Nixon won a second term four years later, but had to resign in nineteen seventy-four because of the Watergate scandal. Nixon's vice president, Gerald Ford, took his place. Two years later, Ford was defeated by Jimmy Carter, a Democrat who until then was little known nationally.

The election showed that Americans were angry with the Republican Party because of Watergate. But they soon became unhappy with President Carter. They blamed him for failing to improve the economy and for failing to end a crisis involving American hostages in Iran. He lost his re-election campaign to Ronald Reagan.

RONALD REAGAN: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

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President Ronald Reagan signs a major tax cut bill at his ranch near Santa Barbara, California

Reagan, a Republican, won two terms and led the nation during most of the nineteen eighties. For many people, the Reagan years offered a renewed sense of economic opportunity. Reagan reduced taxes, which increased his popularity. But the national debt grew as he raised military spending to put pressure on the Soviet Union.

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The self-centeredness of many people in the seventies and eighties gave rise to terms like the "me" generation." And there was the rise of "yuppies" -- young urban professionals remaking older neighborhoods in cities, often displacing poorer people.

Popular entertainment at that time was often about financial success.