Phenomenon associated with the political retrenchment following civil rights, women’s and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The backlash was first noted in the violent response of whites to SCLC’s 1966 march in Chicago, MI, followed by Nixon’s success drawing on the “Silent Majority” and the assault on busing. It is also seen as a reason for the failure of ERA, the growth of the anti-abortion movement and the rise of the “Moral Majority” during the Reagan era. Susan Faludi’s Backlash (1991) has examined the reaction against feminism, and numerous studies have outlined the problems facing the Democratic Party, given the loss of much of its New Deal coalition.

The backlash has been captured in several television series: first in All in the Family (CBS, 1971–83) with Archie Bunker representing a not-so-“Silent Majority”; then in the 1980s series, Family Ties (NBC, 1982–9), which pitted Alex Keaton’s political and social conservatism against his parents’ 1960s idealism.