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US MARINES IN AFGHANISTAN American Marines seek the locations of the Taliban in the rugged mountains near the border of Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan is a diffi cult and frus- trating one, in which fi ghters move back and forth across boundaries. The Afghan war escalated as the United States withdrew troops from Iraq. President Barack Obama argued that Afghanistan was important to American security. (© Ed Darack/Corbis)

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AT 8:45 A.M. ON THE BRIGHT, sunny morning of September 11, 2001, as tens of thousands of workers were beginning a day’s work in lower Manhattan, a commercial airliner crashed into the side of one of the two towers of the World Trade Center, the tallest buildings in New York. The collision created a huge explosion and an intense fi re. Less than half an hour later, as thousands of workers fl ed the burning building, another commercial airliner rammed into the companion tower, creating a second fi reball. Within an hour after that, the burning fl oors of both towers gave way and fell onto the fl oors below them, pulling one of New York’s (and America’s) most famous symbols to the ground. At about the same time, in Washington, D.C., another commercial airliner crashed into a side of the Pentagon—the headquarters of the nation’s military—turning part of the building’s façade into rubble. And several hundred miles away, still another airplane crashed in a fi eld not far from Pittsburgh. These four almost simultaneous catastrophes caused the deaths of nearly 3,000 people. The attacks of September 11, 2001, seemed to many Americans at the time to change everything— to alter fundamentally how they thought about SETTING THE STAGE the world and to change decisively the way Americans would have to live. In fact, most aspects of life in the United States quickly returned to their normal patterns. And in many ways, September 11, rather than being an aberration in American life, was an example of one of the most important realities of the age. The United States, more than at any other time in its history, was becoming deeply entwined in a new age of globalism—an age that combined great promise with great peril.

LOOKING AHEAD

1. How did increasing partisanship aff ect the presidential elections of the 1990s and 2000s, and what were the eff ects on the presidential administrations of those decades? 2. How did globalization account for the ups and downs of the national economy from the 1980s to the present day? 3. How did the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, aff ect the American citizenry and American foreign policy?

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888 • CHAPTER 32

A RESURGENCE OF chaired by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, which proposed a PARTISANSHIP Failure of sweeping reform designed to guarantee cov- Health-Care erage to every American and hold down the Reform costs of medical care. Substantial opposition Bill Clinton took the oath of offi ce in January 1993 with a do- from the right, insurance companies, and mestic agenda more ambitious than that of any other president Republican leaders in Congress doomed the plan. In September in nearly thirty years. He entered the presidency carrying the 1994, Congress abandoned the health-care reform eff ort. extravagant expectations of liberals who had spent a generation The foreign policy of the Clinton administration was at fi rst in exile. But Clinton also had signifi cant political weaknesses. cautious and even tentative, but not without some successes. William Having won the votes of well under half the The small Balkan nation Bosnia was embroiled in a bloody civil Jefferson electorate, he had no powerful mandate. war between its two major ethnic groups: one Muslim, the other Clinton Democratic majorities in Congress were Serbian and Christian. The American negotiator Richard frail, and Democrats in any case had grown Holbrooke fi nally brought the warring parties together in 1995 unaccustomed to bowing to presidential leadership. The and crafted an agreement to partition Bosnia. Republican leadership in Congress was highly adversarial and opposed the president with unusual unanimity on many issues. A tendency toward reckless personal behavior, both before and The Republican Resurgence during his presidency, caused Clinton continuing problems and The trials of the Clinton administration, and the failure of health- gave his many enemies repeated opportunities to discredit him. care reform in particular, damaged the Democratic Party as it faced the congressional elections of 1994. For the fi rst time in forty Launching the Clinton Presidency years, Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress. Throughout 1995, the Republican Congress worked at a some- The new administration encountered many missteps and mis- times feverish pace to construct an ambitious and even radical fortunes in its fi rst months. The president’s eff ort to end the legislative program. The Republicans proposed a series of mea- longtime ban on gay men and women serving in the military sures to transfer important powers from the federal government met with ferocious resistance from the armed forces themselves to the states. They proposed dramatic reductions in federal spend- and from many conservatives, in both parties. Several of his ing, including a major restructuring of the once-sacrosanct early appointments became so controversial, he had to with- Medicare program. They attempted to scale back a wide range of draw them. The suicide of his longtime friend Vince Foster federal regulatory functions. In all these eff orts, they could count helped spark an escalating inquiry into some banking and real on a disciplined Republican majority in the House and an only estate ventures involving the president and his wife in the early slightly less united Republican majority in the Senate. 1980s, in what became known as the Whitewater aff air. An inde- President Clinton responded to the 1994 election results by pendent counsel began examining these issues in 1993. proclaiming that “the era of big government is over” and shift- Despite its many problems, the Clinton administration could ing his own agenda conspicuously to the center. He announced boast of some signifi cant achievements in its fi rst year. The his own plan to cut taxes and balance the budget. But compro- president narrowly won approval of a budget that marked a sig- mise between the president and the Republicans in Congress nifi cant turn away from the policies of the Reagan-Bush years. It became diffi cult. In November 1995 and again in January 1996, included a substantial tax increase on the wealthiest Americans, the federal government shut down for several days because the a signifi cant reduction in many areas of government spending, president and Congress could not agree on a budget. Republican and a major expansion of tax credits to low-income working leaders had refused to pass a “continuing resolution” (to allow people. government operations to continue during negotiations) in Clinton was a committed advocate of free trade and a propo- hopes of pressuring the president to agree to their terms. That nent of many aspects of what came to be known as globalism. proved to be an epic political blunder. Public opinion turned He made that clear through his strong support of a series of quickly and powerfully against the Republican leadership and new and controversial free-trade agreements. After a long and much of its agenda. House Speaker Newt Gingrich quickly be- diffi cult battle, he won approval of the North American Free came discredited, while President Clinton slowly improved his NAFTA Trade Agreement (or NAFTA), which elimi- standing in the polls. nated most trade barriers among the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Later he won approval of other far- reaching trade agreements negotiated The Election of 1996 in the General Agreement on Trade By 1996, President Clinton was in a and Tarriff s (or GATT). THE ERA OF BIG commanding position to win reelection. The president’s most important and Unopposed for the Democratic nomina- GOVERNMENT IS OVER. ambitious initiative was a major reform tion, he faced a Republican opponent— of the nation’s health-care system. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON Senator Robert Dole of Kansas—who Early in 1993, he appointed a task force inspired little enthusiasm even within bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 889 4/23/11 9:21 PM user-f494 /208/MHSF280/kin3549x_disk1of1/007803549X/kin3549x_pagefiles

