America After The Cold War The First 30 Years by Patrick N. Allitt

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Professor Patrick N. Allitt
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Emory University
Patrick N. Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American

History at Emory University. He received his PhD in American
History from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor
Allitt is the author of five scholarly books, numerous articles
and reviews for academic and popular journals, and a memoir
about his life as a college professor. A longtime Great Courses
lecturer, Professor Allitt’s other courses include American
Religious History, The American Identity, The Industrial
Revolution, and The American West: History, Myth, and Legacy.
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Patrick N.
Allitt, PhD
Cahoon Family Professor
of American History After graduating from Hertford
College at the University of
Emory University
Oxford, Professor Allitt earned
his PhD in American History
at the University of California,
Berkeley. He was a Henry
Patrick N. Allitt is the Cahoon Luce Postdoctoral Fellow at
Family Professor of American Harvard Divinity School, where
History at Emory University, he specialized in American
where he also served as the Religious History, and he was
director of Emory’s Center also a fellow at the Princeton
for Teaching and Curriculum. University Center for the Study
He was raised in Mickleover, of Religion.
England, and he attended
John Port School in the Professor Allitt is the author
Derbyshire village of Etwall. of five scholarly books: A
i
Climate of Crisis: America in A longtime Great Courses

the Age of Environmentalism; lecturer, Professor Allitt’s other
The Conservatives: Ideas courses include The Rise and
and Personalities throughout Fall of the British Empire;
American History; Religion in The Conservative Tradition;
America since 1945: A History; American Religious History;
Catholic Converts: British and Victorian Britain; The History of
American Intellectuals Turn to the United States, 2nd Edition
Rome; and Catholic Intellectuals (with Professors Allen C. Guelzo
and Conservative Politics in and Gary W. Gallagher); The
America, 1950–1985. In addition, American Identity; The Art of
he is the editor of Major Teaching: Best Practices from a
Problems in American Religious Master Educator; The Industrial
History and author of a memoir Revolution; The American West:
about his life as a college History, Myth, and Legacy;
professor, I’m the Teacher, and The Great Tours: England,
You’re the Student: A Semester Scotland, and Wales.
in the University Classroom. He
has written numerous articles Professor Allitt’s wife, Toni, is a
and reviews for academic and Michigan native, and his daughter
popular journals, including book Frances, a graduate of Emory,
reviews in The Spectator and now lives and works in London.
The Weekly Standard.
ii

Table of Contents
Introduction
Professor Biography�� i
Lectures
1 1990: America’s New World Order��4
2 The Clintons and the 1990s��13
3 A New Millennium, George W. Bush, and 9/11��23
4 The US Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq��31
5 The US Economy: Long Boom to Big Crash �� 40
6 Obama, Hope, and Polarization �� 48
7 African American Paradoxes after 1990��57
8 Science and Technology in the Internet Age�� 65
9 US Energy Independence and Climate Change ��74
10 Putting US Education to the Test after 1990�� 84
11 A New Golden Age of American Culture �� 91
12 The Trump Upset�� 98
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iii

America
after the Cold War
The First 30 Years
American history since the end with their help, to reverse the
of the Cold War is a fascinating, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991.
complicated story that
historians have only just begun Democrat Bill Clinton won the
to piece together. It combines election of 1992 with a campaign
marvelous achievements in focused on the economy. He
science, technology, and the declared his intention to “end
arts with an economic roller welfare as we know it” and
coaster and political blunders. did just that with legislation
This combination of successes, of 1996. The Republicans were
new challenges, and outright pushing him further to the right.
failures is the topic of this During his second term in office,
course’s 12 lectures. President Clinton’s philandering
led to impeachment for lying to
The Cold War ended peacefully Congress about an extramarital
in 1989 when the Soviet Union affair with White House intern
decided to abandon its client Monica Lewinsky. He survived
states in Eastern Europe, it. His wife Hillary stood by
permitting the demolition of her unruly husband and, as he
the Berlin Wall. The American left office, began her career in
president, George H. W. Bush, electoral politics.
shrewdly avoided the rhetoric
of victory. America retained its George W. Bush, son of the
commitment to allies around the earlier President Bush, won the
world and intervened decisively, closest election in American
1
history in 2000 after a recount unemployment spiked, and the

in Florida that the Supreme economy contracted. Democrat
Court finally settled in his favor. Barack Obama became the first
Ten months later, al-Qaeda African American to win the
terrorists flew jetliners into the presidency. Like his predecessor,
World Trade Center and the President Obama injected
Pentagon, killing almost 3,000 hundreds of billions of dollars in
people. The Bush administration stimulus funds into the economy,
retaliated against al-Qaeda and propping up banks, corporations,
its protectors, the Taliban, in and insolvent homeowners.
Afghanistan. American forces
won early successes but could The African American
not prevail in the roadless population was split into a
mountain interior. thriving middle class, of whom
President Obama and his
In 2003, President Bush wife Michelle were the ideal
undertook a second military representatives, and a large
adventure, invading Iraq to underclass, many of whom
depose its dictator, Saddam were chronically unemployed,
Hussein. The American invasion incarcerated, or addicted to
force quickly destroyed drugs. Their vulnerability to
the Iraqi army and seized police brutality sparked a new
the capital, Baghdad, but movement: Black Lives Matter.
searchers for Hussein’s alleged
weapons of mass destruction The technology revolution
found nothing. Before long, a of these three decades led
lethal insurgency was making from personal computers to
reconstruction impossible. smartphones and social media.
Miracles of miniaturization
A prolonged economic boom created previously unthinkable
paused in 2000 and ended levels of efficiency and
with the banking crash of 2008, sophistication. At the same
followed by the Great Recession. time, fears of global warming
Five percent of American stimulated rapid advances in
homeowners lost their property, sustainable solar and wind
2
Course Scope
power. Electric vehicles and Meanwhile, political polarization

the prospect of driverless cars increased, its most startling
began to promise a safer and outcome being the 2016 election
cleaner future. victory of Donald Trump, who had
no political experience and aimed
American education during this to defy all conventions. He was
period featured superb world- loved by a loyal base of voters
leading research universities for who were sick of Washington
the elite but only second-rate politics, but the day after his
schooling for the rest, which inauguration saw marches by
bold bipartisan federal policies millions who thought of him as a
did little to improve. At the same sexual predator at a time when
time, however, American wealth women were becoming more
and freedom made these golden politically influential.
years for creativity in literature,
architecture, art, and music. Bad news or good, this was the
history that created the world in
which we live today.
3
1
1990: America’s
New World Order
History is full of surprises. In 1988, no one
knew that the long Cold War was about
to come to a sudden end. American
universities were full of so-called
Sovietologists, while the CIA, Defense
Department, State Department, and
National Security Council all kept a close
watch on events in Eastern Europe, Russia,
and its satellite republics.
Lecture 1 ¬ 1990: America’s New World Order
Setting the Stage

independence. It was not long
American observers could see before Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia,
that the Soviet Union was no Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, and other
match economically for the Central Asian republics were also
West, that no one believed declaring their independence and
in communism any longer, electing their own governments.
and that decay, drunkenness,
and disillusionment were If an entire planet can breathe
widespread. They could see that a sigh of relief, this was the
a ruinous and failed intervention moment for it. The terrifying
in Afghanistan had bled threat of an exterminating
Soviet armies and prompted nuclear war had helped freeze
widespread desertion. However, the Cold War in place. Each side
they were slow to recognize had been capable of destroying
that Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet the other, and both knew it. The
premier since 1986, was not weapons did not disappear, but
willing to use force to preserve the geopolitical situation that
the Soviet Empire. had kept the world on the edge
of disaster did.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came
down amid scenes of rejoicing
and reconciliation. East and
The New World
West Berliners mingled freely for Presiding over America at the
the first time since 1961. Before start of the 1990s was President
long, Germans from both sides George H. W. Bush. He had
were planning reunification. defeated Michael Dukakis in
the election of 1988. During the
Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, early years of his presidency,
and Romania rejected the he did everything he could to
one-party tyrannies that had help smooth the breakup of the
ruled them since the late 1940s. Soviet empire in Eastern Europe.
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, He befriended Gorbachev,
swallowed up by Stalin during avoided triumphal rhetoric, and
the days of his alliance with carried on the strategic arms-
Hitler, finally regained their
5
limitation process that had demonstrations in 1989, took the
begun in the 1970s. opposite road from Gorbachev.
Soldiers massacred pro-
The pace of events had taken democracy demonstrators in
him, like most others, by Tiananmen Square that summer.
surprise. He was astonished
when Russia itself rejected Other tyrannical states saw
communism and elected a the end of the Cold War as a
government of its own under potential opportunity. The first
Boris Yeltsin, relegating state to make a bold move was
Gorbachev to the sidelines. Iraq. During the 1980s, its leader,
Saddam Hussein, had made war
Remaining on neighboring Iran, a conflict in
Tyrannical Regimes which three-quarters of a million
men were killed. The United
There were still plenty of States had aided him out of
tyrannical regimes. To take the antagonism to the Iranian regime.
largest example, the Chinese
government, faced with massive
6
Hussein then provoked the first trade sanctions and warned

post–Cold War international Hussein that if his armies did not
crisis by invading neighboring evacuate Kuwait, they would be
Kuwait in August 1990. This ejected by force.
raised the question of how
America should react. Some Sanctions alone proved
Americans in Bush’s party, insufficient. In January 1991,
notably Patrick Buchanan, UN forces, led by America,
argued that the end of the Cold began air raids against key Iraqi
War should usher in a new era of targets. Hussein still refused to
isolationism. Others, such as the evacuate Kuwait, so a ground
neoconservatives William Kristol force entered the country from
and Robert Kagan, saw the end Saudi Arabia.
of the Cold War as the perfect
opportunity for America to The size of the UN force and the
spread its values and institutions sophistication of its advanced
around the world. weapons made the outcome
of this campaign a foregone
conclusion. Attacking Baghdad
Opposing Hussein as well as the Iraqi forces in
President Bush and his cabinet Kuwait, they knocked out enemy
decided that Hussein could not radar almost at once and forced
be permitted to take over Kuwait their enemy to fight blind. In the
unopposed. Elements of Iraq’s biggest tank battle since World
army, which was almost 1 million War II, the US showed Iraq that
men strong, stood on the borders numbers were no match for
of Saudi Arabia, threatening superior quality, and that to
the oil fields—and therefore the lose control of the air and of
economic stability—of the entire communications was to lose the
Middle East. war itself.
The US called on the United

Nations to condemn the
After the Attack
invasion. It did so. The UN When Kuwait was free of Iraqi
coalition also imposed severe soldiers, American leaders
7
glimpsed the possibility of would precipitate another crisis

pursuing them to Baghdad and 12 years later.
overthrowing Hussein’s regime
once and for all. President Still, the decisive intervention in
Bush, however, took the view Kuwait put second-rate powers
that overthrowing Hussein around the world on notice
would exceed the specified that America was not going to
UN objective. It would embroil allow them to invade their weak
the United States in a long and neighbors. It would continue to
costly state-building operation play policeman, at least in areas
in Iraq for which it was not that seemed strategically vital.
well equipped.
The aftermath of the war was

Yugoslavia Splintered
certainly nasty enough to Two more crises, under
support the idea that the US had President Bush and President
missed a golden opportunity. Bill Clinton, tested this
With American encouragement, principle. The former country
Kurdish fighters in the north of of Yugoslavia broke into six
the country and Shiites in the different miniature nations after
south tried to overthrow the the Cold War: Croatia, Bosnia
suddenly weakened Hussein. and Herzegovina, Slovenia,
He still had sufficient forces to Macedonia, Montenegro, and
crush these rebellions, however. Serbia. The area contained
Thousands of Shiites died, a volatile combination of
and thousands more Kurds populations whose ethnic
fled across the border into the differences and ancient hatreds
Turkish mountains. American were intensified by a three-
troops nearby did nothing. way religious division among
Hussein also made it difficult Muslims, Orthodox Christians,
for United Nations inspectors and Roman Catholics.
to visit the facilities in which
his scientists were suspected of Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian
working to build chemical and leader, aimed to dominate the
nuclear weapons. These issues rest, attacking Croatia and the
8
Muslim population of Bosnia rule. Serbia replied with bloody

in 1991. Then he began an repression and further atrocities.
extermination policy against The fighting generated nearly 1
the Muslims, reviving fears of a million refugees.
new Holocaust. Both American
presidents, Bush and then Clinton, President Clinton’s new
were reluctant to intervene. secretary of state, Madeline
Albright, favored decisive
Finally, Milosevic’s mass action against Milosevic. In
murder of Muslims in the 1999, American aircraft again
city of Srebrenica prompted bombed Serbian troops and
President Clinton to agree to a headquarters, killing several
NATO intervention. American thousand Serbians and forcing
air raids forced Milosevic to them to call off their campaign
accept a ceasefire, followed in Kosovo.
by negotiations in Dayton,
Ohio. America’s secretary of
state, Warren Christopher,
Rwanda
presided. Also present was one During the Cold War, the so-
of America’s most experienced called Third World had referred
diplomats, Richard Holbrooke. to places where the American
and Soviet blocs saw themselves
as competing for influence. After
After Dayton the Cold War, their strategic
The Dayton Accords of 1995, significance shrank. This was
formalized later as a treaty, the fate of Rwanda, a small East
partitioned the little country of African country enduring civil
Bosnia and Herzegovina into war in the early 1990s.
Serb areas on the one hand and
Muslim-Croatian areas on the Members of the Hutu tribe
other. A fragile peace returned massacred more than half
to the area. In 1997, however, a million of their rivals, the
the ethnic Albanian population Tutsis, in the spring and
of Kosovo, in southern Serbia, summer of 1994. More than 2
rebelled against Milosevic’s million refugees fled the area,
9
destabilizing what was already military aid and turning it into a

one of the poorest and most regional superpower.
politically volatile parts of the
world. The United States did Each generation of American
nothing. The Clinton cabinet politicians since 1948 had
did not even meet to discuss sought to bring peace to the
the situation, because this area region and permanent security
of the world had no strategic to Israel. That was difficult:
significance. The president later The Arab governments and
expressed remorse over hundreds of thousands of
his inaction. Palestinian refugees found it
impossible to regard the United
States as neutral.
Massive Spending
At the end of the Cold War, Israel, after its victory in the
America was spending over $30 Six-Day War of 1967, had
million per hour on its armed occupied parts of the West
forces, and the country budgeted Bank of the Jordan River, the
more on defense than its next six Golan Heights in the northeast,
closest rivals combined. and the Gaza Strip in the
southwest. These were areas
that the United Nations had
Israel designated as Arab territories.
Friends as well as enemies By building Jewish settlements
could cause difficulties. One in these occupied territories,
was Israel. Founded in 1948, it Israel had signaled its intention
had had to fight for its life right of staying. These settlements
from the outset, and it emerged reduced the likelihood of a
victorious from a succession permanent peace agreement.
of wars against its Arab
neighbors. The United States Even so, President Jimmy Carter
had developed into Israel’s best had succeeded in brokering
friend in the world, sending it peace between Israel and Egypt
billions of dollars in financial and at Camp David in 1978. The
peace endured. In 1993, the Oslo
10
Accords raised hopes that a with Israel, again in President
more durable peace would come Clinton’s presence. However,
from Israel, recognizing the none of these steps translated
right of the Palestine Liberation into durable peace for the
Organization (PLO) to represent region. Too many irreconcilable
the Palestinians and to govern people on both sides made sure
the West Bank and Gaza. that fighting would continue, a
point that was underlined when
In return, the PLO had to Rabin was assassinated by an
recognize Israel’s right to exist, Israeli religious extremist, Yigal
something it had never done Amir, in 1995.
before. Israeli prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader When President Clinton
Yasser Arafat signed an brought Yasser Arafat and
agreement to this effect in the Israeli prime minister Ehud
presence of President Clinton. Barak together at Camp David
in 2000, they were unable to
The following year, King Hussein
of Jordan also made peace
11
resolve outstanding difficulties whose phenomenal economic

relating to the settlements, growth was not accompanied by
to whether Palestinians from progress with human rights.
around the world had a right
to return to lands inside Israel
Suggested Reading
that were once occupied by
their ancestors, and over the Herring, The American Century
division and governance of East and Beyond.
Jerusalem. The meeting’s failure
set off more than four years of Lowry, The Gulf War Chronicles.
violent Palestinian resistance,
Service, The End of the Cold War.
known as the Second Intifada.
Questions to Consider
Conclusion 1. Which was more important
A new, US-led world order had in ending the Cold War:
come into being—except where Mikhail Gorbachev’s
it had not. The Soviet threat had reluctance to fight or
vanished so completely that the American military and
Russian president Yelstin ran economic superiority?
for reelection in 1996 with US
support. NATO had expanded 2. Why did the US intervene
into Eastern Europe, and in Middle Eastern politics
democracies were springing up during the 1990s but not
worldwide. However, the US was to prevent the Rwandan
powerless to influence China, genocide?
12
2
The Clintons
and the 1990s
George Bush’s Democratic challenger in the
election of 1992 was Governor Bill Clinton of
Arkansas. Born in 1946, he eventually earned
a place at Yale Law School in 1970. There,
he met Hillary Rodham, a recent Wellesley
graduate and fellow law student. Here began
a long, turbulent, and fascinating relationship.
The Clintons in the Buildup to the

