew into the graduate science
Rockefeller University and the massive
foundation
that bears the family name (1913).
He donated over $500 million to education, medicine and religious projects. His son,
John D.Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960), in addition to his business interests, distributed
another $1 billion between 1917 and 1960, often to advance a Christian America. He also
built Rockefeller Center (1930–9), an art-deco
New York
City, NY landmark, patronized
historic preservation of colonial Williamsburg and provided the land for the UN
headquarters in Manhattan.
The family’s third generation turned to politics and public service, including the liberal
Republican leader Nelson (1912–73). Nelson Rockefeller was governor of New York
from 1953 to 1973, but his hesitation as well as liberal politics (and an unprecendented
divorce
) cost him the presidential nomination repeatedly. He was appointed vice-
president in 1974 when Gerald
Ford
succeeded Richard
Nixon
. John D.Rockefeller III
focused on philanthropy, Winthrop (1912–73) became
Republican
governor of Arkansas
(1967–71) and David became president of Chase Manhattan Bank.
The fourth generation of Rockefellers includes the liberal Democrat John
D.Rockefeller IV, who went to West Virginia as a VISTA volunteer but stayed to become
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 970
governor (1976–84) and senator (1985–). Other Rockefeller cousins have become
scientists, artists and philanthropists while dealing with the legacy of their name and
position. Unlike the more flamboyant and newer
Kennedy
family, the Rockefellers have
established an institutional structure in philanthropy, public service and education that
belies the
celebrity
of the wealthy while underscoring the discreet continuity o
f
American
upper classes
.
Further reading
Collier, P. and Horowitz, D. (1976)
The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty,
New York:
Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
GARY McDONOGH
rock ’n’ roll
The search for the origins of rock ’n’ roll leads into the thickets of American history
including tangles of
race
relations, population movements,
class
politics and
regionalisms
. This much is clear: rock ’n’ roll developed from the mixing of
African
Americans
and
white
rural folk musics in American
cities
after the Second World War.
Who deserves credit—and blame—remains disputed. The single indisputable fact about
the roots of rock ’n’ roll is the influence of African American musical forms, from Africa
through Southern churches to the
blues
to electrified
rhythm
and
blues
. Throw in the
crosspollination of white folk and
country musics,
and
jazz,
especially its swing and
j
ump-blues variations.
Dating the origins of rock ’n’ roll is no less difficult. Were Charlie Christian and T-
Bone Walker playing rock ’n’ roll guitar in 1940? Was “Rocket ’88” (1951) the first rock
’n’ roll record? Roy Brown’s “Good Rockin’ Tonight” (1947)? Listen to 1940s
recordings by Lionel Hampton or Hank Williams and you will hear at least hints of rock
’n’ roll, if not the real deal.
Part of the confusion comes from the fact that from the start (whenever that was) rock
’n’ roll already varied, especially by region, although with wartime and postwar mass
migration and mass media, no region remained self-contained for long. This cross-
fertilization, in fact, defined rock ’n’ roll. While Elvis
Presley
revered the bluesman
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup, Howlin’ Wolf listened to country yodeler Jimmie Rodgers.
Rather than focusing on rock ’n’ roll solely as a musical form, it is more productive to
see it as a social phenomenon created when white
teenagers
in
cities
and expanding
suburbs
began to listen to black music in large numbers. The signal moment for this
development came when disc jockey Alan Freed titled his Cleveland radio show the
Entries A-Z 971
M
oondog Rock ’n’ Roll House Party
(1952). Thereafter, racially mixed bands and
audiences gathered—not without controversy—in northern cities for gala performances.
Rock ’n’ roll, more than any other single cultural phenomenon, defined the new $10
billion a year teen market amid postwar affluence.