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CLINTON AND GINGRICH For a time after Republicans won control of both houses of Congress in 1994, some observers suggested that Newt Gingrich was now the most powerful fi gure in government, and that President Clinton was (as some journalists suggested) irrelevant. But Clinton surprised everyone by working cordially with Gingrich and, in the process, rebuilding his own popularity. They are seen here together in public at a senior center in Claremont, New Hampshire. (John Motten/AFP/Getty Images)

his own party. Clinton’s revival was in part a result of his adroit- Clinton ness in taking centrist positions that under- versus Dole mined the Republicans and in championing traditional Democratic issues that were 11 broadly popular. But his greatest strength came from the remark- 3 3 4 7 10 3 4 able success of the American economy and the marked reduction 4 12 3 11 33 3 18 4 in the federal defi cit that had occurred during his presidency. 7 23 8 4 5 Like Reagan in 1984, he could campaign as the champion of 21 15 5 22 12 3 54 8 5 peace, prosperity, and national well-being. 6 11 13 10 8 3 As the election approached, the Congress passed several im- 14 11 8 8 portant bills. It raised the legal minimum wage for the fi rst time 5 6 8 13 7 9 in more than a decade. Congress passed a welfare reform bill, 32 9 which President Clinton somewhat reluctantly signed, that 25 marked the most important change in aid to the poor since the 3 Social Security Act of 1935. The bill ended the fi fty-year federal guarantee of assistance to families with dependent children and 4 turned most of the responsibility for allocating federal welfare Candidate (Party) Electoral Vote Popular Vote (%) funds (now greatly reduced) to the states. Most important of all, it shifted the bulk of welfare benefi ts away from those without Bill Clinton 47,401,185 (Democratic) 379 (49.3) jobs and toward support for low-wage workers. Clinton’s buoyant campaign fl agged slightly in the last Robert Dole 159 39,197,469 (Republican) (40.7) weeks, but the president nevertheless received just over 49 per- Ross Perot 0 8,085,294 cent of the popular vote to Dole’s 41 percent; Ross Perot, run- (Reform) (8.4) ning now as the candidate of what he called the Reform Party, 49% of electorate voting received just over 8 percent of the vote. Clinton won 379 elec- toral votes to Dole’s 159. But other Democrats made only mod- THE ELECTION OF 1996 Ross Perot did much less well in 1996 than he had est gains and failed to regain either house of Congress. in 1992, and President Clinton came much closer than he had four years earlier to winning a majority of the popular vote. Once again, Clinton defeated his Republican opponent, this time Robert Dole, by a decisive margin in both the popular and electoral vote. After the 1994 Republican landslide in the congressional elections, Bill Clinton Clinton Triumphant and Embattled had seemed permanently weakened. Bill Clinton was the fi rst Democratic president to win two terms • What explains his political revival? as president since Franklin Roosevelt. Facing a somewhat bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 890 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