1970s and 1980s 1992 Campaign
After graduation, Hillary Clinton Democratic Party leaders saw
worked briefly on Capitol Hill Bill Clinton as a potential winner,
during the Watergate crisis. especially in the wake of the
When President Nixon resigned good speeches he made at the
in 1974, she agreed to follow Bill conventions of 1984 and 1988.
back to Arkansas, where they The Democratic candidates in
married in 1975. those two campaigns, Walter
Mondale and Michael Dukakis,
He was elected the state’s both lost badly.
attorney general in 1976 and
became governor in 1978, aged In 1992, Bill Clinton used the
just 32. He lost a reelection bid campaign slogan “opportunity,
in 1980 but regained the office responsibility, and community.”
two years later. He held it for These were code words for
the next 10 years. For the sake favoring capitalism and refusing
of his career, Hillary was forced to coddle welfare recipients,
to soft-pedal her liberal and while also maintaining the
feminist ideals and abandon her necessary minimum of social
original plan to keep her last services and programs.
name. She also endured frequent
infidelities on his part, by which To show that he was tough on
he jeopardized his future. crime, Bill Clinton broke off
from his campaign for the New
Reckless or not, Bill Clinton Hampshire primary in early
had great political gifts, 1992, returning to Arkansas to
including a phenomenal ability supervise the execution of Ricky
to remember names and faces. Ray Rector, who had murdered a
Gregarious and extroverted, policeman and been condemned
he spoke well in public. In to death. Rector was severely
the late 1980s, he became a mentally impaired and,
central figure in the Democratic according to eyewitnesses, did
Leadership Council (DLC). not realize that he was about
14
Lecture 2 ¬ The Clintons and the 1990s
to be killed. Nevertheless, the eccentric billionaire candidate

execution took place as planned. named Ross Perot, who ran as
an independent and financed
A few days later, Clinton’s his own campaign. Perot said
campaign almost foundered in he opposed career politicians,
the face of allegations about government deficits, and the
his affair with a nightclub North American Free
singer named Gennifer Flowers. Trade Agreement.
Seeking to minimize the
damage, both Clintons appeared For a few astonishing weeks in
on 60 Minutes. June 1992, Perot led both Bush
and Bill Clinton in the polls.
The candidate admitted to the However, he bizarrely dropped
interviewer that he had been out of the race. He reentered
less than perfect as a husband, it later in the summer, now
but he avoided specifics. When weakened, but still managed
the interviewer described their to win 19 percent of the vote,
marriage as an “arrangement,” the strongest showing by any
however, Clinton angrily independent candidate in US
replied: “You’re looking at two history. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton
people who love each other. achieved a strong majority of
This is not an arrangement the Electoral College, despite
or an understanding. This is winning only 43 percent of the
a marriage.” popular vote.
Bill Clinton on the President Clinton’s

Campaign Trail Early Days in Office
Bill Clinton was more articulate President Clinton was
and more persuasive than Bush inaugurated in January 1993
during the campaign and in at the age of 46. His eight
the preelection debates. The predecessors had all been
economy’s slow recovery from shaped by World War II, but
a recession in 1990 and 1991 President Clinton belonged to
helped Clinton. It also helped an the Baby Boom generation.
15
Now, as president, he had to gay soldiers and sailors and
meet regularly with the Joint would defy him if it came to a
Chiefs of Staff, led at first by confrontation. The president
General Colin Powell. backed down. Less noticed
at the time, but also more
President Clinton’s intention to effective, was his partnership
let openly gay people serve in with Federal Reserve chairman
the armed forces did nothing to Alan Greenspan to reduce
improve the generals’ opinion the US government deficit—a
of him. Homosexuality was still partnership that persisted
widely taboo to much of the throughout his years in office.
public in the early 1990s and was
even more stigmatized because
of the severe AIDS epidemic,
Health-Care Reform
which was then at its height. Health-care reform was one
of President Clinton’s main
General Powell told President goals. Ever since Harry Truman
Clinton that the armed services in the mid 1940s, Democratic
would not accept openly presidents had been trying to
16
introduce universal health care further limiting President

of the kind now widespread Clinton’s chance to put his ideas
in Europe. With equal into practice.
determination, an alliance of
doctors, drug makers, and Earlier that year, he had signed
insurance companies—all the largest crime bill in US
strongly invested in the status history, with almost $10 billion
quo—had worked to prevent it. for new prisons and $6 billion
Creating a coalition to overcome for prevention, but it had also
their resistance would take included a 10-year ban on
consummate political skill. assault weapons, despite urgent
warnings from Senate Democrats
Hillary Clinton got the job. She that it might cost them reelection.
assembled a team of policy It was also an election in which
analysts and health-care experts young people and minorities
to draft the legislation. Few turned out in low numbers,
observers doubted her intellect, while far more men than women
but many doubted her political showed up to the polls.
acumen. To her detractors, she
was the living embodiment of The exultant Republicans now
big-government elitism. She tried to put into practice the
lacked the capacity to win over “Contract with America,” the
skeptics and soothe her critics’ manifesto they had published
fears. As a result, she and the six weeks before election day.
president failed to generate the They pledged to cut taxes and
necessary majorities in Congress, spending, shrink the bloat of
and the reform effort died. the federal government, fight
crime, and dismantle the welfare
state. They proposed to pass 10
Midterm Elections new laws in their first 100 days.
The midterm elections of 1994 Their spokesman, Congressman
transformed American politics, Newt Gingrich, became the new
giving the Republicans control speaker of the House
of the House and Senate for of Representatives.
the first time in 42 years, and
17
Timothy McVeigh
budget proposal, Gingrich
In April 1995, an angry right- refused to yield. The federal
wing activist named Timothy government ran out of money
McVeigh drove a van full and was forced to shut down,
of explosives to the federal an unprecedented situation that
government building in threw several million middle-
Oklahoma City and blew it up, class people out of work.
half-demolishing the structure.
The attack killed 168 people and A brief compromise was
wounded nearly 1,000 more. followed by another shutdown,
Nineteen of the dead were during which President Clinton
children in the building’s day- and Gingrich each hoped the
care center. other man would get the blame.
Gingrich lost this confrontation
If anyone benefited from this when mass-circulation
horrible affair, it was President newspapers and TV channels
Clinton. The bomber was a radical said that he was motivated in
right-winger, and much of his part by petty personal motives.
language about big government
and taxes echoed the rhetoric of
Newt Gingrich. This combination
The Economy
could hardly have suited The 1990s was the decade when
President Clinton better. the internet began to increase
millions of Americans’ access
to information. The dot-com
A Budget Impasse boom accelerated as billions of
Later that year, President Clinton dollars were plowed into high-
and Gingrich came to an impasse tech startups, not all of which
over the federal budget. Both were thought out well. This era
sides favored a reduction in witnessed the rise of countless
government spending and the new businesses and stimulated
eventual goal of a balanced high levels of employment,
budget, but President Clinton especially for more educated
planned to get there more slowly. Americans. At the bottom of
When he vetoed a Republican the economy, by contrast, were
18
the chronically unemployed and In 1996, the president signed

underemployed, including long- welfare reform in the form of
term welfare recipients. the Personal Responsibility
and Work Opportunity
Republicans always used Reconciliation Act. His decision
Democrats’ support for the caused rancorous disagreement
welfare state as a weapon among Democratic leaders.
against them, alleging that a
class of idle shirkers lived off
welfare at the expense of hard-
The Defense of
working taxpayers. An unspoken Marriage Act
but unmistakable implication In the same year, also under
was that these idlers were black. pressure from the Republicans,
President Clinton signed the
President Clinton’s generation of Defense of Marriage Act. The
Democrats saw welfare reform law, which in 2013 would be
as a way to dislodge the stigma found unconstitutional by the
of coddling the lazy and to show Supreme Court, did not prohibit
that they still had much to offer states from recognizing gay
members of the white middle marriages, but it left them the
class in terms of responsible, option of denying recognition
budget-conscious government. to gay married couples from
other states. It also prevented
the federal government
from recognizing same-sex
marriages, making married
A Proud President gay people ineligible for the
President Clinton wrote marriage tax benefit.
of welfare reform proudly
in his memoirs, claiming
that it “changed the The Second
incentives in the welfare
system from dependence Term Begins
to empowerment In November 1996, President
through work.” Clinton won a second term,
though his party did not regain
19
control of either house of suing President Clinton for

Congress. So far, he had also sexual assault in a separate case,
escaped Republican attempts to subpoena Lewinsky.
to discredit him for alleged
fraud during his governorship After talking with President
of Arkansas (the so-called Clinton by phone, Lewinsky
Whitewater controversy). signed an affidavit claiming that
However, persistent rumors she had never had sex with him.
about his sex life continued Investigators now suspected
to swirl around Washington that he was arranging a cover-
DC, and a special prosecutor, up and that he had urged her to
Kenneth Starr, was burrowing perjure herself.
into his past.
Hillary Clinton, struggling to
In 1998, the simmering rumors defend her husband on television,
came to a boil with revelations said the story had been cooked
that he had had an affair with up by what she described as
a White House intern, Monica a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
Lewinsky, in 1995 and 1996. She was almost certainly
Lewinsky had been an unpaid aware, however, that there was
22-year-old at the time, though substance to the rumors.
by now she had a paid full-time
job at the Pentagon. She had Later that year, President
befriended Linda Tripp, another Clinton was forced to testify to
former White House staffer. a grand jury. At this point, he
admitted that he had been, as
Tripp secretly recorded a he put it, “physically intimate”
series of late-night phone with Lewinsky but said that they
conversations with Lewinsky, had not actually had sex.
some of them very revealing.
A website named the Drudge
Report then published the
The Scandal Continues
story, based on these tapes. It Public opinion, meanwhile, split
prompted attorneys for another along party lines. The Democrats
woman, Paula Jones, who was actually gained a few seats in the
20
House of Representatives in the State of the Union address while

midterm elections of November the trial was in progress, and
1998, though not enough to a few days later, the expected
regain control. verdict came.
President Clinton was

impeached in December 1998
The End of
for perjury, obstruction of the Clinton Era
justice, and lying to Congress. President Clinton was then able
He knew that it would take to spend the final two years of
the votes of two-thirds of his second term in comparative
the senators to convict him. security. These were boom years
The upper house currently for the economy. Nevertheless,
contained 55 Republicans and the president had done a lot
45 Democrats. They would of damage to his credibility,
probably vote along almost reputation, and legacy. The
straight party lines, and Lewinsky affair also had the
therefore he would survive. He effect of making Hillary Clinton
brazenly presented his 1999 appear cold-blooded, holding
on to a position of power and
influence rather than repudiating 1. Was Hillary Clinton justified
her husband’s shameful deeds in defending her husband’s
by leaving him. sexual misconduct and in
arguing that the allegations
President Clinton left the White were politically motivated?
House in January 2001. Despite Did his sex life matter
everything, both he and Hillary politically?
Clinton remained quite popular.
2. In what ways did the
Democratic Party change in
Suggested Reading
the late 20th century, and
Clinton, My Life. how did the Clintons have to
adapt to these changes?
Hitchens, No One Left to Lie To.
Maraniss, The Clinton Enigma.
Tomasky, Bill Clinton.
Troy, The Age of Clinton.
22
3
A New Millennium,
George W. Bush,
and 9/11
The year 2000 saw a presidential election. The
Democrats chose Vice President Al Gore as their
candidate. Previously a soldier in Vietnam, then
a congressman and senator for his home state of
Tennessee, Gore came from a long-established
political family and was one of the most committed
environmentalists in Washington.
Out of the Republican primary campaign emerged
George W. Bush. Son of the earlier President Bush,
he had been governor of Texas since 1995. He, like
Bill Clinton, had avoided serving in Vietnam as a
young man. Instead, he had joined the Texas Air
National Guard. The election in which America
decided between them became the closest in the
country’s history, and the winner would eventually
have to face the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
A Close Contest
even though he had received
Late on the night of November less than half of the popular
7, 2000, it became clear that vote nationwide.
the outcome in Florida would
determine which man went to
the White House. A painfully
Compassionate
long and slow recount began Conservatism
there, with experts examining President Bush declared that
every ballot and disputing his administration’s approach
how to interpret what they to government would be one of
called “hanging chads” (paper “compassionate conservatism”
fragments not fully punched and that his administration
out by the voting machines) would be devoted mainly
and even “pregnant chads,” to domestic issues. Among
slight bulges in the paper. his cabinet choices were
Continuing uncertainty for more two powerful men with long
than a month finally led the US experience of Washington
Supreme Court to intervene politics: Donald Rumsfeld and
ahead of an Electoral College Dick Cheney.
vote scheduled for December 18.
Rumsfeld, who had been
More than 6 million Floridians secretary of defense for
had voted, but the difference President Ford, returned to the
between the two candidates Pentagon. Cheney had been
was barely 500 votes. On secretary of defense for the first
December 12, the US Supreme President Bush. He now became
Court, while noting various vice president. Historically, the
irregularities in the voting of vice presidency had not been a
different districts, confirmed a powerful or influential position,
statement by Florida’s secretary but Cheney changed that. He
of state in favor of Bush, without was rumored to be the real
further recount. Bush therefore center of power, a claim that
received the state’s 25 electoral- President Bush’s White House
college votes, which were staff strenuously denied.
enough to make him president,
24
Lecture 3 ¬ A New Millennium, George W. Bush, and 9/11
A retired army general, Colin by events. On September 11,

Powell, became secretary of a sunny Tuesday morning in
state; he was the first African New York, an American Airlines
American to hold the position. jet aircraft flew into the North
To the post of national security Tower of the World Trade Center
advisor, President Bush in Manhattan. The explosion
appointed another African of the plane and its 10,000
American, Condoleezza Rice, gallons of aviation fuel created
previously a professor of an immense fireball, causing
political science and provost of the upper floors of the tower to
Stanford University. Later, she burn out of control. As firemen
would succeed Powell at the converged on the scene, a
State Department. second plane crashed into the
South Tower, causing horrified
onlookers to realize that this
The 9/11 Attacks was an attack, not an accident.
Plans for a domestically oriented
administration were overtaken
Less than two hours after the The first impact was at 8:46 am.
first impact, both towers fell, By 10:30 am, all commercial
showering lower Manhattan with flights had been grounded, and all
tens of thousands of tons of planes already in the air had been
dust and debris. The death toll ordered to land at the nearest
was more than 2,500. airport. For more than a week
after that, travelers were stranded
Meanwhile, a third plane had all over the nation, put down in
smashed into one side of the unexpected locations and unable
Pentagon in Washington DC, to get forwarding flights.
headquarters of the Defense
Department, killing 184 people. A
fourth plane, Flight 93, crashed
The American
in rural Pennsylvania near Response
the little town of Shanksville, President Bush was in Sarasota,
killing everyone on board. The Florida, when the attack
connection between these four happened, visiting a grade school
events soon became clear. and reading to the children. He
was hurried to Air Force One.
All four planes had taken off on By that evening, he was back in
scheduled flights to California Washington DC, where he made a
and carried heavy fuel loads. televised speech to the nation.
Hijackers who knew how to He declared:
fly big jets had boarded the
planes in Boston and Newark Terrorist attacks can shake the
airports where security was foundations of our biggest
relatively slack. Using only box buildings, but they cannot
cutters as weapons, they seized touch the foundation of
control soon after takeoff, America. These acts shatter
stopped communicating with steel, but they cannot dent
air traffic control, and directed the steel of American resolve.
the planes to their targets, America was targeted for
prominent symbols of American attack because we’re the
commercial and military power. brightest beacon for freedom
and opportunity in the world.
26
He reassured his audience that distraught people gathered at

emergency plans were in place, churches and synagogues for
that government operations religious services, and citizens
would not be interrupted, and everywhere lined up to donate
that rapid steps would be taken blood. At the site of the attacks,
to bring the perpetrators rescue work began almost
to justice. at once.
Some New York and Washington

families were reunited after
Identifying the
stressful hours of delay. Others Attackers
gradually realized that their The 19 hijackers were soon
relatives, workers in the towers identified as members of al-
and Pentagon or passengers on Qaeda. The group’s leader,
the planes, must have died. Osama bin Laden, came from a
billionaire Saudi Arabian family
All over the country, that day with close links to the monarchy.
and in the following weeks, He was motivated by a zealous
form of Islam and by hatred of between the CIA, whose job is