Rock ’n’ roll is also a business. Most early rock ’n’ roll was recorded and distributed
by small independent labels like Sun in Memphis and Chess in
Chicago
. Soon major
record labels, seeing the profits to be made, began to buy up artists’ contracts. Most
famously in 1956, RCA paid a then-staggering $35,000 to bring Elvis
Presley
into their
fold. Thereafter, Elvis was the King of rock ’n’ roll; his controversial performance on
The
E
d Sullivan Show
(where cameras only recorded his movement above the waist) signaled,
as the song goes, “Rock ’n’ roll is here to stay”
Within the business, racial exploitation and
segregation
abounded. Alan Freed’s name
appeared on the songwriting credits for Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline,” assuring radio play
and Freed’s share in the profits. Even more egregious were the lame, tame versions
recorded by white “artists,” most notoriously Pat Boone’s insipid cover of Little
Richard’s “Tutti Frutti.” The arrival of England’s
Beatles
on American shores in 1964
rescued rock ’n’ roll from the oblivion into which white crooners and corporate
executives had been steering it. Paying explicit homage to rock’s African American
pioneers, the Beatles placed rock ’n’ roll back on the American creative and social
landscapes.
Woodstock
(1969) signaled that rock ’n’ roll was central to a generation, an
entertainment industry and, indeed, American life. Since then the fusion of musical forms
which created rock ’n’ roll has proceeded apace, as every possible transmogrification
creative artists could come up with has continued constantly to revitalize rock ’n’ roll,
often when it seems most stagnant, and even when the purpose of rock ’n’ roll seems
increasingly to be no more than selling beer and cars.
Further reading
DeCurtis, A.
et al.
(1992)
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll,
New
York: Random House.
Palmer, R. (1995)
Rock & Roll: An Unruly History,
New York: Harmony.
DEWAR MACLEOD
Rockwell, Norman
b. 1874; d. 1978
Painter and illustrator. Rockwell’s mythic vision of America drew on and created
images of a smalltown world of insightful and emotional interactions, but he could also
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 972
extend this vision to encompass the human meanings of events as varied as homecomings
and school integration. His work came into American homes through masscirculation
magazines
like
Saturday Evening Post
and
Ladies’ Home Journal,
for which he
frequently created covers, leading many to dismiss it as popular kitsch. Recent critics
have nonetheless reevaluated both the works and their iconic meanings.
GARY McDONOGH
Rocky Mountain states
Eight states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and
Wyoming—encompass a territory larger than Western Europe (864,000 square miles),
shaped by the dramatic Rocky Mountains. This region encompasses the continental
divide, separating tributaries flowing to the Pacific from those that eventually feed into
the Gulf. It also holds Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Yet, despite mighty
rivers
like the Snake
and Colorado, water is a precious, contested commodity amid wide deserts and deep-
hewn canyons.
Known for vast open spaces, this region encompasses many
national parks
and
extensive lands dedicated to grazing for
ranches
as well as herds of elk, bison and deer.
In addition to agricultural resources, these states also have exploited subsurface riches,
including, coal, oil, natural gas, copper and uranium. Rights to these resources have often
p
itted environmentalists and federal regulators against citizens; responses have included
the
Wise Use movement
as well as anti-regulation politics creating conservative
Republican majorities in many areas.
Culturally and historically these states epitomize complex features associated with the
West, including its Native Americans (thirty tribes and 38 million acres of reservation
land) and the heritage of Spanish conquest. They have also sheltered later groups as
diverse as the
Mormons
and Basque sheep herders. Finally, these states are strongly
identified with
cowboys
and images of
freedom,
independence and relations to
nature
that have spurred interests by migrants escaping rustbelt cities, as well as more extreme
survivalists
and anti-government militias. These images often eclipse historical labor
struggles and quests for civil rights by Native Americans and
Hispanics
.
The Rockies have undergone intensive postwar development, spurred by
agriculture,
energy,
tourism
and federal intervention, including
highways
as well as high-tech
development. This has promoted the rapid growth of important capitals like
Denver, Las
Vegas
and
Salt Lake City
and an ever-stronger presence of these states in Congress and
national politics. Vacation centers from Jackson Hole and the Grand Tetons, Aspen and
other elite ski resorts to
Santa Fe
and
Southwestern
destinations have also appropriated
the beauty and solitude of the “natural” landscape. While resorts promote outdoor
activities, both winter and summer, professional teams in
basketball, baseball
and
Entries A-Z 973
football
have also found receptive homes in major metropolitan areas, alongside
universities, the arts and other cultural development.