890 • CHAPTER 32

chastened but still hostile Republican Congress, he proposed a Clinton fi nished his eight years in offi ce with his popularity Budget modest domestic agenda, consisting pri- higher than it had been when he had taken offi ce. Indeed, pub- Surpluses marily of tax cuts and tax credits targeted at lic approval of Clinton’s presidency—a presidency marked by middle-class Americans to help them edu- astonishing prosperity and general world stability—was consis- cate their children. He also negotiated eff ectively with the tently among the highest of any postwar president, despite the Republican leadership on a plan for a balanced budget, which many scandals and setbacks he suff ered in the White House. passed with much fanfare late in 1997. By the end of 1998, the But his personal recklessness continued to trouble voters—and federal budget was generating its fi rst surplus in thirty years. burden the Democratic Party. Clinton’s popularity would be important to him in the turbu- lent year that followed, when the most serious crisis of his pres- The Election of 2000 idency suddenly erupted. Clinton had been bedeviled by scandals almost from his fi rst weeks in offi ce, including a civil suit for The 2000 presidential election was one of the most extraordi- sexual harassment fi led against the president by a former state nary in American history—not because of the campaign that employee in Arkansas, Paula Jones. preceded it, but because of the sensational controversy over its In early 1998, inquiries associated with the Paula Jones case results. led to charges that the president had had a sexual relationship George W. Bush—a Republican, a son of the former pres- Monica with a young White House intern, Monica George W. ident, and a second-term governor of Lewinsky Lewinsky, and that he had lied about it in Bush versus Texas—and Vice President Al Gore, a his deposition before Jones’s attorneys. Al Gore Democrat, easily won the nominations of Those revelations produced a new investigation by the indepen- their parties. dent counsel in the Whitewater case, Kenneth Starr, a former Both men ran cautious, centrist campaigns. Polls showed judge and offi cial in the Reagan Justice Department. Clinton an exceptionally tight race right up to the end. In the congres- forcefully denied the charges, and the public strongly backed sional races, Republicans maintained control of the House of him. His popularity soared to record levels and remained high Representatives by fi ve seats, while the Senate split evenly be- throughout the year that followed. tween Democrats and Republicans. (Among the victors in the The Lewinsky scandal revived again in August 1998, when Senate was First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who won a Lewinsky struck a deal with the independent counsel and testi- highly publicized race in New York.) In the presidential race, fi ed about her relationship with Clinton. Starr then subpoe- Gore won the national popular vote by about 540,000 votes out naed Clinton himself, who fi nally admitted that he and of about 100 million cast (or. 05%). But on election night, both Lewinsky had had what he called an “improper relationship.” A candidates remained short of the 270 electoral votes needed for few weeks later, Starr recommended that Congress impeach Florida victory because no one could determine the president. who had won the electoral votes of Florida. Republican conservatives were determined to pursue the After a mandatory recount over the next two days, Bush led case. First the House Judiciary Committee and then, on Gore in the state by fewer than 300 votes. December 19, 1998, the full House, both voting on strictly par- In a number of Florida counties, including some of the most Impeachment tisan lines, approved two counts of im- heavily Democratic ones, votes were cast by notoriously inaccu- peachment: lying to the grand jury and rate punch-card ballots, which were then counted by machines. obstructing justice. The matter then moved to the Senate, Many voters failed fully to punch out the appropriate holes, leav- where a trial of the president—the fi rst since the trial of Andrew ing the machines unable to read them. Into this morass, the Johnson in 1868—began in early January. The trial ended with Gore campaign moved quickly with a demand—sanctioned by a decisive acquittal of the president. Neither of the charges at- Florida law—for hand recounts of punch-card ballots in three tracted even a majority of the votes, let alone the two-thirds critical counties. necessary for conviction. When a court-ordered deadline arrived, the recount was not In 1999, the president faced the most serious foreign policy yet complete. The Florida secretary of state, a Republican, then crisis of his presidency, once again in the Balkans. This time, certifi ed Bush the winner in Florida by a little more than 500 the confl ict involved a province of Serbian-dominated votes. The Gore campaign immediately contested the results. Yugoslavia—Kosovo—most of whose residents were Albanian In the meantime, the Bush campaign appealed to the U.S. Muslims. A long-simmering confl ict between the Serbian gov- Supreme Court. Late on December 12, the Court issued a contro- ernment of Yugoslavia and Kosovo separatists erupted into a The Supreme versial decision. In a 5-to-4 vote, divided savage civil war in 1998. In May 1999, NATO forces—dominated Court’s sharply along party and ideological lines, the and led by the United States—began a bombing campaign Decision conservative majority overruled the Florida against the Serbians, which after little more than a week led the Supreme Court and insisted that any revised Kosovo leader of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, to recount order be completed by December 12 (an obviously im- agree to a cease-fi re. Serbian troops with- possible demand, since the Court issued its ruling late at night drew from Kosovo. They were replaced by NATO peacekeeping on the 12th). The Court had decided the election. Absent a re- forces. A precarious peace returned to the region. count, the certifi cation of Bush’s victory stood. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 891 4/15/11 12:41 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

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11 3 3 4 7 10 3 4 4 12 3 11 33 3 18 4 7 23 8 4 5 21 15 5 22 12 3 54 8 5 6 11 13 10 8 3 14 11 8 8 5 6 8 13 7 9 32 9 25 3

4

Candidate (Party) Electoral Vote Popular Vote (%) Al Gore 266 51,003,894 (Democratic) (48) George W. Bush 271 50,459,211 (Republican) (48) 51% of electorate voting

THE ELECTION OF 2000 The 2000 presidential election was one of the closest and most controversial in American history. It also starkly revealed a new pattern of party strength, which had been developing over the previous decade. Democrats swept the Northeast and most of the industrial Midwest and carried all the states of the Pacifi c Coast. Republicans swept the South, the plains states, and the mountain states (with the exception of New Mexico) and held on to a few traditional Republican strongholds in the Midwest. • Compare this map to those of earlier elections, in particular the election of 1896, and ask how the pattern of party support changed over the course of the twentieth century.

support. The president’s political adviser, Karl Rove, encour- ELECTION NIGHT, 2000 The electronic billboard in New York City’s Times Square, showing network coverage of the presidential contest, reports George Bush aged the administration to take increasingly conservative posi- the winner of the 2000 presidential race late on election night. A few hours later, the tions, arguing that Bush’s close election was a result of his networks retracted their projections because of continuing uncertainty over the results insuffi cient attention to the conservative base. The president in Florida. Five weeks later, and then only because of the controversial intervention of appealed to the gun lobby by refusing to support a renewal of the Supreme Court, Bush fi nally emerged the victor. (Chris Hondros/Getty Images) the assault weapons ban that Clinton had enacted. He proposed a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, thus making The Second Bush Presidency the debate over the rights of homosexuals a potent issue in the campaign. The Bush administration’s proposals for incorporat- George W. Bush assumed the presidency in January 2001 bur- ing “faith-based” organizations into the circle of institutions dened by both the controversies surrounding his election and that administer federally funded social programs was part of a the perception, even among some of his own supporters, that he broad and successful eff ort to mobilize evangelical Christians as was ill prepared for the offi ce. an active part of the Republican coalition. But almost from the Bush’s principal campaign promise had been that he would beginning, the aftermath of the September 11 attacks dominated use the predicted budget surplus to fi nance a massive tax reduc- both Bush’s presidency and the nation’s politics. Bush Tax Cuts tion. By relying on his own party’s control of both houses of Congress, he narrowly won passage of the largest tax cut in American history—$1.35 trillion The Election of 2004 over several years. The 2004 election pitted President Bush, who was unopposed Having campaigned as a moderate adept at building coali- within his party, against John Kerry, a Democratic senator from tions across party lines, Bush governed as a staunch conserva- Massachusetts. Throughout the months before the election, vot- tive, relying on the most orthodox members of his own party for ers were almost evenly divided. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 892 4/15/11 12:41 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