America, especially because overseas information gathering,
of its aid to Israel and because and the FBI, responsible for
thousands of American soldiers investigations inside the United
were still operating from military States.
bases in Saudi Arabia.
The two agencies’ leading
He was already responsible for figures had feuded rather
the bombing of the American than cooperate, and this feud
embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, had prevented the sharing of
and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, relevant information and the
in August 1998. Those attacks tracking of suspects. Their follies
had led President Clinton to and failings are the subject of
order retaliatory cruise missile Lawrence Wright’s excellent
strikes on al-Qaeda bases in book The Looming Tower.
Afghanistan and Sudan. Al-
Qaeda had also attacked an The 9/11 Commission notes
American warship, the USS that through the spring and
Cole, on the coast of Yemen in summer of 2001, “the system
October 2000, killing 17 sailors was blinking red.” Regularly the
and wounding another 39. Bin president’s daily intelligence
Laden was, in other words, briefing included items about al-
already a notorious terrorist. Qaeda cells operating in America
and about the imminence of a
“spectacular” terrorist attack.
Assigning Blame
A question soon arose: Why Some government officials
hadn’t the CIA and America’s remained skeptical and saw
other intelligence agencies the threats as merely a form
known about the suicide of psychological warfare, while
bombers being in America others urged greater vigilance
and attending American flight and preemptive measures.
schools? The congressional Several of the men who
investigation that followed eventually seized the planes
disclosed a pattern of rivalry had been on watch lists and
28
were known to have al-Qaeda and was back in service nine

connections, but were not months later. At Shanksville, the
detained or questioned. land where the fourth plane,
Flight 93, had crashed was set
aside as a national memorial.
Rebuilding
New York City’s Department of President Bush, New York
Design and Construction set governor George Pataki, and
about clearing up the 1.5 million Mayor Rudy Giuliani all had
tons of wreckage at the site. ideas about how to rebuild
For months, an array of heavy the New York site. So did
cranes and bulldozers lifted the Larry Silverstein, a real estate
tangled wreckage and shattered developer who, earlier in 2001,
concrete into trucks for disposal. had acquired the World Trade
Center buildings from the Port
The workers knew, however, Authority of New York and New
that human remains were mixed Jersey and now claimed that
in with the rubble. Whenever he had the sole right to decide
bodies were located, the what should be done. Citizens’
machines suspended their work groups, especially those
and specialists tried to gather involved with the firefighters’
what was left of the victims. families, pressed their claims,
and several years passed in
Meanwhile, the damaged section wrangling over what to build.
of the Pentagon was repaired
A Weakness
Studies of the World Trade Center itself concluded that it
had been well built, but it showed one obvious weakness: the
clustering of all its stairwells in the center of the buildings.
Had they been dispersed around the perimeter, such that one
or more might have survived, more than 1,000 people would
probably have been able to descend to safety.
29
By 2018, the heart of the site, parents. Its profound effects

where the twin towers had on American foreign and
stood, had been turned into a domestic policy in the ensuing
memorial park, with enormous years would offer no easy
fountains flowing into deep catharsis. We still live with the
square black wells. A fine consequences of that day.
skyscraper, the Freedom Tower,
soared over it. The whole
Suggested Reading
complex was designed by Daniel
Libeskind, the son of Polish Greenspan, Battle for Ground
Holocaust survivors who had Zero.
migrated to America via Israel
when their son was 13. Libeskind Hyman, The Landscapes of 9/11.
was sensitive to environmental
Langewiesche, American
issues and surrounded the
Ground.
new high-rises with trees and
gardens, helping to give the area National Commission on
more the feeling of a park than Terrorist Attacks Upon
of commercial real estate. the United States, The 9/11
Commission Report.
Conclusion Wright, The Looming Tower.
Each generation has the
memory of a dramatic event, Questions to Consider
often a catastrophe, that helps 1. Were the attacks of 9/11
shape its understanding of the reasonably foreseeable,
world. The events of 9/11 were or were they simply
to the millennial generation too improbable to be
what Pearl Harbor had been to anticipated?
their great grandparents in 1941,
the assassination of President 2. How did the attacks
Kennedy to their grandparents stimulate displays of
in 1963, and the Tehran Hostage American patriotism?
Crisis (1979–1981) to their
30
4
The US Wars
in Afghanistan
and Iraq
Before the dust had settled across
Manhattan in September 2001, President
Bush and his advisors were looking for a
way to strike back. Responsibility for the
9/11 attacks lay with al-Qaeda, a militant
Islamic group that was being protected by
the Taliban government of Afghanistan.
President Bush and his advisors secured a
United Nations resolution against the Taliban
before the end of September and NATO
support for an invasion of Afghanistan.
The Invasion Begins, A Difficult Area

then Stalls The history, geography, and
On September 14, a topography of Afghanistan
Congressional resolution all showed it to be a difficult
authorized the president to target. Military expeditions
use military force. The invasion through the centuries had
began on October 7. Heavy air failed, and the country had
strikes on al-Qaeda bases and defeated the best efforts of
attacks by mobile ground forces seemingly invincible forces.
were supported by the Northern
Alliance, an anti-Taliban group. However, America’s war planners
were flush with the memory of a
At first, the venture appeared to quick and overwhelming victory
be working. Taliban leaders fled in Kuwait in the Gulf War of 1991.
from Kabul, the Afghan capital. They were sure that they were
They joined al-Qaeda survivors in unmatched throughout the world
heading for the mountains that and did not hesitate. They told
marked the boundary between President Bush that a force of
Afghanistan and Pakistan. several hundred thousand would
be needed to pacify the entire
The United Nations installed country. For the sake of speed,
Hamid Karzai, a member of however, he committed far
the Pashtun ethnic group, as smaller numbers, mostly special
the new president. He would forces, in the three months after
remain as the country’s nominal 9/11. Even by the end of 2002, 15
leader until 2014, but neither he months after 9/11, the American
nor the United Nations forces force in Afghanistan had not
could track down the remaining reached 10,000 people. After
Taliban and al-Qaeda leaders. that, the distraction of war in Iraq
Not until 2011 would Osama bin prevented adequate numbers
Laden, the organizer of the 9/11 from ever being sent.
attacks, finally be located
and assassinated. As a result, the Americans, with
their UN and NATO allies, were
capable of dominating the major
32
Lecture 4 ¬ The US Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
cities, but most of the country’s was overwhelmingly successful,

wild mountain and desert country the first President Bush had not
remained beyond their control. followed up by deposing the
A troop surge in 2009 and 2010 Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein.
led to a high point of 100,000
American soldiers in the country, He declined to do so partly
and for a while, it was militarily because it would have exceeded
effective. By then, however, the the UN objective of liberating
war was unpopular at home, and Kuwait, and partly because
the Taliban force in Afghanistan the US would then have been
was too strong to be annihilated. responsible for establishing
an alternative government in
Throughout this conflict, Baghdad. Hawkish American
neighboring Pakistan, ostensibly intellectuals believed this
an American ally, actually acted decision to have been a mistake,
as a sanctuary for Taliban and and they pressured the second
al-Qaeda forces. From the tribal President Bush to rectify it.
region on the Pakistan-Afghan The new secretary of defense,
border, they mounted suicide Donald Rumsfeld, and the new
bombings and raids against local vice president, Dick Cheney,
chiefs who were cooperating with were especially eager.
the American and NATO forces.
Reasons for the

Invasion of Iraq
In 2003, undeterred by setbacks
in Afghanistan, the Bush
administration decided to invade
Iraq. Its reasons were complex.
First was the memory of 1991:
The first President Bush had
led a United Nations coalition
to expel Iraqi invaders from
Kuwait. Although the attack
33
Some of these writers and that the alleged WMDs were

policy makers also believed that real. Cabinet members also
Iraq was developing nuclear persuaded themselves, on the
weapons. An unscrupulous Iraqi basis of scanty evidence, that
exile named Ahmed Chalabi Saddam Hussein had links
became influential with Bush’s with al-Qaeda.
inner circle. Skeptical CIA
agents warned that he and his Saddam Hussein, like President
associate, nicknamed Curveball, Bush, misread the situation
were inventing stories about in the leadup to the war. Ever
weapons of mass destruction since 1991, Iraq had been
(WMDs) as a way of trying to subjected to United Nations
provoke an American invasion inspections to confirm that
while positioning themselves to there were no weapons of mass
take control. destruction. His obstruction of
the inspectors was designed to
Iraqi scientists had certainly create ambiguity about whether
worked on nuclear projects the weapons existed. His main
in the foregoing decades. An concern was to cause anxiety in
Israeli air strike against Osirak, Teheran, because he thought of
a nuclear research facility near Iran as his principal adversary.
Baghdad, had severely damaged He failed to appreciate that the
it back in 1981. Americans would interpret his
obstinacy as a sign that he was
Senior figures in the concealing weapons.
administration became
convinced that the work had
resumed and that an attack
Preparing for War
to destroy these WMDs was President Bush, as he prepared
essential. Despite doubts about to take America to war, found
Chalabi and doubts about the it much harder to gather allies
nuclear research, Secretary of than had his father. In 1990,
State Colin Powell testified to the world community had
the United Nations Security responded to a brazen act
Council in February 2003 of Iraqi aggression. This time
34
After the Victory

the aggressor would be the
United States, and even most Almost at once, the euphoria
of America’s allies doubted the of victory began to sour. As
reality of the threat. Even US the fighting ended, mass
congressional support, while looting began and caused
strong, was far from unanimous. severe damage. By the time
the American leaders realized
Operation Iraqi Freedom began the extent of the damage, it
on March 20, 2003. From a was too late. Defense Secretary
military point of view, it was an Rumsfeld had argued for a
overwhelming American success. comparatively small American
Hussein was taken unawares force, emphasizing its high-
because it did not begin with a tech weapons and mobility. For
prolonged air offensive, as had fighting the war, that might have
the war of 1991, and was not been a defensible approach, but
preceded by the assembly of an now there were too few men
enormous force on the border. on the ground to preserve the
The suddenness of the American infrastructure. Barely 160,000
attack caused consternation in American and allied troops
the Iraqi army, rapid retreat, and were responsible for an Iraqi
mass desertions. population of about 28 million.
About 20 days were needed In retrospect, it was clear that

for American forces to destroy the Americans should have
Iraq’s air power, neutralize its used Iraqi troops, who had
missile defenses, disperse its surrendered in large numbers,
army, and capture the capital to guard everything of value
city of Baghdad. Iraqis who and prevent the country from
had suffered under Saddam descending into chaos. Instead,
Hussein’s tyranny cheered, many of these unemployed
pulled down and defaced his former soldiers, embittered
statues, and hoped for better and broke, provided recruits
things to come. for the insurgents who began
to challenge the American
occupation.
35
The Americans made the Meanwhile, unmanned border

further mistake of excluding posts on Iraq’s frontiers
from reconstruction everyone permitted Islamic radicals and
who had been a member of supplies to cross the borders
Hussein’s Baath Party, down to from Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi
quite junior levels. This decision, Arabia, and Iran. The insurgents
understandable at first glance, were well supplied, often with
failed to recognize the reality of American-made equipment.
prewar Iraq, in which the holding
of any significant job required Most of the Americans sheltered
party membership. In effect, the inside a heavily fortified
US was denying itself the aid compound known as the Green
of everyone it needed. To make Zone, in Baghdad. If and when
matters worse, no amount of the Americans were forced to
searching by American forces venture out, however, it was in
could discover the weapons of armored patrols, on hair trigger
mass destruction—because they alert. The patrols were vulnerable
did not exist. to improvised explosive devices
(IEDs), which took a steady toll
of casualties and embittered
Resistance Groups the soldiers against the Iraqi
Within months, active resistance population, all of whom started
groups were attacking the to look like insurgents.
Americans, which made
reconstruction work dangerous. The army depended for much of
This was particularly true its supply on civilian contractors
in Anbar Province, west working for companies like
of Baghdad. Some of the Blackwater. Lacking military
insurgents there were former discipline and also afraid for
Baathists. Others were Islamic their safety, these contractors
militants. Additionally, Sunni showed no sympathy to
and Shiite militias fought one ordinary Iraqis and, in a few
another after decades of bitter instances, killed civilians whom
suppressed hostility. they suspected of insurgency.
36
Prisons
Suspected insurgents, arrested by army patrols and often
humiliated in front of their families, were detained at prisons that
had previously served Saddam Hussein’s regime. Quite apart from
the appalling symbolism, these prisons soon became centers of
human rights abuses. The worst was Abu Ghraib, where American
guards tortured, raped, and humiliated prisoners. Probably
nothing did more than Abu Ghraib to horrify world opinion and
turn it once and for all against the American venture.
Falling Hopes A Lack of Objections

The initial hope for a quick The Afghanistan and Iraq wars
American withdrawal from Iraq were disasters for the United
soon disappeared, as did the States, and the Iraq venture in
optimistic assumption that Iraqi particular should never have
oil dollars would pay the costs been undertaken. Clearheaded
of reconstruction. Gradually, politicians and journalists should
American military and civilian have objected loudly before
leaders came to understand that they began.
they must foot the bill and that
the bill was going to run into the One reason they didn’t is that
tens or even hundreds of billions. failing to retaliate after 9/11
would have seemed intolerable
They also realized that they to most Americans, and no one
must cultivate the good will wanted to be thought disloyal or
of ordinary Iraqis—that the timid. However, when American
demands of counterinsurgency aggression had the effect of
are the opposite of the demands destroying regimes, America
of conventional warfare. By then, was left with the job of trying to
it was too late. Throughout the prop up societies whose people
Middle East, anti-Americanism were anti-American to start
increased sharply after the with and became increasingly
revelations from Abu Ghraib. anti-American as the violence
37
worsened. Knowing they must any clue about what their recent
not appear weak, the Americans experiences were like.
declined to leave. This became
an unresolvable paradox.
Conclusion
Additionally, the ordinary By making Iraq weaker, the
American was not asked to make United States inadvertently
sacrifices of any kind. Unlike strengthened Iran, which had
World War II, which had seen been an enemy of the US ever
widespread rationing at home, since its revolution of 1979.
everyday life inside the states America’s strongest ally in the
during the Iraq war carried region, Israel, feared enhanced
on as though nothing was Iranian power and the possibility
happening elsewhere. Another that Iran might be developing
factor was that no one was nuclear weapons.
forced to fight who did not want
to: The American military had Civil war between Shiite and
decided, after Vietnam, to avoid Sunni militias in Iraq led to an
conscription if at all possible. American troop increase in
2007, known at the time as the
The downside of the situation surge. Success there weakening
was that the people who were al-Qaeda in Iraq became
doing the fighting felt cut off an example for the Obama
from the rest of the population. administration to follow when
In Redeployment, author attempting a comparable surge
Phil Klay creates a range of in Afghanistan in 2009.
characters who share the sense
that they are sacrificial lambs, When American troops did
called on to suffer without depart from Iraq, in 2011, they
bothering the rest of the left not a stable, functioning
population. They find the return democracy, as they had
to America after a tour of duty hoped, but a catastrophically
almost as stressful as combat impoverished, war-torn land. An
because no one at home has area already gravely weakened
was about to fall prey to ISIS
38
Suggested Reading
(the Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria), which in 2014 claimed Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in
authority over all Muslims the Emerald City.
worldwide from its base in Iraq
and Syria. Jones, In the Graveyard of
Empires.
By 2020, the United States
Ricks, Fiasco.
had lost thousands of soldiers,
killed tens of thousands of Questions to Consider
people, and spent perhaps $5
trillion on unsuccessful wars 1. How did the emotional
in Afghanistan and Iraq, with reaction to 9/11 cloud
possibly trillions more in loans American policy makers’
and interest yet to be paid. judgments about the
The invasion should have been foreign policy they should
overpoweringly strong from the undertake?
outset, after comprehensive
planning, and it should have 2. Could the Americans have
been undertaken with a group emerged with credit from
of committed allies who were their Afghan and Iraq
willing to stay and rule for ventures, or were they
decades. However, that looks doomed to failure from
like imperialism, something the outset?
no democratic American
government can endorse.
39
5
The US Economy:
Long Boom to
Big Crash
The end of the Cold War was, from an
economic point of view, both good news
and bad. On the one hand, a sense of relief
that the world had survived encouraged a
confident view of the future. On the other
hand, the disappearance of the Soviet
menace made it harder to justify the kind of
defense expenditures and weapons projects
that had characterized the Ronald Reagan
presidency years and boosted the economy.
Lecture 5 ¬ The US Economy: Long Boom to Big Crash
The Internet Boom

