The basis of existentialism begins with the simple thought of “leading one's life”. Throughout the 20th century, existentialism (though unacknowledged) swept the nation and had its greatest effect on the course of American history. For years the country had focused more on the pace of building an economy and industrial development. Yet, starting with feminism, the existentialist movement was echoed through the words of Simone de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan. Then there was the denial of freedom for major racial groups such as African Americans and other groups such as Native Americans and the LGBT community; whose rights to equal citizenship and treatment shed light in that period. Existentialism changed American culture, taking it from the black and white traditions to the colorful years of the 60s and 70s, where the ideal brought the most changes. The "second wave" of feminism emerges for the first time with the existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and her book "Ethical Ambiguity" in which she expresses "how the human is always already limited by the brute facts of his existence...