892 • CHAPTER 32

11 3 3 4 7 10 3 4 4 12 3 10 31 3 17 4 7 5 7 21 5 20 15 5 21 11 55 9 5 3 6 11 13 10 8 3 15 10 7 11 5 6 8 6 9 15 34 9 27 3

4

Candidate (Party) Electoral Vote Popular Vote (%) George W. Bush 286 62,040,606 (Republican) (51) John F. Kerry 252 59,028,109 (Democratic) (48) 60% of electorate voting

THE ELECTION OF 2004 The 2004 election repeated the pattern established in 2000. The Democrats, led this time by Massachusetts senator John F. Kerry, swept the Northeast, most of the industrial Midwest, and the Pacifi c Coast. The Republicans, led by President Bush, carried almost everything else. Although Bush’s popular and electoral margins were both larger than they had been in 2000, the election remained extremely close.

of a rapidly evolving culture. But most of these changes were at least in part a product of the dramatic transformation of the American economy. RELIGION AND POLITICS, 2004 Although many issues were at stake in the election of 2004, the campaign of that year was distinctive in the degree to which religion became a major issue. For many evangelical Christians, in particular, the From “Stagflation” to Growth reelection of President George W. Bush became a religious as well as a political cause, in part because of Bush’s stances on such religiously charged subjects as abortion, gay The roots of the economic growth of the 1980s and 1990s lay in rights, stem-cell research, and the role of “faith-based” institutions in public life. These part in the troubled years of the 1970s, when the United States participants in a Bush campaign rally carry crosses made out of Bush campaign seemed for a time to be losing its ability to produce long-term posters. (Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post) prosperity. In the face of the sluggish growth and persistent infl a- tion of those years, however, many American corporations began The election itself, although very close, was more decisive making important changes in the way they ran their businesses— than the election of 2000. Bush won 51 percent of the popular changes that contributed to both the prosperity of the last decades vote to Kerry’s 48. The electoral vote was much closer, 286 for New Business of the twentieth century and the growing in- Bush, 252 for Kerry. A Kerry victory in Ohio, a hotly contested Practices equality that accompanied it. Businesses in- state that Bush won by a very narrow margin, would have given vested heavily in new technology, to make him the presidency. themselves more effi cient and productive. Corporations began to consider mergers to provide themselves with a more diversifi ed basis for growth. Many enterprises— responding to the energy THE ECONOMIC BOOM crises of the 1970s—created more energy-effi cient plants and of- fi ces. Perhaps most important of all, American businesses sought The last two decades of the twentieth century and the fi rst de- to reduce their labor costs, which were among the highest in the cade of the twenty-fi rst saw remarkable changes in American world and which many economists and business leaders believed life—some a result of the end of the Cold War, some the chang- had made the United States uncompetitive against the many ing character of the American population, and some a product emerging economies that relied on low-wage workers. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 893 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 893

Businesses cut labor costs in many ways. They took a much A t fi rst, the bursting of the “tech bubble” seemed to have harder line against unions. Nonunion companies became more few eff ects on the larger economy. But by the beginning of 2001, successful in staving off unionization drives. Companies al- the stock market—a great engine of growth over the previous ready unionized won important concessions from their union decade—began a substantial decline, which continued for al- members on wages and benefi ts in exchange for preserving most a year. Even when it recovered, beginning in 2002, it could jobs. Some companies moved their operations to areas of the not match the booming growth of the 1990s. In the fall of 2001, country where unions were weak and wages low—the American the economy as a whole slipped into a recession. The recovery in South and Midwest in particular. And many companies moved 2002 kept stock market growth relatively slow. much of their production out of the United States entirely, to such nations as Mexico and China, where there were large avail- able pools of cheaper labor. The Two-Tiered Economy Another important driver of the new economy was the Although the American economy revived from the sluggishness Technology growth of technology industries. Digital that had characterized it in the 1970s and early 1980s, the bene- Industries technology made possible an enormous fi ts of the new economy were less widely shared than those of range of new products: computers, the earlier boom times. The increasing abundance of the late twen- Internet, cellular phones, digital music, video, and cameras, tieth and early twenty-fi rst centuries created enormous new personal digital assistants, and many other products. The tech- wealth that enriched those talented, or lucky, enough to profi t nology industries created many new jobs and produced new Rising Income from the areas of booming growth. The consumer needs and appetites. But they did not create as many Inequality rewards for education—particularly in jobs as older industrial sectors had. such areas as science and engineering— The American economy experienced rapid growth in the last increased substantially. Between 1980 and 2005, the average decades of the twentieth century. The gross national product family incomes of the wealthiest 20 percent of the population (the total of goods and services produced by the United States) grew by nearly 20 percent (to over $100,000 a year); the average almost quadrupled in twenty years—from $2.7 trillion in 1980 to family income of the next 20 percent of the population grew by over $9.8 trillion in 2000. Infl ation was low throughout these more than 8 percent. Incomes remained fl at for most of the re- decades, never rising above 3 percent in any year. Stock prices maining 60 percent of the public, and actually declined for soared to unprecedented levels, and with few interruptions, many in the bottom 20 percent. from the mid-1980s to the end of the century. The Dow Jones The jarring changes in America’s relationship to the world Industrial Average, the most common index of stock perfor- economy that had begun in the 1970s—the loss of cheap and mance, stood at 1,000 in late 1980. Late in 1999, it passed 11,000, easy access to raw materials, the penetration of the American and reached a peak of over 14,000 in October 2007. Economic market by foreign competitors, the restructuring of American growth was particularly robust in the last years of the 1990s. In heavy industry so that it produced fewer jobs and paid lower 1997 and 1998, annual growth rates reached 5 percent for the wages—continued and in some respects accelerated in the fol- fi rst time since the 1960s. Most impressive of all was the lon- lowing decades. gevity of the boom. From 1994 to 2000, the economy recorded Poverty in America had declined steadily and at times dra- growth—at times very substantial growth—in every year, in- matically in the years after World War II, so that by the end of deed in every quarter, something that had never before happened Growing the 1970s the percentage of people living in so continuously in peacetime. Except for the brief recession Poverty Rates poverty had fallen to 12 percent (from about of 1992–1993, the period of dramatic growth actually extended 20 percent in preceding decades). But the unbroken from late 1983 until a gradual downturn began in decline in poverty did not continue. By 2010, 14.3 percent of the spring 2000. population, or 43.6 million people, lived in poverty.