even though they were not
and Bust generating profits. Some had
Breathless news stories through not even worked out how to
the 1990s charted the rising operate from week to week.
fortunes of young entrepreneurs
like Steve Kirsch (who is credited In March 2000 and for the
with designing the first optical next year, the Federal Reserve
mouse and the online search began to raise interest rates
engine Infoseek) and Marc to slow the economy, and
Andreessen (who developed the in quick succession, many
first internet browser). They made of the new online shopping
hundreds of millions of dollars, as companies failed. NASDAQ, the
did Steve Jobs of Apple. electronic stock market, lost
78 percent of its value. Once
In 1995, the founding of Amazon the dust had settled, observers
and eBay also heralded the realized that the so-called
rise of online shopping. This dot-com boom and bust was
was potentially a good idea, comparable to bubbles that had
as it promised customers punctuated earlier eras in the
lower prices, a wide selection history of capitalism and that
of goods, and economies often accompanied phases of
of scale. On the other hand, technical innovation.
online shopping put small and
medium-sized shopkeepers Even the companies that
out of work by the thousands. survived, including Google
Other losers from the era’s and Amazon, struggled to
technological transformation stay solvent. Google offered a
were manufacturing workers. superior way to search the world
wide web, but it only brought in
Between 1995 and 2000, regular profits once it had figured
dozens of new online shopping out how to sell users’ behavior to
companies were founded, advertisers. Amazon was already
supported by confident doing a massive nationwide retail
venture capitalists. Their stock business with a good reputation
prices rose almost vertically, for speed and accuracy.
41
The internet, despite the bubble produce healthy competition,

and crash, was here to stay. In and avoid political distortions.
the ensuing years, its role in the
economy continued to grow. The The effects were sometimes
trend was toward the gigantism good—airline tickets did go
embodied by companies like down in price. On the other
Google and Amazon. hand, the departure of regulators
created a space for corporate
misconduct that might earlier
Deregulation have been caught sooner.
Deregulation, an economic
trend of the 1980s and 1990s,
raised ethical questions. The
Enron
trend in American business The most famous corporate
since 1980 had been to rogue was Enron, a seemingly
remove regulations on airlines, successful Texas company that
utilities, oil companies, and dealt in oil, gas, electricity,
financial institutions. This was pipelines, and internet access.
encouraged by economists Revelations in 2001, however,
who believed that the free showed Enron’s apparent
market would be more efficient, triumphs to be based on fraud.
42
Systematic abuse at the top other companies led to the

of the company by its senior controversial Sarbanes-Oxley
executives—Kenneth Lay, Act of 2002.
Jeffrey Skilling, and Andrew
Fastow—enabled them to make
hundreds of millions of dollars
New Media
through insider trading. With the The Enron scandal was
connivance of their accountants, followed closely not only by the
they misled investors about established newspapers and TV
their profitability, boosted share news, but also by so-called new
prices, hid losses in fictitious media. The internet was starting
offshore accounts, and enriched to affect how citizens learned
themselves while running the about the world around them.
company into the ground. Online news services began
to take readership away from
Enron also unnecessarily traditional newspapers, forcing
blacked out areas of California them to make their content
during a heat wave, claiming a available on the web.
shortage of generating power, to
justify raising electricity prices. Until the late 1990s, anyone
Recordings of Enron executives who wanted to be a journalist
congratulating each other on or news commentator had to
this were later introduced during compete for a job with one of
the court cases that convicted the print publications. It was
and imprisoned them. coveted work, and standards
were high. Now, at almost no
Skilling was sentenced cost, anyone could become a
to 24 years in maximum- journalist or news commentator.
security prison, an unusually
heavy sentence for a white- In one sense, this change
collar criminal. The initially represented the democratization
unsuccessful efforts of of journalism and could be
whistleblower Sherron Watkins seen as a good thing. In
to stop the fraud and high- another sense, it represented
profile fraud cases at some the degradation of journalism
43
because there was no longer period, which was usually

any quality control. 30 years.
In normal times, the lender

Background on the would try to ensure that the
2008 Crash and borrower could afford the
Recession monthly mortgage payments.
A great crash afflicted the In the early 21st century,
economy in 2008, followed by however, this sensible approach
a long recession. At the time, disappeared, as stock market
Americans of all classes were investors accustomed to high
eager to own their homes. returns during the 1990s now
Few could afford to buy them turned to real estate.
outright, but most could hope
to make a down payment and Mortgage brokers began to win
borrow the remainder, paying bonuses for finding not just safe
back the mortgage over a fixed borrowers but any borrowers.
This incentive led them to cajole making the monthly payment

naïve, low-income Americans to harder or impossible to manage.
take out loans that, realistically, A handful of shrewd investors,
the borrowers were unlikely to whose story is vividly told in
be able to repay. Adding fuel Michael Lewis’s book The Big
to the fire was the fact that Short, foresaw that the switch
Fannie May and Freddie Mac, in interest rates was going to
government agencies founded create a wave of bankruptcies.
in the 1970s to help low-income Their warnings went unheeded.
citizens buy homes, joined in.
They should have been trying to Meanwhile, the banks that had
restore sober good sense. made these unwise loans were
buying and selling bundles
As long as the price of houses of mortgages according to
kept rising, this situation was intricate new techniques for
manageable, because buyers hedging their bets. These
unable to keep up with the techniques had names like
payments could still refinance collateralized debt obligations.
to take on more debt, or sell the Investors convinced themselves
house, pay off the remaining that these bundles, because
debt, and emerge with a profit. they consisted of mortgages
As soon as the price of houses from many different places,
began to dip, however, anyone would diminish risk.
attempting to sell would find
themselves unable to recover Federal regulators and the
the original price and unable to credit rating agencies, both
repay the outstanding debt. of which were supposed to
prevent abuses of the system,
Another source of trouble was failed to protest, and some of
so-called teaser loans. A home them actively participated in
buyer would at first make the making matters worse. Banks,
monthly mortgage payments which were supposed to keep
at a very low interest rate. supplies of cash on hand in case
However, after one or two years, customers defaulted, loaned so
the interest rate would rise, much that they, too, became
45
vulnerable to a downturn in the This approach may have

property market. succeeded in preventing an
even worse crisis, but it was
ethically jarring. The bailouts
The Downturn implied that banks would be
The downturn began in 2007. It spared the consequences of
reached full force the next year. their rash actions, while newly
Tens of thousands of borrowers homeless citizens, who had
stopped making their monthly been manipulated and deceived
payments. Eviction followed for in the first place, were forced
about 5 percent of all American to pay the cost. The Bush
homeowners. Banks began administration, and the Obama
acquiring thousands of the now- administration that followed it in
empty houses, but they found 2009, justified their actions by
that many were unsaleable. arguing that some businesses are
too big to fail and that trusting to
Major banks that had become market forces alone might lead
too involved in trading to a second Great Depression,
mortgages struggled to meet reminiscent of the 1930s.
their obligations.
One among them, Lehman

Recovery and
Brothers, America’s fourth- Inequality
largest investment bank, Recovery from the Great
declared bankruptcy. AIG, a Recession over the next four
major insurance company, years was slow and painful.
almost followed it into oblivion. It brought renewed attention
The Bush administration, as to another ethical question:
it grasped the extent of the inequality. Studies of wealth
damage, decided to intervene, in the decades after the Cold
giving money to other large War showed that the economic
banks to prevent them from playing field was anything
following Lehman Brothers over but level. Wealth taxes and
the cliff. inheritance taxes declined, while
wealthy families were careful
46
to give their children every transportation, adequate food,

advantage, right from the outset, and at least basic health care.
rather than throw them into the The United States remained
bruising scramble of meritocracy. the world’s most productive
economy and its people among
For the lowest-earning the most privileged in the entire
Americans, Congress history of the world.
occasionally raised the national
minimum wage, but stopped
Suggested Reading
when it reached $7.25 in July
2009. This was partly because Brynjolfsson and McAfee, Race
of reluctance to interfere with Against the Machine.
employers’ rights and partly
because of evidence that high Friedman, The World Is Flat.
minimum wages discourage
Lewis, The Big Short.
the hiring of new employees.
Western Europe offered a MacLean and Elkind, The
picture of high minimum wages Smartest Guys in the Room.
accompanied by high youth
unemployment. American Tooze, Crashed.
inequality continued to increase.
Despite the ups and downs of 1. Were the banks and
American economic life in the regulatory agencies blinded
30 years after the Cold War by greed in their failure to
and the stark fact of growing foresee the coming crash
inequality, many things were of 2008?
working well. Nearly everyone
was literate, numerate, and 2. How convincing is the
had access to 12 years of free argument that some
education. They also had access companies are too big to fail?
to good basic clothing, rapid
47
6
Obama, Hope,
and Polarization
The year 2008 is remembered for two big
events: the financial crash and the election
of Barack Obama, America’s first black
president. This lecture looks at the fallout
of the financial crash and provides an
overview of President Obama’s election
and time in office.
Lecture 6 ¬ Obama, Hope, and Polarization
Background on Obama The 2008 Election

Barack Obama’s father was Four years later, still a relative
Kenyan, and his mother was newcomer on the national
white. She, Ann Dunham, was scene, Obama took the daring
only 18 when she married Barack step of running for president.
Obama Sr., not knowing that he The presumptive Democratic
already had another wife and two candidate was Hillary Clinton,
children back in Kenya. Barack former first lady and then a US
Jr., the future president, was born senator from New York. In a
in Hawaii and raised partly there sequence of primary campaigns
and partly in Indonesia. early in 2008, making good
use of social media when it
His education was elite. He was still a novelty, Obama won
attended a private school delegates away from Clinton. He
in Hawaii, funded by his then clinched the nomination.
grandparents, then moved to His Republican opponent in the
the mainland for college, first election was Arizona senator
at Occidental in Los Angeles John McCain. On election day,
and then Columbia in New York. Obama won a solid victory,
After a few years of community- carrying 28 states and almost 53
organizing work in Chicago, he percent of the vote.
studied law at Harvard.
Back in Chicago, he met and

married Michelle Robinson and
published a book, Dreams from
A poster bearing
Obama’s image,
My Father, about his mixed designed by street artist
heritage and the events of his Shepard Fairey, was
early life. Local Democratic the year 2008’s most
Party activists admired him. He durable image. It bore
a single word: Hope.
began climbing the electoral
ladder, becoming a state senator
in 1996 and winning a seat in the
US Senate in 2004.
49
Some Obama voters seemed to rebuking Bush for his invasion

believe that a utopian dawn was of Iraq.
about to break. For such people,
only disappointment could
follow. Obama was constrained,
like every other president, by
realities in Washington DC: the A Rival Turned Ally
President Obama appointed
separation of powers, partisan Hillary Clinton as secretary
conflict, inherited foreign-policy of state. Despite their
problems, and a continuing rivalry for the presidential
descent into economic crisis. nomination, they now
worked well together in
It turned out that, in many advancing his foreign
respects, Obama was a cautious policy agenda.
middle-of-the-road politician
whose actions often infuriated
the left as well as the right.
Even so, he was a symbol of Foreign Policy

radical change. He seemed like Late 2010 and early 2011 saw the
the antithesis of George W. hopeful first days of the Arab
Bush, even if, when it came to Spring, a movement that began
the point, he carried on many of in Tunisia and spread across
Bush’s policies. A striking early the Middle East to overthrow
example of the symbolism came a generation of tyrants. For
when he was awarded the Nobel a brief time, the Arab Spring
Peace Prize during his first year roused hopes that democracy
in office. By then, he had done and civil freedom might displace
little to change the status quo in repression across the region,
Iraq and Afghanistan other than but—with the partial exception
to stop the Bush-era policy of of Tunisia—these hopes soon
torturing prisoners. The Nobel turned to dust.
committee had apparently used
the award to pressure Obama In Egypt and elsewhere, by
into ending years of bloodshed contrast, highly repressive forms
and as a way of symbolically of popularly elected Islamic
50
governments or new military awkward position of appearing
dictatorships did little or nothing to favor the Syrian tyrant, Hafez
to improve the lives of ordinary al-Assad, whom he had earlier
men and women. In Syria, a civil denounced.
war broke out. A new group,
ISIS (the Islamic State in Syria In this, as in other areas,
and Iraq), imposed the most President Obama’s
pitiless form of Islamic Sharia determination to exercise
law in areas it conquered, and restraint meant that the
its fanatical soldiers beheaded administration’s specific foreign
anyone who violated the rules, policy achievements were
filming the executions and modest. Deals negotiated to
publicizing them on social media. stop Iran’s nuclear weapons, to
reduce China’s greenhouse gas
Refugees were pouring out of emissions, and to reduce China’s
Syria, causing a refugee crisis in economic dominance in Asia
Turkey and the European Union. were all set aside by President
In this emergency, President Obama’s successor.
Obama found himself in the
51
Bailouts
Drawing on the rhetoric of
President Obama’s first great Santelli’s impassioned speech, a
domestic initiative was to new organization, the Tea Party,
bail out businesses that were put pressure on elected officials
in danger of bankruptcy in not to cooperate with President
the hope of stimulating an Obama in any way and not to
economic revival. A month carry on with politics as usual. A
after the president took office, variety of conservative activists,
Congress, with its Democratic whose wealth and power
majority, dedicated $787 billion were ably traced by journalist
to propping up failing banks Jane Mayer in her book Dark
and rebuilding the nation’s Money, poured tens of millions
deteriorating infrastructure. of dollars into the movement.
Republicans, with the exception Tea Party membership was
of three senators, voted against strongest among white,
the measure. The president middle-aged, lower-middle-
also approved bailout loans for class, small-town voters.
two of the major American car
companies, Chrysler and General On the left, the Occupy
Motors, and help for people movement sprang up on Wall
who were in imminent danger of Street and later spread to other
losing their homes to foreclosure. parts of the country. Protesters,
mostly in their teens and 20s,
These bailouts were unpopular camped out in Zuccotti Park,
on the left and the right. Critics New York, adjacent to the
on the political left thought downtown business district.
the bankers were being let off They renamed the area Liberty
far too lightly. On the right, the Square, disrupted traffic,
response to the bailouts was harangued and leafleted
led by an anti-Obama tirade passersby, and mounted
from the business journalist Rick impromptu concerts.
Santelli, speaking on TV from the
Mercantile Exchange in Chicago. The Occupy movement was
openly critical of the president,
associating him with predatory
52
capitalism. It was, however, less the first day bore witness to the
effective than the Tea Party in program’s popularity.
mobilizing voters.
Once the glitches had been
fixed, an estimated 24 million
Universal Health Care Americans, previously uninsured,
The second great domestic gained coverage. Some
initiative of the Obama Republican state governors
administration, after the refused to cooperate, but a
bailouts, was universal health fallback federal option made
care. President Obama and his sure that even in their states,
cabinet hoped to guarantee citizens would have access.
coverage for everyone with
passage of the Affordable Care
Act, which the president signed
Intensifying
in March 2010. Polarization
Polarization between the two
While the Affordable Care Act parties intensified. The first
was being implemented, the test of the Tea Party’s influence
Supreme Court reviewed its came with the midterm elections
constitutionality. It survived. of 2010. These elections
Uninsured citizens began to sign represented a galling defeat
up in October 2013. By then, for the Democrats. Narrowly
the program’s supporters had retaining control of the Senate,
accepted the name Obamacare, they lost the House, which
giving it a positive spin. severely dented their ability to
pass any more legislation.
Almost at once, the website on
which applicants had to sign up, More ominous from the
Healthcare.gov, crashed, bringing Democrats’ point of view,
the program to an ignominious Tea Party workers and dark-
halt. On the other hand, the fact money foundations had spent
that 1 million users were already tens of millions of dollars to
trying to sign up by 7:00 am on win Republican control of 20
additional state legislatures. As a
53
result, they were able to redraw decision in the Citizens United