The rugged, natural and heroic images of the Rockies permeate media, from
commercials for Coors beer (based in Colorado) to the romanticization of Montana in
films like Robert
Redford
’s
A River Runs Through It
(1992). Redford has also turned his
Sundance Institute and annual festival in Utah into a center for
independent film
. In the
1990s, narratives conveyed both nostalgia and change, as a fiercely independent region
faced rapid growth and celebrity status. These disruptions have evoked local questions
and the specter of
violence
and
hate crimes
against the backdrop of America’s heartland.
Further reading
Findlay, J. (1992)
Magic Lands,
Berkeley: University of California.
Sprague, M. (1967)
The Mountain States,
New York: Time.
GARY McDONOGH
rodeos
Rodeos probably emerged from friendly competitions of work skills among
cowboys
.
Although amateur and even junior competitions (through 4-H) highlight fairs throughout
the
West,
rodeos constitute a professional sport, controlled by the Rodeo Cowboys
Association. Regular events pit individual riders, rather than teams, against ranch
animals—riding bareback bulls, steer-wrestling (from horseback), calf-roping (from
horseback) and bronco-riding. Between these dangerous events, clowns and displays o
f
roping skill create a lively rhythm. In addition to their
individualism,
rodeos are also
highly masculine; although women competed as early as the 1920s, their participation in
modern rodeos is generally confined to barrelracing (a precision-speed competition).
Rodeos, as a symbol of the West and a sport, can be found in small towns, Angola State
Prison
(Louisiana) and Manhattan’s Madison Square Garden. They figure in
westerns
to
indicate both festive elements and the dangers of cowboy life.
GARY McDONOGH
Rodriguez, Richard
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture 974
b. 1944
Vocal critic of
affirmative action
and
bilingual education
in the 1970s and 1980s.
Known for elegant, poetic prose, his autobiographical essays are widely used in college
composition classes. His
coming of age,
Americanization apologia in
Hunger of Memory
(1982) solidified his status as cultural traitor for
Chicanos
/
as
and
Left
critics, but was
p
raised by conservatives and mainstream critics for its courageous and painful reflections
on Mexican cultural and Spanish
language
loss. In
Days of Obligation
(1992) and other
essays Rodriguez intensifies his ironic complications of various cultural identities with
his own
queer
sexual identification and sensibility.
RANDY A.RODRIGUEZ
Roe
v.
Wade
Controversial 1973 decision of the US
Supreme Court
announcing women’s
constitutional right to an
abortion
based on the 14th Amendment’s right to
privacy
.
Adopting a much-criticized trimester analysis, the court struck down
Texas’
at criminal
abortion legislation (and, by inference, those of other states) outlawing all abortions
except those necessary to save the mother’s life. The decision denounced as
unconstitutional laws that restricted a woman’s right to an abortion during the first
trimester of pregnancy, but permitted states limited regulatory rights in the second
trimester and allowed complete proscription of abortions in the third trimester, after the
fetus reached viability.
MARY-CHRISTINE SUNGAILA, ESQ.
Roman Catholics
The Roman Catholic Church, the largest Christian denomination in the world, is also the
largest single church in the United States, with approximately one-quarter of the
population as members. Adherents tend to be more numerous in the
Northeast,
the
Great Lakes/Midwest
and the
Southwest/California,
with fewer members in the
South
and in the Plains states, though shifting economic growth has altered this pattern
somewhat. Additionally large influxes of Catholic
Hispanics
have emigrated from
Mexico and areas of Central and South America into the Southwest and other areas of the
country with the total population of adherents in the United States growing over the last
decades.
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