Downturns Globalization THE INCREASING ABUNDANCE OF Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Perhaps the most important economic Federal Reserve Board, warned in 1999 THE LATE TWENTIETH AND EARLY change was what became known as the of the “irrational exuberance” with TWENTY-FIRST CENTURIES “globalization” of the economy. The which Americans were pursuing prof- great prosperity of the 1950s and 1960s its in the stock market. A few months CREATED ENORMOUS NEW had rested on, among other things, the later, the market vindicated his con- WEALTH THAT ENRICHED THOSE relative insulation of the United States cerns when, in April 2001, there was a from the pressures of international com- sudden and disastrous collapse of a TALENTED, OR LUCKY, ENOUGH petition. As late as 1970, international booming new “dot.com” sector of the TO PROFIT FROM THE AREAS OF trade still played a relatively small role in economy, made up of start-up compa- the American economy as a whole, nies and new, profi table businesses BOOMING GROWTH. which thrived on the basis of the huge making use of the Internet. domestic market in North America. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 894 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

894 • CHAPTER 32

The Digital Revolution The most visible element of the technological revolution to most Americans was the dramatic growth in the use of computers and other digital electronic devices in almost every area of life. Among the most signifi cant innovations that contributed to the digital revolution was the development of the micropro- cessor, fi rst introduced in 1971 by Intel, which represented a notable advance in the technology of integrated circuitry. A micro- processor miniaturized the central processing unit of a com- puter, making it possible for a small machine to perform calculations that in the past only very large machines could do. Considerable technological innovation was needed before the microprocessor could actually become the basis of what was at fi rst known as a “minicomputer” and then a “personal com- puter.” But in 1977, Apple launched its Apple II personal com- puter, the fi rst such machine to be widely available to the public. Several years later, IBM entered the personal computer market Development with the fi rst “PC.” IBM had engaged a of the PC small software development company, Microsoft, to design an operating system for their new computer. Microsoft produced a program known as MS-DOS (DOS for “disk operating system”). No PC could oper- ate without it. The PC, and its software, made its debut in August 1981 and immediately became enormously successful. Three years later, Apple introduced its Macintosh computer, which marked another major innovation in computer technol- ogy. Among other things, its software—very diff erent from DOS—was easier to use than that of the PC. But Apple strug- gled to match IBM’s and Microsoft’s marketing power, and by the mid-1980s the PC had established its dominance in the THE GLOBAL ECONOMY Hundreds of shipping containers, virtually all of booming personal computer market—a dominance enhanced them from China, stand waiting for delivery at the Yang Ming container terminal by the introduction of a new software package to replace DOS in in Los Angeles in February 2001—an illustration of the increasing penetration of the American market by overseas manufacturers and of the growing interconnections 1985: Windows, also developed by Microsoft, which borrowed between the United States economy and that of the rest of the world. (Reed Saxon/ many concepts (most notably the Graphical User Interface, or AP/Wide World Photos) GUI) from the Apple operating system. The computer revolution created thousands of new, lucrative By the end of the 1970s, however, the world had intruded on businesses: computer manufacturers (new companies quickly the American economy in profound ways, and that intrusion began to rival IBM in the PC market); makers of the tiny silicon increased unabated into the twenty-fi rst century. Exports rose chips that ran the computers and allowed smaller and smaller from just under $43 billion in 1970 to over $1 trillion in 2006. machines to become more and more powerful; and manufactur- But imports rose even more dramatically: from just over $40 ers of accessories and software. billion in 1970 to over $1.8 trillion in 2006. Most American prod- ucts, in other words, now faced foreign competition inside the United States. The fi rst American trade imbalance in the post- The Internet war era occurred in 1971; only twice since then, in 1973 and 1975, Out of the computer revolution emerged another dramatic has the balance been favorable. source of information and communication: the Internet. The Internet is, in essence, a vast, far-fl ung network of computers. It SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY allows people connected to the network to communicate with others all over the world. It had its beginning in 1963, in the IN THE NEW ECONOMY U.S. government’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), which funneled federal funds into scientifi c research projects, The “new economy” that emerged in the late twentieth and early many of them defense related. In the early 1960s, J. C. R. twenty-fi rst centuries was driven by dramatic new scientifi c and Arpanet Licklider, the head of ARPA’s Information technological discoveries that had profound eff ects on the way Processing Technique Offi ce, was working Americans—and peoples throughout the world—lived. on a project he called Libraries of the Future, through which he bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 895 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 895