electoral district lines following v. FEC case that lifted nearly
publication of the 2010 US Census. all restrictions on corporate
campaign contributions.
The process of
gerrymandering—drawing On its second nationwide
district lines to affect electoral outing, the Tea Party stumbled.
outcomes—had a long and Tea Party candidates had
dishonorable history in energized Republican Party
both parties. After 2010, the successes in 2010, but the
Republicans took advantage of 2012 Republican presidential
sophisticated computer models candidate, Mitt Romney, did not
to bottle up likely Democratic share their outlook. Romney
voters in a small number of made matters worse when he
districts while creating many was surreptitiously recorded
more in which the Republicans describing 47 percent of the
were almost sure to win. North population as “takers” who were
Carolina was one of many parasites on the nation and did
states in which the GOP would not pay taxes. The collective
take and keep control, despite effect of these issues, along with
winning fewer votes overall than President Obama’s personal
the Democrats. popularity, was to hand a second
victory to the incumbent.
Tea Party influence strengthened
over time, sometimes to the
dismay of an older generation
Liberalization
of Republican leaders who, of Social Attitudes
until then, had thought of their While Democrats were clearly
own opposition to Obama as on the defensive after 2010 on
uncompromising. Tea Partiers many issues of national politics,
were in a strong financial a steady liberalization of social
position thanks to the support attitudes was taking place
of Charles and David Koch, across the nation. For example,
two multibillionaires. They also a shift in attitudes toward gay
benefited from a Supreme Court rights was unmistakable.
54
Conclusion
In the early 21st century, most
legal roadblocks against gay Commentators during the
and lesbian people were Obama years often remarked
dismantled. In 2003, the on the growing polarization of
Massachusetts Supreme Court American politics. During the
upheld the legality of gay president’s final year in office,
marriage in the state. In 2009, Republican senators offered new
President Obama signed a evidence of the divide when a
federal hate-crimes prevention Supreme Court justice, Antonin
act that specified gender and Scalia, died unexpectedly in
sexual orientation as issues February 2016.
deserving of special protection.
In December 2010, he signed a President Obama, who had
repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t earlier appointed two new
tell” policy for the US military. justices—both women—now
nominated Merrick Garland, who
In 2011, public opinion polls was chief judge of the US Court
showed, for the first time, that a of Appeals in Washington DC.
majority of Americans favored Although Obama’s presidency
gay marriage. The president had almost a year still to run,
announced his support for gay the Republican-dominated
marriage in May 2012. Two Senate said it would not hold
federal Supreme Court cases, confirmation hearings on
2013’s United States v. Windsor Garland and that no action
and 2015’s Obergefell v. Hodges, should be taken until the next
declared the federal Defense of president was sworn in.
Marriage Act unconstitutional
and recognized gay marriage as Verdicts on the Obama
a fundamental right. Bit by bit, presidency are as divided as the
Republican lawmakers gave up period over which he presided.
on the issue as it became clear First, over the course of six
that it would cost them more years, the country recovered
votes than it gained. from the Great Recession.
This was cause for relief, but it
also showed that the financial
55
Suggested Reading
and economic system, for all
its greed and folly, would be Baker, Obama: The Call of History.
propped up, from fear that
letting market forces prevail Meyer, Dark Money.
might bring on an even more
Rhodes, The World as It Is.
terrible depression.
Skocpol and Williamson, The
Second, the United States, Tea Party and the Remaking of
despite its unequalled wealth Republican Conservatism.
and military power, essentially
withdrew in failure from Iraq Questions to Consider
and Afghanistan. Osama bin 1. How is it possible to
Laden, the chief plotter of 9/11, reconcile the election of
had been killed, but the US a black president and a
had not made its will prevail in growing acceptance of gay
either country, and it was no marriage with an increase
more successful in solving the of right-wing political
continuing Syria crisis. extremism?
Finally, America finally began 2. How did Barack Obama

to catch up with the rest of the make himself the most
developed world in spreading attractive of the available
access to adequate health care, Democratic candidates in
but in a way that remained 2008, and how well did
strongly contested. he pursue his goals in the
White House?
56
7
African American
Paradoxes after 1990
In the early 1990s, African Americans
overall had lower incomes than whites.
By the year 2000, more young black men
were in prison than in college. Levels of
interracial mistrust remained high.
This situation’s persistence was the
subject of anguished debate.
The Personal
and Louis Farrakhan feared
Responsibility and that the effect of reducing
Work Opportunity Act social programs in this way
In an influential 1984 book would be to make an already-
entitled Losing Ground, the vulnerable population even
sociologist Charles Murray more vulnerable. At the same
claimed that decades of time, they emphasized the
federal poverty programs had importance of pride, self-help,
simply created two dependent and the need for men to take
populations: the poor themselves responsibility for their families.
and the bureaucrats whose
livelihood depended on poverty
programs. The programs,
Incremental Progress
he argued, were worse than While the debate over race and
useless. His solution, which many poverty continued, the African
conservatives endorsed, was American middle class grew
to abolish poverty programs steadily in the late 20th and early
and affirmative action, restore a 21st centuries. Young African
culture of self-help, and shrink the Americans had more access to
expensive and counterproductive higher education, to the learned
federal bureaucracy. professions, and to the higher
ranks of business than their
Responding to such arguments, grandparents. Universities were
President Clinton, who had eager to diversify the student
campaigned on the promise body and give scholarships to
to “end welfare as we know gifted black students.
it,” signed the Personal
Responsibility and Work Affirmative action policies,
Opportunity Act in 1996, which though always controversial,
was part of Newt Gingrich’s steadily increased the
“Contract with America” number of black employees in
document. businesses that had previously
discriminated. Companies
African American leaders like that dragged their feet on
Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, advancing African American
58
Lecture 7 ¬ African American Paradoxes after 1990
employees faced costly numbers of single-parent

penalties. In the 1990s, Texaco families. Sixty-three people were
and Coca-Cola both paid fines killed in the rioting.
in the hundreds of millions of
dollars for company-wide racial The traumatic memory of these
discrimination. events influenced another
court case three years later. O.
J. Simpson had retired from
Rodney King a successful career as an NFL
and O. J. Simpson running back in 1979, settled
Police behavior remained in Los Angeles, and appeared
an issue, however. In 1991, regularly on TV, in films, and
a speeding black motorist, in commercials. In June 1994,
Rodney King, refused to however, he became the prime
stop and was chased by Los suspect when his ex-wife Nicole
Angeles police cars until he was and her friend Ron Goldman
cornered. When he climbed were murdered.
out of his car, he was beaten
repeatedly by three white His trial, which lasted from
and one Hispanic policemen January until October of 1995,
with wooden clubs. A nearby was televised, drawing audiences
resident, George Holliday, across the nation in the tens of
caught the beating on a video millions. A majority-black jury
recorder and sent it to a local acquitted him in a case that
TV channel. was strong on circumstantial
evidence but weak on forensics.
The video was used in evidence Some commentators argued
when the four officers were tried that the verdict was payback for
for assault and excessive force. Rodney King.
When a majority-white jury
acquitted the four in April 1992,
an enraged black population
Entertainment,
rioted across Los Angeles. Sports, and More
The worst-affected areas had Two of the most-established
high unemployment and high paths to mainstream success
59
for African Americans were African American parents, both

entertainment and sports. Oprah with PhDs.
Winfrey, for example, rose to
become the most influential Furthermore, African Americans
media personality in America were well represented as big
during the 1990s and early city mayors and city councilors,
2000s. Similarly, Tiger Woods school principals, and state
was the era’s outstanding golfer. assembly members. The number
Venus and Serena Williams of African Americans in the
dominated in tennis. Most of House of Representatives rose
the best professional football from 25 in 1990 to 56 in 2019.
and basketball players were also This new reality was underlined
African American. most vividly by Barack Obama’s
rise to the presidency in 2008.
However, entertainment and
sports were no longer the only
avenues to advancement for
Continuing Difficulties
African Americans. In 1993, for The success of a few at the top
example, Toni Morrison became could not eclipse the reality
the first African American to win of continuing difficulties for
the Nobel Prize for Literature. much of the black population,
The best-known popularizer of as much in the Obama years
science during this period was as before. The case of Trayvon
astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Martin in 2012 reprised many
Tyson, born in New York City of the themes of conflicts from
to a Puerto Rican mother and the 1990s. Martin was a black
African American father. 17-year-old shot and killed by
George Zimmerman, leader of
The wealthiest of all African the local neighborhood watch.
Americans, surpassing even The case worsened racial
Oprah Winfrey by 2018, was tensions across the country.
a chemical engineer and
billionaire technology investor The verdict, and the apparent
named Robert F. Smith. He had injustice of the case, prompted
been born in Colorado to two the creation of a new advocacy
60
The National Museum of African American History
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History
was opened in Washington DC by President Obama in 2016. The
museum’s existence and popularity testified to the goodwill and
the curiosity of millions of Americans, black and white, about
this aspect of their nation’s history.
group, Black Lives Matter. It Unlike the civil rights movement

was created by three African of the 1950s and 1960s, Black
American women: Alicia Garza, Lives Matter did not have a
Opal Tometi, and Patrisse strong religious component and
Cullors. Its mastery of social did not emphasize decorum
media meant that it could rally and restraint. It lacked formal
supporters quickly to the scene leadership, and it was not
of an incident. equipped to lobby city or state
governments. Some veterans of
the older movement feared that
61
more raucous demonstrations Undeterred, a local grand jury

would limit the newer declined to press criminal
movement’s effectiveness. charges against the policeman.
Demonstrations in Ferguson
Another ugly case was that were met with a highly
of 18-year-old Michael Brown, militarized police force using
who lived in Ferguson, Missouri. armored personnel carriers that
On August 9, 2014, Brown was exacerbated tensions.
stopped by a policeman, Darren
Wilson, who was responding A third incident was the death
to a call about a nearby of Eric Garner on Staten Island,
convenience store robbery. New York, also in 2014. Illegally
Black and white witnesses’ selling individual cigarettes on the
descriptions of what had street, he was put in a chokehold
actually happened differed by a white police officer who
dramatically. already had a reputation for using
excessive force.
Brown and the officer
exchanged insults, then fought Garner was middle-aged,
beside the officer’s vehicle. The overweight, and had a heart
officer fired two shots. Brown condition and asthma. Held
fled, but then he turned, either down with his face against
in surrender or to charge back the ground, Garner cried out
toward the officer. Wilson then repeatedly: “I can’t breathe.”
shot Brown six times, including He died in an ambulance on
twice in the head. Black Lives the way to the hospital. The
Matter responded by calling medical examiner ruled that his
demonstrations, which were death was a homicide, though
held not only in Ferguson but in not necessarily intentional. A
nearly 200 American cities, with grand jury declined to indict the
many more worldwide. Amnesty officer, Daniel Pantelo. “I can’t
International sent a team of breathe” became a rallying cry
advisors to Ferguson to study of Black Lives Matter activists.
the situation.
62
Lecture 7 ¬ African American Paradoxes after 1990
Mass Incarceration
to mass incarceration had often
By the early 21st century, the been introduced by black mayors
United States had a greater and black state assemblymen,
percentage of its population in responding to high crime in their
prison than any other country communities. These African
in the world. In a book titled American leaders’ constituents
The New Jim Crow, a civil had been terrified by the effects
rights lawyer named Michelle of a crack cocaine epidemic and
Alexander suggested that mass demanded harsh measures.
incarceration was really a new
version of old segregation. The legacy of such measures
was that incarceration rates
As she pointed out, even inmates remained almost six times as
who had been released from high for blacks as for whites in
prison were no longer able to 2017. By 2020, public concern
vote, hold office, serve on juries, over this state of affairs was
or get mortgages. They were leading many states to revise
excluded from all but the poorest their criminal codes and reduce
jobs. In other words, they faced the number of prisoners,
the same situation as those especially when the crimes had
affected by the Jim Crow laws, been nonviolent.
which were struck down in 1965.
A Massive Rise
The number of imprisoned Americans rose from less than
350,000 in 1972 to more than 2 million by 2010.
Complicating the picture, James Four hundred years after the

Forman Jr., an African American first African slaves were brought
professor of law at Yale, published to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619,
Locking Up Our Own in 2017. His the racial situation in the United
account showed that some of States remained paradoxical.
the zero-tolerance laws which led Nearly all doors had opened to
63
middle-class African Americans,
but mutual racial suspicion 1. To American society as
remained widespread, and there a whole, what were the
can be little doubt that covert benefits and drawbacks
and structural racism persisted. of increasing rates of
imprisonment?
Suggested Reading
2. Why was the legacy of
Alexander, The New Jim Crow. slavery and racial segregation
in America so tenacious
Forman, Locking Up Our Own. and so resistant to well-
intentioned reform efforts?
Lebron, The Making of Black
Lives Matter.
Toobin, The Run of His Life.
64
8
Science and
Technology in the
Internet Age
The 30 years between 1989 and 2019
marked a golden era of inventions. It was
also a golden era of scientific progress, in
which unprecedented numbers of scientists,
well equipped and well funded, undertook
increasingly sophisticated projects.
Space Advancements
materials from which human
Astronomy advanced rapidly genes are composed so that
thanks to the Hubble Space the genetic patterns leading
Telescope, whose orbit 340 miles to diseases could be identified
above Earth’s surface meant that earlier and more certainly.
astronomers no longer had to
look through a thick atmospheric These basic materials, known
haze to see remote celestial as base pairs, were the building
bodies. NASA sent robotic blocks of DNA and RNA, which
explorers all over the solar compose genes. There were
system, including rovers that more than 3 billion of these
could drive across the surface base pairs, whose combinations
of Mars, sending back high- created the unique genetic
definition photographs. structure of each individual.
Scientific discovery has always Funded mainly by the National

been thrilling to some people Institutes of Health, the Human
but disconcerting to others. One Genome Project’s major results
shock for casual onlookers was were announced in special
the announcement that Pluto, issues of the journals Nature and
first identified only in 1930 but Science after the first 11 years. In
an old friend by the year 2000, 2003, on the 50th anniversary
was being removed from the list of the original discovery of the
of planets. DNA double helix by James
Watson and Francis Crick, the
final version was published.
The Human
Genome Project It involved collaboration among
Equally impressive, but in some geneticists at the world’s
ways more directly unnerving, leading universities in the US,
was the Human Genome Project, Britain, Japan, Germany, France,
initiated in the mid-1980s and Australia, and China. The project
fully funded from 1990. Its ultimately cost roughly $5
purpose was to advance our billion. The rapid improvement
understanding of the basic of computers facilitated the
66
Lecture 8 ¬ Science and Technology in the Internet Age
project as it progressed. This nearly all scientists. Computers

has continued to help with were massive, slow, and hot
subsequent refinements, in the 1950s and 1960s, but
including next-generation computers had gone through
advances that made individual a miniaturization revolution by
sequencing cheap enough to 1990. They continued to become
use in personalized medicine. faster, smaller, and much more
Additionally, it eventually
became possible to develop
straightforward tests for
common diseases like cystic
Moore’s Law
In 1965, the computer
fibrosis, breast cancer, and scientist Gordon Moore
Alzheimer’s disease. predicted a doubling
in the complexity
and performance of
Computer computers every year. The
Advancements prediction—soon referred
to as Moore’s law—proved
By the year 2000, computers accurate into the
were central to the work of 21st century.
67
powerful. Billions of transistors Thousands, or even millions,

could now be squeezed onto a of computer microprocessors
single tiny microprocessor chip. could be networked together in
server farms.
Tiktaalik
In 2004, for the first time, University of Pennsylvania
paleontologists working in the Canadian Arctic discovered
the fossilized remains of an animal genus that had begun
to make the transition from water to land. It had gills, but
it also had four legs. It was named the Tiktaalik and looked
like a cross between a fish and a crocodile.
The paleontologists who made the discovery, Neil Shubin

and his graduate student, Ted Daeschler, estimated its age
at 375 million years and described it as a “fishapod.” This
was one of the missing links that scientists had sought ever
since Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859.
Additionally, the end of the larger-than-life individuals. First

