America was a healthier society, they believe. There was no feminist or environmentalist movement as we now understand them. The civil-rights revolution was in its infancy. Immigration was at a low ebb, and nearly all Americans were born here. Most folks went to church every Sunday. Men were men and women were women, with no gray area. Men went off to work while women stayed home to raise 3.5 children. Hierarchies were stable; people knew their place. And Americans (the ones who mattered, anyway) were unabashedly patriotic because they knew that their country was a good and virtuous nation.