hoped to make vast amounts of infor- the number of computers connected to mation available electronically to peo- AS LATE AS 1984, THERE it. In the early 1980s, the Defense ple in far-fl ung areas. In 1963, he Department, a major partner in the REMAINED FEWER THAN A launched a program to link together development of the ARPANET, with- computers over large distances. It was THOUSAND HOST COMPUTERS drew from the project for security rea- known as the ARPANET. sons. The network, soon renamed the CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET. This expansion was facilitated in part Internet, was then free to develop inde- by two important new technologies. A DECADE LATER, THERE WERE pendently. It did so rapidly, especially One was a system developed in the after the invention of technologies that OVER 6 MILLION. early 1960s at the RAND Corporation in made possible digital mail (e-mail) and the United States and the National the emergence of the personal com- Physical Laboratory in England. It was known as “store-and- puter, which vastly increased the number of potential users of forward packet switching,” and it made possible the transmis- the Internet. As late as 1984, there remained fewer than a thou- sion of large quantities of data between computers without sand host computers connected to the Internet. A decade later, directly wiring the computers together. The other technological there were over 6 million. And in 2010, well over a billion com- breakthrough was the development of computer software that puters were in use around the world, including 250 million in would allow individual computers to handle the traffi c over the the United States. network—the Interface Message Processor. As the amount of information on the Internet proliferated, By 1971, twenty-three computers were linked together in the without any central direction, new forms of software emerged ARPANET, which served mostly research labs and universities. to make it possible for individual users to navigate through the Gradually, interest in the system began to spread, and with it vast number of Internet sites. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a World Wide British scientist working at a laboratory in Web Geneva, introduced the World Wide Web, through which individual users could pub- lish information for the Internet. It helped establish an orderly system for both the distribution and retrieval of electronic information.

Breakthroughs in Genetics Computer technology helped fuel explosive growth in all areas of scientifi c research, particularly genetics. Early discoveries in genetics by Gregor Mendel, Thomas Hunt Morgan, and others laid the groundwork for more dramatic breakthroughs—the discovery of DNA by the British scientists Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod, and Maclyn McCarty in 1944; and in 1953, the dra-

matic discovery by the American biochemist James Watson and the British biophysicist Francis Crick of its double-helix struc- ture, and thus of the key to identifying genetic codes. From these discoveries emerged the new science—and ultimately the new industry—of genetic engineering, through which new medical treatments and new techniques for hybridization of plants and animals became possible. Little by little, scientists began to identify specifi c genes in humans and other living things that determine particular traits, and to learn how to alter or reproduce them. But the identifi ca- tion of genes was painfully slow. In 1989, the federal govern- Human ment appropriated $3 billion to fund the Genome National Center for the Human Genome, to WIRED 6.01 The January 1998 issue of Wired, a magazine aimed at young, hip, Project accelerate the mapping of human genes. computer-literate readers, expressed the optimistic, even visionary approach to the possibilities of new electronic technologies that was characteristic of many computer The Human Genome Project identifi ed all and Internet enthusiasts in the 1990s. Wired, which began publication in 1992, was of the more than 100,000 genes by 2003. careful to diff erentiate itself from the slick, commercial computer magazines that were In the meantime, DNA research had already attracted con- principally interested in trumpeting new products. It tried, instead, to capture the siderable public attention. The DNA structure of an individ- simultaneously skeptical and progressive spirit of a generation to whom technology seemed to defi ne much of the future. (Designer, John Plunkett; Writer, Louis Rossetto. ual, scientists have discovered, is as unique and as identifi able Copyright © 2002 by the Condé Nast Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.) as a fi ngerprint. DNA testing, therefore, makes it possible to bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 896 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

896 • CHAPTER 32

THE HUMAN GENOME This computerized image is a digital representation of part of the human genome, the constellation of genetic material that makes up the human body. The Human Genome Project, one of the most ambitious in the history of science, set out in the late 1990s to chart the human genetic structure. Each color in this image represents one of the four chemical components of DNA, the principal material of genes. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

identify individuals through their blood, semen, skin, or even workforce. In the last twenty years of the twentieth century, hair. It plays a major role in criminal investigations, among the number of people aged 25–54 (known statistically as the other things. prime workforce) grew by over 26 million. In the fi rst ten years of the twenty-fi rst century, the number of workers in that age group did not grow at all.

A CHANGING SOCIETY Rates of birth per 1,000 people 30 The American population changed dramatically in the late twentieth and early twenty-fi rst centuries. It grew larger, older, 25 and more racially and ethnically diverse. 20

A Shifting Population 15

Decreasing birth rates and growing life spans contributed to 10 one of the most important characteristics of the American population in the early twenty-fi rst century: its increasing agedness. The enormous “baby boom” generation—people 1960 19651970 1975 19801985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010

born in the fi rst ten years after World War II—drove the me- THE AMERICAN BIRTH RATE, 1960–2010 This chart shows the striking dian age steadily upward (from 34 in 1996 to 37 in 2010 to a change in the pattern of the nation’s birth rate from the twenty years after 1940, which projected 39 by 2035. This growing population of aging produced the great “baby boom.” From 1960 onward, the nation’s birth rate steadily, Americans contributed to stresses on the Social Security and and in the 1960s and 1970s dramatically, declined. Medicare systems. It also had important implications for the • What eff ect did this declining birth rate have on the age structure of the population? bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 897 4/21/11 4:39 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF265/ste34315_disk1of1/0073534315/ste34315_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 897