Cold War accelerated the and foremost came Bill Gates,
transformation of the internet the computer engineer who
and the Global Positioning made Microsoft the dominant
System from purely Defense company in the software
Department assets into business. Within a year of his
networks for everyone to company going public, in 1986,
communicate and share Gates was a billionaire at the
information worldwide at age of 31.
almost no cost.
Year after year in the new
Another development was century, Bill Gates was listed
that wireless cell phones soon as the richest man in the
began to take on more of the world, with a personal wealth
functions of a computer. The approaching $90 billion. In
first iPhone was launched in 2006, however, he announced
2007 by Apple. By 2010, an his phased retirement from the
iPhone could take photographs business to become a full-time
and make videos, provide philanthropist. The foundation
access to massive amounts he ran with his wife Melinda
of information, navigate its was dedicated to global health,
owner on unknown streets, give sanitation, and nutrition. It was
accurate weather forecasts, and the world’s wealthiest.
be a source of music, games,
and entertainment. Its creator,
Steve Jobs, lived long enough
Mark Zuckerberg
to witness the phenomenal Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the
success of the iPhone but died networking service Facebook,
of pancreatic cancer in 2011, was a billionaire by the age
aged only 56. of 23. He built a social media
giant in the first years of the
new century. Designed at first
Bill Gates around his fellow Harvard
The information technology undergraduates and later other
revolution threw up many other students, he soon realized its
69
potential as an exchange where digital platforms. As with other

people of all ages could show industries, however, almost
their photographs, describe the only people who knew
their interests, discuss topical enough about the technology
news questions, and meet to write effective regulations
potential dates. were themselves working in the
industry and were likely to look
Facebook was free to its users, at the issue from its point of
and it made money by selling view. This problem, known as
advertising space. Companies regulatory capture, presented
realized that the site contained 21st-century America with
a trove of information about the high-tech variants of a
tastes and interests of millions familiar dilemma.
of people, which could be sold
to advertisers who wanted to
target particular audiences.
Elon Musk
Later, this aspect of the site Another innovative high-tech
would come to seem more billionaire was South African–
sinister. Equally sinister was born Elon Musk. He made
cyberbullying, the use of social his first millions in a series of
media tools like Facebook to internet start-ups before taking
persecute unpopular individuals on the design and building of
or the holders of unusual ideas. electric cars.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s His company Tesla, named after

surprising victory in the one of the early pioneers of the
presidential election of 2016, electricity industry, launched the
American intelligence agencies Tesla Roadster in 2008. It could
found evidence that Facebook travel more than 200 miles on a
had been used by Russian single charge, more than twice
agents to spread false and the distance of experimental
misleading news stories. models from other companies.
His later models continued to
This discovery renewed calls advance the technology.
for political regulation of
70
Musk also aimed to revolutionize Several companies began to

space travel. In 2008, his Falcon design, build, and test vehicles
1 system became the first that would need no drivers.
private rocket to take a working Waymo, now a subsidiary of
satellite into space. NASA began Google, was among the leaders.
subcontracting work to Musk’s In 2014, it unveiled a car with
company SpaceX. In 2015, no steering wheel and no floor
another of his Falcon rockets pedals, which later gave a ride
showed that it was possible in Austin, Texas, to a blind man
for the first, unpiloted stage who was its only occupant.
of a space vehicle to make Additionally, traditional
a controlled landing and be automakers like General Motors
available for re-use. began working on their
own systems.
Auto Developments On the other hand, the need
Another development was the was real. Despite safety
launches of Uber (founded in improvements in conventional
2009) and Lyft (founded in 2012). vehicles, about 40,000
These two companies offered Americans were still dying in
car service at a moment’s notice road accidents every year.
and at lower prices than those
charged by traditional taxis.
The internet, along with mobile
Medical Changes
computing power, made it easy More encouraging was
for drivers who wanted to make a succession of medical
money to link up with people breakthroughs. Beginning in
who needed a ride quickly. It 1996, a combination of new
was a system whose many kinks, drugs gave hope to HIV/AIDS
personal and technical, had to patients. Until then, a diagnosis
be ironed out, but one with great of HIV had been a death
future potential. sentence. Victims’ average life
expectancy now increased by an
Equally enticing was the average of 15 years.
prospect of driverless cars.
71
Theranos
Improvements in diabetes
treatment made amputations The rate of technological
and blindness much less development in these years
common. A technique was made it difficult for investors to
developed to identify hepatitis know how open to new ideas
C in donated blood. Specific they should be when plausible
cancers could be identified and schemes came over the horizon.
remedied more quickly than Frauds and delusions remained
ever before. Patients, previously common. One spectacular
frozen out by abstruse medical example involved Theranos, a
jargon, could now learn about Silicon Valley company founded
new treatment options on by Stanford University dropout
user-friendly websites like Elizabeth Holmes in 2003. She
MedlinePlus, Mayo Clinic, claimed that she had invented
and WebMD. a technique of testing blood
that was quicker and more
Less laudable was the rapid economical than any other.
spread of opioids, effective but
highly addictive painkillers such Eloquent and persuasive,
as OxyContin. Unscrupulous Holmes attracted more than
pharmaceutical companies like $700 million from investors. She
Purdue Pharma over-promoted welcomed onto her board of
them and persuaded doctors to directors two former secretaries
over-prescribe them. Overdose of state: Henry Kissinger and
deaths from these opioid drugs George Schultz. The company’s
increased every year after 1999 valuation reached into the
until they surpassed even the billions before a series of
annual road-accident death toll. investigative stories in The Wall
A spate of lawsuits followed. Street Journal revealed that she
Prosecutors aimed to punish was making claims she knew to
corporate misconduct while be false. The company collapsed
funding treatment of the victims. in 2018. Holmes herself went
from being a billionaire to being
penniless and facing trial for
securities fraud.
72
Conclusion Brusatte, The Rise and Fall of

the Dinosaurs.
Despite situations like the
Theranos collapse, the state Isaacson, Steve Jobs.
of American science and
Vance, Elon Musk.
technology in these decades
was impressive. An enormous Questions to Consider
collection of research institutes
and universities, ingenuity in 1. Why was the United States
the use of the internet, a lavish such an attractive place
private and public funding for scientific study in the
stream, and a generation of late 20th and early 21st
brilliant innovators combined to centuries?
make America the world leader
in science and high technology. 2. How did the dangers of
new technology offset
their benefits, and was
Suggested Reading
it reasonable to expect
Brown, How I Killed Pluto and that adequate regulatory
Why It Had It Coming. techniques could be worked
out to manage them?
73
9
US Energy
Independence and
Climate Change
In the late 1980s, a group of influential
scientists began to argue that
industrialization was changing the world’s
climate, making it warmer and setting in
motion severe and irreversible effects. Was
it possible, they asked, to maintain the rate
of industrialization but to shift to renewable
power sources such as solar and wind? This
question loomed over every environmental
issue in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Lecture 9 ¬ US Energy Independence and Climate Change
Environmentalism
approaches, not bureaucratic
before 1990 ones, were the best way to solve
By 1989, environmentalism environmental problems.
was a familiar part of the
American political scene. Alarms
over pollution, pesticides,
The New Approach
overpopulation, and diminishing The Clean Air Act of 1990,
resources had provoked a spate during the first Bush
of legislation during the Nixon, administration, was based on
Ford, and Carter administrations a market mechanism called
(from 1969–1981). cap and trade. Companies in
an industry were given permits
Members of both parties each year that allowed them
had voted for the National to emit a specified volume
Environmental Policy Act in 1970 of pollutants. Each year, the
and for many other acts relating allowable amount would go
to environmental protection. down, ensuring an overall
The effect was a gradual decline in pollution.
improvement in air quality in the
cities, the recovery of poisoned Meanwhile, companies were
and degraded waterways, and allowed to trade these permits.
a widespread acceptance of a A company that had already
clean environment as one of the improved its factories, such
privileges of American life. that it emitted less than its
entitlement, could sell its permits
In the 1980s, however, many to a company that had not yet
Republicans, led by President done so. Both could stay in
Ronald Reagan, had become business, but the buyer had a
skeptical about the large and market incentive to improve their
expensive federal bureaucracy factory rather than continue to
that monitored the environment. incur the cost of permits.
They noted that several of the
emergencies predicted in the The system worked well, and
1960s had been exaggerated. pollution, especially of sulfur
They argued that free-market compounds, continued to
75
Carbon Dioxide
diminish. Urban smog, in such
previously notorious places Another issue that loomed
as Los Angeles, declined larger over time was that
sharply. Rates of asthma and most pollution-reduction
emphysema declined too. technologies could not filter
out carbon dioxide. Carbon
dioxide is a greenhouse gas. As
Oil Spills its volume in the atmosphere
Occasional oil spills had given increases, the atmosphere
America’s oil companies a retains more of the heat that
reputation for greed and comes to it from the sun,
negligence. In the spring of radiating back less into space.
1989, a supertanker, the Exxon
Valdez, ripped open its hull Climate change proved
on rocks just off the coast of controversial as an issue in
Alaska. It hemorrhaged 10 American politics. Unlike
million gallons of crude oil into smoggy air, which could
the sea. be seen, smelled, and even
tasted, greenhouse gases were
Even worse was a blowout invisible and did no immediate
on Deepwater Horizon, a BP harm. Even the most anxious
oil rig working in the Gulf of spokesmen on the topic, such
Mexico, in April 2010. The rig’s as astronomer James Hansen—
operators had cut corners and whose testimony before
neglected safety precautions. Congress in 1988 brought
The explosion killed 11 men and the issue onto the American
injured 17 more. The incident political scene—admitted that
released 210 million gallons of the impact would be felt mostly
crude oil into the sea. Scarring by future generations.
of the marine environment and
Louisiana’s coastal communities Nevertheless, during the 1990s,
led to compensation claims some Democrats began to take
that ran into tens of billions the issue to heart. Their leader
of dollars. was Vice President Al Gore,
formerly a Tennessee senator.
76
When a major international developing nations. Gore had

conference on the issue was the bitter experience, after the
held at Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, conference ended, of finding
Gore was one of the principal his former colleagues in the US
speakers. He believed that Senate rejecting the document
ending the use of fossil fuels unanimously. They did not like
was vitally important, but he the different standards for
also knew that China, India, and different signatories, and they
other developing nations were were unwilling to surrender
finally lifting themselves out of American autonomy on the issue.
poverty through the intensive
use of fossil fuels.
America’s
The Kyoto Protocol, a statement Energy Situation
in which the developed nations Meanwhile, America’s energy
declared their intention to situation was changing. The
step down the use of fossil US was the world’s largest
fuels below 1990 levels by the consumer of oil and the leading
year 2012, exempted India, generator of greenhouse gases.
China, and nearly 100 other It used millions of barrels of
77
Merchants of Doubt
Some climate scientists remained skeptical of the
developing orthodoxy. They queried whether the
information being fed into the computer models was
comprehensive enough, and whether such technical issues
as ocean circulation were sufficiently well understood,
to make predictions possible. These global warming
skeptics—of whom the best known were Fred Singer,
Richard Lindzen, and Bjorn Lomborg—had to combat the
suspicion that they were being subsidized by oil- and coal-
producing companies to offer reassuring disinformation.
This was the claim made by Naomi Oreskes and Erik
Conway in their 2010 book Merchants of Doubt.
domestically produced oil every was because the US had begun

day and imported millions more. producing oil in Alaska and
The Organization of Petroleum because Western Europe was
Exporting Countries (OPEC) had producing it from fields under
an incentive to keep the price the North Sea. Even so, Middle
high while restricting output. Eastern oil was still needed.
OPEC’s Arab members had used

embargos to punish America for
Fracking
its support of Israel in the Yom In the long run, an alternative
Kippur War of 1973 and again to oil was clearly needed.
when the US offered sanctuary Meanwhile, a relevant question
to Iran’s deposed shah after the was: How much oil was still
Iranian Revolution in 1979. Both available after a century of
times, American gasoline prices intensive drilling? Geologists
had spiked upward, leading to had long understood that most
fears of a coming oil drought. of the crude oil and natural gas
in any known field was locked
By the 1980s, OPEC had already into tight underground shale
lost some of its power. This formations. Until the early 21st
78
century, only 10 or 15 percent Dakota, Pennsylvania, and

of the hydrocarbons in any field Texas brought hundreds of rigs
were recoverable. and thousands of workers to
previously quiet communities.
At this point, a new method, Unfortunately, the technology
hydraulic fracturing—also known was noisy, disruptive, dirty,
as fracking—was perfected. and it could also have nasty
A technique of forcing high- environmental side effects.
pressure liquids into cracks in the
underground shale released much The fluids used to force open
of this oil and gas and greatly the shale, when returned
increased recoverable reserves. to the surface, occasionally
contaminated local aquifers,
Fracking rapidly became a way poisoning residents’ water
of further reducing American supply. This problem occurred at
dependence on imported oil Pavillion, Wyoming, in 2011, with
and further weakening OPEC. pollutants including neurotoxins
Fracking booms in North and carcinogens. The process
of wastewater disposal after mines were vulnerable to

fracking, when it was injected respiratory diseases.
back into the ground, could also
cause small earthquakes.
Solar and Wind Power
Oil companies and politicians, In the late 20th century,
by contrast, were relieved. technologists worked out
Suddenly America, where oil how to make bigger and more
production had been on the efficient wind turbines. The
decline since the 1970s, became hope was that they could
once more a net exporter. begin to replace conventional
Gasoline and natural gas prices power sources. The strength
went sharply down, and OPEC of wind turbines was that they
was forced to cut its prices in produced no greenhouse gases.
order to stay competitive. Their weakness was that the
wind does not always blow, so
turbines therefore have to be
Coal linked to power grids that use
Even dirtier than oil was coal, other forms of energy. They also
the original fuel of the industrial take up a lot of space.
revolution. Most of America’s
electricity was generated by The strengths and weaknesses of
coal-burning power stations. solar power stations were similar:
They were efficient but dirty, They need a lot of real estate, and
generating pollution and leaving they do not work at night. Both
behind thousands of tons of ash of these technologies improved
every year. rapidly, especially after 2010.
They were particularly attractive
American coal was plentiful, but in the desert and mountain states
mining itself was a dirty and of the southwestern United
dangerous job. No Americans States, where expanses of arid
were more likely to die at work and otherwise-unusable land
than coal miners. Even those could hold solar panel arrays or
who survived the hazardous wind turbines.
80
Nuclear Power
opinion was coming around to
The most paradoxical energy it, however, a nuclear disaster in
source of all was nuclear power. northern Japan chilled the new
In the 1950s and 1960s, it had enthusiasm. In March 2011, a
looked like a good idea: It giant tsunami flooded the power
was pollution free, extremely station at Fukushima Daiichi
energetic, and abundant. in northern Japan and led to a
However, the power stations nuclear-core meltdown in three
proved more difficult and more reactors. As with Chernobyl,
expensive to build than expected. the entire town had to be
evacuated, and the full cleanup
Accumulating anxieties was expected to take decades.
crystallized in 1979 with an
accident at the Three Mile Once again, American support
Island nuclear power station for nuclear technology dipped
in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. sharply. Additionally, the
At that point, the American nation showed itself politically
environmental movement turned incapable of solving the
decisively against nuclear problem of safe nuclear-waste
power, and most American disposal. Yucca Mountain, a
utility companies followed deep underground facility
suit. Nuclear power stations in Nevada, was a technically
already in operation carried on, suitable site, being geologically
but almost no new ones were stable and remote from
commissioned. An incomparably population centers. However, the
worse accident at Chernobyl in intense opposition of Nevada
the Soviet Ukraine seven years politicians prevented it from
later provided further negative going into operation despite the
publicity for the industry. expenditure of several billion
dollars on site preparation,
Despite this recent history, political commissions, academic
some environmentalists were studies, and lawsuits.
having second thoughts by
the early 2000s. Just when Meanwhile, the nation’s working
American public and scientific nuclear power stations, which
81
still produced nearly 20 percent The writer Bill McKibben, head

of the nation’s electricity, had of a climate activists’ group
to resort to long-term storage named 350.org, arranged
on-site. This was much more nonviolent demonstrations
dangerous than Yucca Mountain at the White House in 2011.
would have been. McKibben and more than 1,000
others were arrested, bringing
intense media publicity. Soon
Keystone XL and after, 15,000 activists made a
President Obama huge hand-holding ring around
In the late 1960s and early the White House.
1970s, environmentalism had
been a mass movement that Congress passed an act
generated some of the era’s approving the pipeline, but
biggest street demonstrations, President Obama vetoed it,
involving Americans of all recognizing that it had become
classes and all ages. Since then, a symbol for everything
its appeal had diminished, and connected to climate change.
only rarely did an environmental He was about to go to a major
issue make headline news. climate conference in Paris and
realized he would be putting
One was the proposed himself in an impossible position
Keystone XL pipeline. It if he approved Keystone and
would run from the Canadian then claimed to be a pro-
province of Alberta across the environmental leader.
Nebraska Sandhills, a delicate
wetland area and refuge for President Obama, facing
migratory birds. It would carry obdurate congressional
a greenhouse-intensive form opposition during his second
of crude oil to Texas refineries. administration, relied on
Environmental and Native executive orders to carry out
American activists turned out in environmental changes. The
force to oppose it. surprise victory of Donald Trump
in 2016, strongly supported by
climate-change skeptics, opened
82
the way for another set of
executive orders, nullifying many 1. Why were predictions about
of Obama’s initiatives. climate change so difficult
to make and so difficult to
act on politically?
Suggested Reading
Allitt, A Climate of Crisis. 2. Did the rate of improvement
of renewable energy
Gold, The Boom. resources give renewed
reason for environmental
Oreskes and Conway, Merchants
optimism after 2010?
of Doubt.
Weart, The Discovery of Global

