The Mood of America: 1962

With America weeks away from a nuclear standoff with the Russians, a Post writer quizzed more than 500 Americans about the future.

Conducting his cross-country study of Americans’ attitudes, reporter Alsop interviews Barbara Diamond on a Chicago street. (Photo by Ollie Atkins)

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—From “The Mood of America” by Stewart Alsop, from the September 22, 1962, issue

On the whole they are optimists. Most of them think they are better off than they were, and by a big majority they think we can avoid a nuclear war. And yet they are also in an oddly troubled and self-questioning mood. A surprising number of them seem to feel that somehow, somewhere, America has lost something — a sense of purpose, a sense of right and wrong, a sense of home and family.

 

Read the entire article “The Mood of America” by Stewart Alsop from the September 22, 1962 issue of The Saturday Evening Post

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