The slowing growth of the native-born population, and the Total immigration during five-year periods (in millions) workforce shortages it has helped to create, is one reason for the 6.10 rapid growth of immigration. In 2010, the number of foreign- born residents of the United States was the highest in American history—more than 36 million people, over 12 percent of the 5.23 total population. These immigrants came from a wider variety 4.77 of backgrounds than ever before, as a result of the 1965 Immigration Reform Act, which eliminated national origins as a criterion for admission. The growing presence of the foreign-born contributed to a signifi cant drop in the per- centage of white residents in the United States—from 90 percent in 1965 (the year of the Immigration Reform Act) to 79 in 2010. Latinos and Asians were by far the largest 2.80 2.59 groups of immigrants in these years. But others came in sig- nifi cant numbers from Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and eastern Europe. 1.87 1.94 1.45 African Americans in the Post–Civil Rights Era The civil rights movement and the other liberal eff orts of the 1960s had two very diff erent eff ects on African Americans. On the one hand, there were increased opportunities for ad- vancement available to those in a position to take advantage 1961– 1966– 1971– 1976– 1981– 1986– 1991– 1996– of them. On the other hand, as the industrial economy de- 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 clined and government services dwindled, there was a grow- TOTAL IMMIGRATION, 1960–2010 This chart shows the tremendous ing sense of helplessness and despair among large groups of increase in immigration to the United States in the decades since the Immigration Reform Act of 1965. The immigration of the 1980s and 1990s was the highest since the nonwhites who continued to fi nd themselves barred from up- late nineteenth century. ward mobility. For the black middle class, which in the fi rst decade of the • What role did the 1965 act have in increasing immigration levels? twenty-fi rst century constituted over half of the African- American population of America, progress was remarkable in the decades after the high point of the civil rights movement. Economic and social disparities between black and white pro- Europe Economic fessionals did not vanish, but they dimin- Progress for ished substantially. African American Other 14% African families moved into more affl uent urban 8% Americans and suburban communities. The percent- age of black high-school graduates going Asia on to college was virtually the same as that of white high- 25% school graduates by the early twenty-fi rst century (although a smaller proportion of blacks than whites managed to complete high school). Just over 20 percent of African Americans over Latin America the age of twenty-four held bachelor’s degrees or higher in 2010, compared to 30 percent of whites, a signifi cant advance 53% from twenty years earlier. And African Americans were mak- ing rapid strides in many professions from which, a genera- tion earlier, they had been barred or within which they had been segregated. Over half of all employed blacks in the United States had skilled white-collar jobs in 2010. There were few SOURCES OF IMMIGRATION, 1995–2010 The Immigration Reform Act areas of American life from which blacks were any longer en- of 1965 lifted the national quotas imposed on immigration policy in 1924 and opened immigration to large areas of the world that had previously been restricted. In 1965, tirely excluded. 90 percent of the immigrants to the United States came from Europe. As this chart But there were many other African Americans whom the shows, by 2010 almost the reverse was true. Well over 80 percent of all immigrants economic growth and the liberal programs of the 1960s and be- came from non-European sources. The most important countries of origin in this yond had never reached. These impoverished people—sometimes period were (in order) Mexico, China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, and Cuba. described as the “underclass”—made up as much as a third of • What impact did this new immigration have on American politics? bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 898 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

898 • CHAPTER 32

1% The enormous demand for drugs, particularly for “crack” co- Whites caine in the late 1980s and early 1990s, spawned what was in eff ect a multibillion-dollar industry. Drug use declined signifi - 15% 22% cantly among middle-class people beginning in the late 1980s, but the epidemic declined much more slowly in the poor urban neighborhoods where it was doing the most severe damage. The drug epidemic was related to another scourge of the late 62% twentieth century: the epidemic spread of a new and often lethal Occupational Sector disease fi rst documented in 1981 and soon named AIDS (ac- Manufacturing quired immune defi ciency syndrome). AIDS is the product of White-collar AIDS the HIV virus, which is transmitted by the .3% Blacks Service Epidemic exchange of bodily fl uids (blood or semen). Agriculture The virus gradually destroys the body’s im- mune system and makes its victims highly vulnerable to a num- 24% 23% ber of diseases (particularly to various forms of cancer and pneumonia) to which they would otherwise have a natural resis- tance. Those infected with the virus (i.e., HIV positive) can live for a long time without developing AIDS, but for many years 53% those who became ill were almost certain to die. The fi rst American victims of AIDS (and for many years the group among whom cases remained the most numerous) were homo- COMPARISON OF BLACK AND WHITE OCCUPATIONAL sexual men. But by the late 1980s, as the gay community began DISTRIBUTION, 2005 By the early twenty-fi rst century, as this chart makes to take preventive measures, the most rapid increase in the clear, the African-American middle class had grown dramatically. Over half of all spread of the disease occurred among heterosexuals, many of employed black workers in the United States worked in “white-collar” jobs. Perhaps them intravenous drug users, who spread the virus by sharing even more striking, given the distribution of the black population a half century earlier, is that almost no African Americans (about one-third of 1 percent) were working in contaminated hypodermic needles. agriculture by the early 2000s. But the gap between black and white workers remained By 2010, an estimated 1 million Americans were living with wide in several areas, particularly in the percentage of each group employed in low- the AIDS virus. But the United States represented only a tiny wage service jobs. proportion of the worldwide total of people affl icted with HIV, • What factors contributed to the increase of the black middle class in the years after an estimated 35 million people in 2010. Over two-thirds (ap- 1960? proximately 25 million) of those cases were concentrated in Africa. Governments and private groups, in the meantime, be- the nation’s black population. Many of them lived in isolated, gan promoting AIDS awareness in increasingly visible and The decaying, and desperately poor inner-city graphic ways—urging young people, in particular, to avoid “un- “Underclass” neighborhoods. As more successful blacks safe sex” through abstinence or the use of latex condoms. The moved out of the inner cities, the poor were success of that eff ort in the United States was suggested by the left behind in their decaying neighborhoods. Less than half of drop in new cases from 70,000 in 1995 to approximately 56,000 young inner-city blacks fi nished high school in 2006; more in 2010. than 60 percent were unemployed. The black family structure In the mid-1990s, AIDS researchers, after years of frustra- suff ered as well from the dislocations of urban poverty. There tion, began discovering eff ective treatments for the disease. By was a radical increase in the number of single-parent, female- taking a combination of powerful drugs on a rigorous schedule, headed black households. In 1970, only 59 percent of all black even people with advanced cases of AIDS experienced dramatic children under 18 lived with both their parents (already down improvement—so much so that in many cases there were no from 70 percent a decade earlier). In 2010, only 35 percent of measurable quantities of the virus left in their bloodstreams. black children lived in such households, while 74 percent of The new drugs gave promise for the fi rst time of dramatically white children did. extending the lives of people with AIDS, perhaps to normal life spans. Modern Plagues: AS MORE SUCCESSFUL BLACKS But the drugs were very expensive and MOVED OUT OF THE INNER diffi cult to administer; poorer AIDS pa- Drugs and AIDS tients often could not obtain access to Two new and deadly epidemics ravaged CITIES, THE POOR WERE LEFT them. And the drugs remained scarce many American communities begin- BEHIND IN THEIR DECAYING in Africa and other less affl uent parts of ning in the 1980s. One was a dramatic the world where the epidemic was ram- increase in drug use, which penetrated NEIGHBORHOODS. pant. The United Nations, many phil- nearly every community in the nation. anthropic organizations, and a number bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 899 4/20/11 4:44 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 899