Warming.
83
10
Putting US
Education to the
Test after 1990
America pioneered universal education in the
19th century, and it created a public school
system that taught reading, writing, arithmetic,
and patriotism to generations of native-born
and immigrant children. By the late 20th
century, however, it seemed to be falling
behind many of the other developed nations.
Lecture 10 ¬ Putting US Education to the Test after 1990
The Overall Picture

side, American universities were,
News stories in the post–Cold by most reckonings, the best
War decades lamented the in the world, especially at the
underachievement of many higher levels.
American students, especially
those at inner-city schools. A
long succession of studies led
Picking What
to a series of national political and How to Teach
initiatives, none of which lived Theories about what students
up to its advance billing. The should learn have varied widely
best American students did very over time and place. In the
well and could compete strongly 1990s and early 2000s, science,
with anyone in the world. technology, engineering, and
math seemed vital, while
However, the gap between the computer literacy joined the
best and the poorest remained competition to become a top
wide and seemed resistant to priority. Preparing students
narrowing. Successful students for adulthood also had vocal
usually came from prosperous proponents, and a strong
families, while failing ones case could be made for
usually came from poverty- classes on personal finances,
stricken backgrounds and understanding mortgages and
broken homes. On the bright interest rates, the principles
The Department of Education

In 1980, during the Carter administration, a new federal
Department of Education came into existence, splitting
off from the older Department of Housing, Education,
and Welfare. Those in favor hoped it could monitor and
compare schools nationwide and look for ways to assist
underachieving states. However, the roughly 14,000
school districts around the nation retained plenty of
initiative over how they were run and what they taught.
85
of good nutrition, and controversy. The legal situation

environmental stewardship. for homeschoolers had been
improving steadily through the
The content of schools’ 1970s and 1980s, enabling families
curriculum was central to who wanted their children to
the so-called culture-wars avoid schools to do so.
debate of the 1980s and
1990s. Traditionalists made the Most states permitted parents to
argument that the great books teach their children at home so
of Western civilization should lie long as the children could pass
at the heart of the curriculum. age-appropriate tests in math
Progressives replied that these and reading at regular intervals.
books also embodied a legacy Religious schools also thrived
of oppression, racism, sexism, in these decades, nurturing the
homophobia, and injustice, distinctive beliefs and practices
while failing to reflect the of Catholics, Orthodox Jews, and
perspectives and experiences of evangelical Protestants. So did
women and minorities. secular private schools, whose
founders and trustees offered
The question of whether a more selective and intensive
every child must go to education than was usually
school was another source of available in public schools.
No Child Left Behind

bore witness to improvements
In an environment of in education. Almost at once,
widespread lamentation about schools began gaming the
underachievement, President system, looking for ways to
George W. Bush signed the No give their students an edge and
Child Left Behind Act in January coaching them intensively on
2002. Its central requirement was how to score highly on the tests.
that students should be tested
yearly between grades 3 and 8 If anything, the testing regimen
to check that they were actually became even more irksome
learning and were meeting under President Obama. His
targets of yearly progress. secretary of education, Arne
Duncan, introduced the Race
Schools whose students to the Top initiative. It entailed
improved on standardized tests more testing, more competition
would be rewarded. Schools between schools, and more
whose students made no drastic punishments for schools
progress or deteriorated would that could not hit the target. He
be sanctioned. The law was also claimed that the Common Core
designed to weaken teachers’ standards, then in development,
unions, which had a reputation would lead to America climbing
for protecting incompetent the international educational
and underachieving teachers charts. Common Core, published
from dismissal. in 2010, summarized a body of
knowledge that students were
By 2014, said the new law, all expected to have learned by the
schools should have brought end of each school grade.
their students up to the relevant
standard. Congressmen from
both sides of the aisle voted
The Gap Persists
for it. The gap between affluent
middle-class suburban children
The reality did not live up to and poor inner-city children
the hopes. It was not clear remained wide, and the
that rising test scores actually legislation under President
87
Bush and President Obama did during the first 15 years after
nothing to close this gap. William the law passed. Permitted by
Mathis, one of many skeptical many states, beginning with
commentators, remarked that Minnesota in 1991, these schools
NCLB encouraged a narrow- were allowed to develop their
minded obsessiveness. own curricula and to run their
own affairs so long as they
Usually, success or failure on the conformed to the relevant
tests was largely beyond the laws regarding safety and
teachers’ control, depending nondiscrimination.
as it did on such factors as
the students’ home situation, Funded partly by government
whether they had regular sleep and partly by parents and
hours and good nutrition, and philanthropists, charter schools
whether their families took occasionally showed great
an interest in education and promise. However, failure among
valued it. Schools, wrote the them was also widespread.
education commentator Diane In some cases, unsavory
Ravitch, “need freedom from businesses that saw them as an
burdensome and intrusive opportunity for profit marred
regulations that undermine their credibility.
professional autonomy.”
The countries that topped the

ESSA and Continuing
charts, like Finland, had schools Problems
that were better financed, Meanwhile, the rumble of
teachers that were better paid criticism about No Child Left
and more respected, and above Behind grew to a roar. By 2015,
all, very low rates of poverty nearly all constituencies had
among the children’s families. turned against it. To replace
it, Congress passed the Every
One escape route from No Child Student Succeeds Act (ESSA),
Left Behind came in the form of again with bipartisan support.
charter schools, whose student Attempting to maintain
enrollment increased six-fold accountability and testing, it
88
nevertheless returned initiative Preparing for the possibility of

to the states and reduced the a mass shooting did find its way
federal role. into many schools’ curriculum,
as depicted vividly in the movie
There was much that it could Eighth Grade from 2018.
not do to help. Teachers’ pay
remained low in most states,
and teachers were rarely among
Higher Education
the most respected members of After high school, nearly half
their communities. As a result, of American students went to
the profession was unlikely to college. Higher education in
draw intellectual high achievers these years was contending
among each generation of with problems of its own. Since
college graduates. the GI Bill, passed by Congress
at the end of World War II, the
In addition to these problems number and variety of colleges
of curriculum, testing, and and universities had grown
accountability, a few unlucky prodigiously. Where once a high
schools suffered incidents of school diploma had opened the
deadly violence. Easy access to door to most jobs, now a college
guns—and the fact that troubled degree was required.
adolescents often regarded
schools as the focus of their Higher education, unlike K–12
miseries—led several alienated schooling, was expensive for
teenagers to target them. the students themselves. Costs
Examples include the tragedies in these decades were rising
at Columbine High School, much faster than the rate of
Sandy Hook Elementary School, inflation, forcing students and
and Marjorie Stoneman Douglas their families to go into debt. A
High School. business major who went from
college to a job on Wall Street
Such incidents, though was likely to be able to repay
statistically rare, increased her debts. A music or classics
the burden of anxiety for all major who became a teacher
students, teachers, and parents.
89
was going to find repayment far devoted entirely to ensuring

more difficult. compliance with a growing body
of federal and state regulations
Much worse was the situation of relating to education. State-run
tens of thousands of students schools, like the great universities
who borrowed heavily but then of California, Michigan, Virginia,
failed to graduate. They lacked and Wisconsin, found their
the degree, were still obliged state governments less and less
to repay the debts, and could willing to underwrite the costs.
only find low-paying work. Expenditure per student went
The emergence of for-profit down as overall numbers went up.
colleges after 2000 worsened
this situation. The schools’
Suggested Reading
administrators, with eyes fixed
on the bottom line, encouraged Deresiewicz, Excellent Sheep.
enrollment by students who
were unlikely to benefit but who Osborne, Reinventing America’s
were sure to incur debts. Schools.
Ravitch, The Death and Life of the

Why were costs rising so fast?
Great American School System.
Competitive universities like
Harvard, Stanford, and Duke Rizga, Mission High.
needed to pay high salaries
to keep their star professors. Questions to Consider
They also needed to provide
high-quality facilities to the 1. Why did well-intentioned
students, including state-of-the- schooling policies fail to
art gymnasiums, dorms, and live up to their creators’
other facilities, along with an expectations in early 21st-
array of counseling and student century America?
guidance services.
2. Is the educational elitism
The ever-expanding ranks of cultivated at America’s most
university administrators also competitive universities
needed to be paid. Some were ethically defensible?
90
11
A New Golden Age

of American Culture
The decades after 1990 witnessed
extraordinary achievements in literature, art,
and architecture. American artistic freedom, a
lack of censorship, the abundance of funding
for the arts, and an enthusiastic and generous
public all contributed to making the years
after the Cold War an artistic golden age.
Writers
won a Pulitzer Prize for its
In the 1990s, several of the depiction of a Vietnamese man
titans of 20th-century American who fled to America after the
literature were still hard at war while working secretly for
work, including Philip Roth, Saul communists. It is a masterpiece
Bellow, Norman Mailer, and John on the theme of divided loyalties
Updike. During the 1990s and and bad faith.
early 2000s, Roth published
much of his best work, including One of many books attuned
The Plot Against America. That to the events of 9/11 and the
novel imagines what might have 2008 recession is Donna Tartt’s
happened if Charles Lindbergh— The Goldfinch (2013). It begins
not Franklin Roosevelt—had with a mother and son caught
won the election of 1940, kept inside a building that has been
America out of World War II, bombed without warning. It’s
and collaborated with Hitler. an art museum rather than the
Twin Towers, but the effects are
In addition to historical fiction, the same: shattering noise and
some interesting biographies smoke, then fear, disorientation,
appeared in the guise of novels. and death.
Primary Colors, for example,
was a thinly disguised comedy The book’s protagonist, 13-year-
about Bill Clinton’s 1992 old Theo Decker, manages to
presidential campaign. It was get out of the building, but his
published anonymously in 1996 mother never emerges. Stunned
by Newsweek columnist Joe and bereaved, he is made to live
Klein, but it didn’t take long for with a succession of unsuitable
delighted readers to work out people over the following years.
who had written it.
A dejected landscape is also
Younger novelists took on central to the work of novelist
painful periods from the recent Richard Russo. In his case, the
past. Among the most powerful setting is rust-belt towns in New
was Viet Thanh Nguyen, whose York and New England, where
2015 book The Sympathizer nearly all his books are set. In a
92
Lecture 11 ¬ A New Golden Age of American Culture
way, his novels Nobody’s Fool, through which she passes offers
Empire Falls, and Bridge of Sighs new horrors.
all tell the same story. Each is
set in a deteriorating industrial
town, where unemployment is
Television and Movies
high. Each features an intelligent A television counterpart to
but underachieving man in early these and other powerful
middle age who finds himself African American novels
stranded, unable to follow his was HBO’s series The Wire
more energetic contemporaries (2002–2008). Set in Baltimore,
who have abandoned the area. it follows the fortunes of drug
gangs and the police who
Perhaps the most celebrated pursue them. The criminals are
African American novelist to ruthless, but they are human,
enter adulthood during the era too, working under the pressure
surveyed by this course was of dire circumstances that could
Colson Whitehead. His first novel, never be conveyed through
The Intuitionist, from 1999, is the straightforward crime reporting.
story of an elevator inspector
named Lila Mae. The book has The series drew sympathetic
a marvelously inventive and attention from social scientists
oblique way of coming at the and helped create a new respect
American racial situation of the for television. The Wire followed
post–civil rights era. a path opened by The Sopranos.
This path was soon to be
Whitehead’s later novel The followed by AMC’s Breaking Bad,
Underground Railroad is a mix of and these series drew a new level
grim documentary, steampunk, of critical and popular acclaim.
and magic realism. Whitehead’s
teenage protagonist, Cora, Platforms like Netflix and Hulu
escapes from slavery on a also meant that viewers were no
Georgia plantation by riding on a longer obliged to schedule their
steam-powered railroad that runs watching to suit the timetables
under the ground. Each state of network broadcasts or cable.
Digital video brought down
93
Maya Lin
American patronage, numerous art colleges, countless
galleries, and a buoyant art market created an ideal
situation for painters and sculptors. Prominent among
them was Maya Lin, who had won the commission for the
Washington DC Vietnam War Memorial in 1981.
She went on from there to design a succession of

monumental works incorporating the theme of water in
motion. Among the best of her works is the Wave Field at
Storm King, New York, completed in 2009 on an 11-acre
site. It mimics waves on the ocean and creates a patch of
geometric precision in the irregular mountain environment.
the cost of filming, opening the Freeway that had disfigured the
way for more independent film waterfront was dismantled after
festivals, more documentaries, being damaged in the Loma
and more serious dramas, such Prieto Earthquake of 1989. The
as Schindler’s List. Meanwhile, change gave walkers easier
families could enjoy increasingly access to Fisherman’s Wharf and
sophisticated, yet highly revived it as an area friendly to
popular, animated movies. cyclists, baby strollers, and cafes.
In New York City, similarly,

Urban Design an abandoned and rusting
Urban designers were turning stretch of overhead railway
patches of industrial wasteland was converted into the High
into parkland during these years. Line, a footpath 1.5 miles long.
City planners were also making This gave walkers striking
cities more walkable, trying to views over Manhattan while
diminish the tyranny of high- featuring gardens and art
speed roads. In San Francisco, installations along its length. Its
for example, the Embarcadero first section opened in 2009.
Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and many
94
other cities took comparable Another artist pushing the
initiatives. boundaries of portraiture was
Chuck Close. Victim of several
disabling illnesses, Close
Painting compensated by painting
Painters showed great huge, ultra-accurate portraits
inventiveness in these decades, in the style of photorealism.
including Nina Chanel Abney, Faces that are 10 or 12 feet tall
David Korty, and Suellen Rocca. are unnerving, the sheer scale
Another notable example is turning them into something
Kehinde Wiley, the official very different than they would
portraitist of President Obama. be at life size.
The unveiling of this portrait in
2018 led to a surge of visitors at He also experimented with
the National Portrait Gallery in painting faces by imposing a
Washington DC. It showed the grid over the photographic
president on a broad chair, arms original and then creating a
crossed, as if floating in front of a series of meticulous miniature
mass of bright leaves and flowers. abstract paintings. One of
95
Close’s paintings in this style the world. The same had been
is of his friend Kara Walker, true of American ragtime, jazz,
herself a distinguished African rhythm and blues, and rock and
American artist. roll. The rapid-fire poetry of
hip-hop artists, often obscene
but also inventive, became
Music popular among black and white
By the early 2000s, more artists audiences, rich and poor.
were deliberately blending styles
that would once have seemed Another side of pop music in
jarringly incompatible. Lin- the 1990s and after was the rise
Manuel Miranda’s 2015 musical to fame of solo female artists,
Hamilton, for example, drew a path opened by the star
from multiple sources. The first power of Madonna and Whitney
was a best-selling biography of Houston, and exemplified
Alexander Hamilton. A second by such singers as Mariah
source was hip-hop music, and Carey, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift,
a third was the long tradition of and Lady Gaga. In a sense,
Broadway musicals. they became feminist icons:
assertive, independent, rich,
Hamilton enjoyed rave reviews, and successful.
made its creator rich and
famous, and won a Pulitzer
Suggested Reading
Prize, a Grammy, and many
more awards. Tickets for the Choi, Kehinde Wiley.
Broadway, Chicago, and London
performances changed hands Fajardo, Starchitects.
for thousands of dollars each.
Lin and Brenson, Topologies.
Hip-hop music itself was part Russo, Empire Falls.

of a long tradition by which art
forms originating in the African Questions to Consider
American community spread
to white audiences and white 1. Does the study of fiction
performers, and then around increase our ability to
96
Lecture 11 ¬ A New Golden Age of American Culture
understand the history of the

era in which it was written?
2. What factors in American

life after the Cold War
created such a congenial
environment for the
flourishing of the arts?
97
12
The Trump Upset

Few surprises have been greater in American
history than the victory of Donald Trump in
the election of 2016. No previous president
had less political experience. He thrived
on overturning traditions and upsetting
expectations; he was a master of the
calculated outrage. To voters tired of normal
Washington politics, he offered a welcome
change. To defenders of long-established
conventions, he was a horrifying intruder.
Lecture 12 ¬ The Trump Upset
Background on Trump
socialized with Bill and Hillary
Son of a real estate developer Clinton and had spent August
from Queens, New York, Trump 2001 to September 2009 as a
became president of the Trump registered Democrat.
family business in 1971 at the age
of 25. A relentless self-promoter,
he was a familiar figure among
Entering Politics
New Yorkers, dating models and Trump thrived in the sharply
buying and selling properties. polarized political landscape
That included the 58-story of the 21st century, building
Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue his first substantial political
that opened in 1983. It served following in 2011 by doubting,
as headquarters for the Trump in TV interviews, whether
Organization and later for his President Obama had been born
presidential campaign. in the United States. However,
Trump was still an outsider
In the recession of the early when the Republican primaries
1990s, he filed for four corporate began early in 2016. He was,
bankruptcies: three for casinos nevertheless, part of a trend by
in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and
one for a hotel at Central Park.
Often, he teetered on the brink
of personal bankruptcy as well,
but his ability to escape from
failures personally unscathed
became part of his brand.
Between 2004 and 2015, he
hosted a popular television show,
The Apprentice, in which aspiring
young executives competed to
meet business challenges.
His political affiliation had

changed five times between 1987
and 2012. He had occasionally
99
which celebrities ran for election be easy to beat. However, they

and won. Ronald Reagan was had troubles of their own. Hillary
the prime example. Clinton was their presumptive
candidate, having added to her
At first, mainstream Republicans list of accomplishments a term
were dismissive of Trump, but as secretary of state. Old rumors
they became progressively and associations still clung to
more anxious as he racked up her, however.
primary victories in the winter
and spring of 2016. His wealth, She had been accused of
like his celebrity, gave him an negligence by Republicans
immediate advantage. Trump after a terrorist attack on the
overcame 16 other aspirants for American embassy in Benghazi,
the nomination. Libya. These accusations were
not confirmed, despite 10
At the July 2016 Republican investigations. News that she
Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, had conducted official State
he chose Indiana governor Department business on a
and former congressman Mike personal email account, possibly
Pence as his running mate. compromising national security,
As a devout Christian and also dogged her throughout
social conservative, Pence the campaign.
made a dramatic contrast
to the candidate. A majority Clinton’s primary challenger was
of Republicans had voted Bernie Sanders, an independent-
for other candidates in the minded senator from Vermont.
primaries, but Trump was now Sanders, already in his mid-70s,
the nominee. Most of the party’s was a democratic socialist. He
regular voters, whatever their refused to accept corporate
misgivings, rallied to him. donations to his campaign and
criticized Clinton when she took
them. He favored policies that
The Democratic Side would redistribute income and
The Democrats underestimated reduce inequality—a message
Trump and thought he would
100
that resonated with idealistic Dewey would defeat Harry

young volunteers. Truman in 1948 had the pollsters
been so wrong. Nationwide, Mrs.
Her candidacy, and her party, Clinton won more than half of
were also damaged by the the popular vote, but razor-thin
discovery that officers of the losses in Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Democratic National Committee and Wisconsin left her with
had favored her over Sanders only a minority of the electoral
rather than acting as impartial college. In Ohio, traditionally
arbiters. During and after a battleground state, Trump
the Democratic convention won easily, attracting working-
in Philadelphia, Sanders class voters who had supported
nevertheless appealed to his Democrats in previous elections.
loyalists to support Hillary
Clinton, but about one-fifth of Trump’s campaign emphasized
them refused. opposition to globalization,
opposition to immigration,
and a nationalist—rather than
The Election Itself internationalist—role for America
Even without complete backing in the world. At rallies, he wore a
from Sanders supporters, a red baseball cap with the slogan
steady stream of revelations “Make America Great Again.”
throughout the fall about
Trump’s sexual misconduct The implication was that the
and shady business dealings, nation, once great, had declined,
including some in Russia, though he did not specify which
pointed to the conclusion that era of greatness he wanted
Clinton would win. Almost all of to restore. Trump appealed
the polls agreed. especially to white voters who
had not completed college.
It was, therefore, a jarring Often living in small towns
surprise when the Republican that had been hit hard by the
Party won the presidency and decline of manufacturing and
both houses of Congress. Not mining, they agreed with his
since predicting that Thomas claim that undeserving people
101
and immigrants, together with and compassionate treatment

elite Washington politicians for undocumented immigrants.
and bureaucrats, were getting
the best of everything while
sacrificing the welfare of
The Me Too Movement
ordinary citizens. President Trump’s first year in
office was also the year of the
Me Too movement. It began in
The Women’s March October when a New York Times
on Washington story exposed Harvey Weinstein
On January 21, 2017—the day as a chronic sexual harasser.
after Trump's inauguration—the Weinstein was cofounder of
Women’s March on Washington Miramax Pictures and one of the
filled the streets, with many most powerful men in Hollywood.
participants sporting bright pink
hats. Shortly before the election, More than 70 women, including
the media had aired a recording the film stars Gwyneth Paltrow
in which Trump boasted of and Rose McGowan, accused
grabbing and fondling women, him of harassment and said
adding that he could get away he had threatened to destroy
with it because of his fame. their careers if they reported
him. As the number of accusers
The demonstration, estimated increased, his wife left him,
at half a million strong, was prestigious organizations to
mirrored by comparable which he belonged expelled him,
marches in many other and in May 2018, he was arrested
American cities and even and charged with rape, sexual
abroad. The marchers carried abuse, and sexual misconduct.
banners protesting against
sexual harassment, in favor of Weinstein was the first of many.
better childcare policies, for President Trump himself, whose
reproductive rights, protection conduct had helped trigger the
for gay and lesbian Americans, Me Too movement, escaped its
an end to gender discrimination, reach, as did Brett Kavanaugh,
his nominee to fill a second
102
vacancy on the Supreme Court. individuals to select only

Despite credible allegations of sources of news that were
sexual harassment, Kavanaugh ideologically congenial.
narrowly won Senate approval in Members of each group could
September 2018. thereby remain in a state of
constant outrage and horror
over the ideas of the other.
Media
One of President Trump’s
innovations was to address
The Affordable
the public directly via social Care Act
media, especially Twitter. As A leading priority for the Trump
president, his habit of sending administration was to repeal
out unvetted early-morning the Affordable Care Act. On his
tweets shocked his detractors, first day in office, he signed an
forced his staff to scramble, and executive order telling agencies
sometimes bewildered even to “exercise all authority and
staunch supporters. discretion available to them to
waive, defer, grant exemptions
Fox News executives were from, or delay any provision
delighted to see that Trump’s or requirement … that would
early-morning tweets were often impose a fiscal burden.”
based on their own reports from
the previous evening, which Obamacare had brought health
gave them an extraordinary insurance to an estimated 24
position of influence. Leading million Americans for the first
cable news channels became time, and it turned out to have
increasingly polarized in their wide support. Obamacare
depiction and explanation of the survived, though Congress did
world, with Fox News defiantly later repeal its most unpopular
to the right and MSNBC equally feature, the so-called individual
defiant on the left. mandate requiring those
without health insurance to sign
The internet intensified this up or face a fine.
trend by making it easy for
103
Immigration
is the policy of the executive
Another priority was to reduce branch to secure the southern
illegal immigration. During border of the United States
the campaign, the president through the immediate
had claimed that he would construction of a physical wall.”
build what he described as “an On his eighth day in office,
impenetrable, physical, tall, he ordered a blanket ban on
powerful, beautiful southern immigration, or even travel, from
border wall.” It would, he Libya, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan,
claimed, bring to a halt the Syria, and Yemen, in line with his
flow of illegal immigrants and anti-Muslim campaign rhetoric.
dangerous drugs that had been A judge blocked the ban.
going on for decades.
In 2016, about 600 miles of the
The new president, on his 2,000-mile border between
sixth day in office, signed an the US and Mexico already had
executive order declaring, “It barriers, consisting of walls,
fences, cameras, floodlights, President Trump tried to end

and motion sensors. The the program.
tightest security was centered
on the crossings at San Diego, Following a presidential
California; Nogales, Arizona; and executive order, border guards
El Paso, Texas. Legislation under also began separating the
President Clinton and President children of illegal immigrants
Bush had strengthened these from their parents, partly to
border defenses and directed ensure their safety but partly as
more immigration officers to a deterrent to other potential
monitor them. migrants. The attorney general
justified the policy, saying that
Many migrants arriving at illegal border crossing was a
the southern border of the crime. The outcry against this
United States claimed refugee child separation policy was
status, having fled from sufficient for Trump to reverse
political violence in Honduras, the order a few months later.
Guatemala, and El Salvador.
Those who turned themselves
in were entitled, by law, to an
The Crisis Crescendos
asylum hearing. The border-wall crisis came to
a crescendo in late 2018 and
Next, President Trump ordered early 2019. The Democrats
a stepped-up enforcement had regained control of the
of arrest, processing, and House of Representatives in the
repatriation at the Mexican November midterm elections,
border. President Obama had creating a Congress with more
created a program known as women, immigrants, and people
DACA (standing for Deferred of color than ever before. House
Action for Childhood Arrivals). Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the
This was designed to permit the House would grant “not one
children of illegal immigrants penny for this immoral project.”
to stay in the country; they
were nicknamed the Dreamers. The president countered that
he would refuse to sign any
105
appropriations bill that did national state of emergency,

not include funding for a wall claiming that it entitled him
across the entire border, which to build the wall even without
he estimated would cost $5.7 congressional assent.
billion. The lack of a general
appropriations bill closed down
all “nonessential” federal offices
Foreign Policy
for a record 35 days, from late President Trump’s foreign
December 2018 to late January policy turned away from a long
of 2019. tradition of internationalism. He
denigrated the North American
Federal employees in vital Free Trade Association (NAFTA)
jobs, ironically including the and forced Canada and Mexico
Border Patrol, were forced to to renegotiate it. He withdrew
keep working anyway, even from negotiation of a trans-
though they were no longer Pacific trade agreement intended
being paid. When Congress to limit Chinese influence.
patched together a compromise
in February 2019, giving Instead, he imposed tariffs on
these workers their back pay, trade with China, saying he
President Trump declared a thought it would be easy to win
a trade war. He withdrew from
the Paris Agreement to reduce
worldwide use of fossil fuels. He
A Troubled withdrew American support from
Government President Obama’s multinational
President Trump’s government
had trouble governing because anti-nuclear agreement with
it was internally fractured and Iran. He even criticized principal
because his brand of disruptive NATO allies and said the US
politics affronted career civil
servants and discouraged their might withdraw from the World
cooperation. More than 100 Trade Organization.
important federal posts were
still unoccupied after his
first two years in office. President Trump’s relations with
North Korea were particularly
unusual. Under its hereditary
106
leader Kim Jong-un, the country with the Russian president and
was working on long-range former KGB agent Vladimir
missiles that might carry nuclear Putin to influence the election.
warheads not just to South
Korea but to more distant The Mueller investigation did not
targets, potentially including exonerate the president from
American cities. President possible charges of obstruction
Trump alarmed leaders around of justice, but neither did
the world when he threatened it directly implicate him in
North Korea with “fire and fury coordinating with a foreign
like the world has never seen.” power to pervert the course
of the election. It did produce
A few months later, however, in evidence of Russian efforts to
June 2018, the two leaders met infiltrate American social media
in Singapore, shook hands, and and capture the political news
pledged to work toward the cycle at key moments.
complete de-nuclearization of
the Korean Peninsula. A second
Suggested Reading
meeting in February 2019,
however, showed the two sides Hanson, The Case for Trump.
far apart and both unwilling to
make concessions. In a third Helderman and Zapotosky, eds.,
meeting in June 2019, Trump The Mueller Report.
became the first US president to
Reece, Violent Borders.
set foot in North Korea.
Woodward, Fear: Trump in the
The Mueller White House.
Investigation Zito, The Great Revolt.

Robert Mueller, a special counsel
appointed by the Justice Questions to Consider
Department, spent two years
investigating allegations that 1. What factors in American
Trump, during his election life enabled an unexpected
campaign, had cooperated outsider candidate like
107
Donald Trump to win the

presidency?
2. Why did so many people

from Central America hope
to move to the United
States? What were the best
arguments for and against
permitting them to enter?
108
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National Archives and Records Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
LC-USZC4-3148 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
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Join a historian for a look at America since 1989, from the end of the Cold Topic Subtopic

War to the war on terror and beyond. History Modern History

America after the Cold War: The First 30 Years

Patrick N. Allitt is the Cahoon Family Professor of American

THE GREAT COURSES ®

Course No. 8164 © 2020 The Teaching Company. PB8164A

COPYRIGHT © THE TEACHING COMPANY, 2020

Climate of Crisis: America in A longtime Great Courses

history in 2000 after a recount unemployment spiked, and the

power. Electric vehicles and Meanwhile, political polarization

Setting the Stage

Hussein then provoked the first trade sanctions and warned

The US called on the United

glimpsed the possibility of would precipitate another crisis

The aftermath of the war was

Muslim population of Bosnia rule. Serbia replied with bloody

destabilizing what was already military aid and turning it into a

resolve outstanding difficulties whose phenomenal economic

The Clintons in the Buildup to the

to be killed. Nevertheless, the eccentric billionaire candidate

Bill Clinton on the President Clinton’s

introduce universal health care further limiting President

the chronically unemployed and In 1996, the president signed

control of either house of suing President Clinton for

House of Representatives in the State of the Union address while

President Clinton was

Maraniss, The Clinton Enigma.

Tomasky, Bill Clinton.

Troy, The Age of Clinton.

A retired army general, Colin by events. On September 11,

He reassured his audience that distraught people gathered at

Some New York and Washington

form of Islam and by hatred of between the CIA, whose job is

were known to have al-Qaeda and was back in service nine

By 2018, the heart of the site, parents. Its profound effects

The Invasion Begins, A Difficult Area

cities, but most of the country’s was overwhelmingly successful,

Reasons for the

Some of these writers and that the alleged WMDs were

After the Victory

About 20 days were needed In retrospect, it was clear that

The Americans made the Meanwhile, unmanned border

Falling Hopes A Lack of Objections

The Internet Boom

The internet, despite the bubble produce healthy competition,

Systematic abuse at the top other companies led to the

because there was no longer period, which was usually

In normal times, the lender

This incentive led them to cajole making the monthly payment

vulnerable to a downturn in the This approach may have

One among them, Lehman

to give their children every transportation, adequate food,

Background on Obama The 2008 Election

Back in Chicago, he met and

Some Obama voters seemed to rebuking Bush for his invasion

Even so, he was a symbol of Foreign Policy

result, they were able to redraw decision in the Citizens United

Finally, America finally began 2. How did Barack Obama

employees faced costly numbers of single-parent

for African Americans were African American parents, both

group, Black Lives Matter. It Unlike the civil rights movement

more raucous demonstrations Undeterred, a local grand jury

Complicating the picture, James Four hundred years after the