“IGNORANCE 5 FEAR” The artist Keith Haring (whose work was inspired in large part by urban graffi ti) created this striking poster in 1989, the year before he died of AIDS, to generate support for the battle against the disease. “ACT UP,” the organization that distributed it, was among the most militant groups in demanding more rapid eff orts to search for a cure. (© The Estate of Keith Haring)

of governments, including the United States, committed sig- Amendment to the Constitution. They also played a central role nifi cant funds to fi ght the AIDS crisis in Africa in the 2000s, but in the most divisive issue of the last thirty years: the controversy progress remained slow. over abortion rights. For those who favored allowing women to choose to termi- nate unwanted pregnancies, the Supreme Court’s decision in A CONTESTED CULTURE Roe v. Wade (1973) had seemed to settle the question. By the 1980s, abortion was the most commonly performed surgical Few things created more controversy and anxiety in the 1980s procedure in the country. But at the same time, opposition to and 1990s than the battles over the character of American cul- “Right-to- abortion was creating a powerful grassroots ture. That culture had changed dramatically in many ways since Life” movement. The right-to-life movement, as World War II. It had seen a profound redefi nition of the roles of Movement it called itself, found its most fervent sup- women. It had produced a mobilization of many minorities and porters among Catholics; and indeed, the an at least partial inclusion of them into mainstream culture. It Catholic Church itself lent its institutional authority to the battle had experienced a sexual revolution. It had become much more against legalized abortion. Religious doctrine also motivated the explicit in its depiction of sex, violence, and dissent. American anti-abortion stance of many Mormons, evangelical Christians, culture was more diverse, more open, less restrained, and more and other groups. The opposition of some other anti-abortion contentious than it had been in the past. As a result, new contro- activists had less to do with religion than with their commit- versies and new issues emerged. ment to traditional notions of family and gender relations. To them, abortion was part of a much larger assault by feminists Battles over Feminism on the role of women as wives and mothers. It was also, many foes contended, a form of murder. Fetuses, they claimed, were and Abortion human beings who had a “right to life” from the moment of Among the goals of what was known as the “New Right” were conception. challenges to feminism and its achievements. Conservatives Although the right-to-life movement was persistent in its de- had campaigned successfully against the proposed Equal Rights mand for a reversal of Roe v. Wade or, barring that, a constitutional bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 900 13/04/11 1:49 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

PATTERNS OF POPULAR CULTURE

Rap

long musical lineage of rap includes elements of the disco and street funk of the Rap has taken many forms. There have been THE 1970s; of the fast-talking jive of black radio DJs in the 1950s; of the on-stage pat- white rappers (Eminem, House of Pain), female ter of Cab Calloway and other African American stars of the fi rst half of the twentieth rappers (Missy Elliot, Queen Latifah), even reli- century. It contains reminders of tap and break dancing—even of the boxing-ring poetry gious rappers and children’s rappers. But it has of Muhammad Ali. always been primarily a product of the young male Rap’s most important element is its words. It is as much a form of language as a culture of the inner city, and some of the most form of music. It bears a distant resemblance to some traditions of African American successful rap has conveyed the frustration and pulpit oratory, which also included forms of spoken song. It draws from some of the anger that these men have felt about their lives— verbal traditions of urban black street life, including the “dozens”—a ritualized trading “a voice for the oppressed people,” one rap artist of insults particularly popular among young black men. said, “that in many other ways don’t have a voice.” But rap is also the product of a distinctive place and time: the South Bronx in the In 1982, the rap group Grandmaster Flash and the 1970s and 1980s and the hip hop culture that was born there and that soon dominated Furious Five released a rap called “The Message,”* the appearance and public behavior of many young black males. “Hip hop is how you a searing description of ghetto culture: walk, talk, live, see, act, feel,” said one Bronx hip hopper. Some elements of hip hop Got a bum education, double-digit infl ation culture faded, and by the 1990s the most popular element of hip hop culture was rap, Can’t take the train to the job, there’s a which had by then been developing for nearly twenty years. strike at the station Beginning in the early 1970s, Bronx DJs began setting up their equipment on neigh- Don’t push me, ‘cause I’m close to the edge borhood streets and staging block parties, where they not only played records but I’m tryin’ not to lose me head also put on shows of their own—performances that featured spoken rhymes, jazzy It’s like a jungle sometime it makes me phrases, and pointed comments about the audience, the neighborhood, and them- wonder selves. Gradually, the DJs began to bring “rappers” into shows—young men who devel- How I keep from going under. oped the DJ style into a much more elaborate form of performance, usually accompanied by dancing. As rap grew more popular in the inner city, record promoters began signing In the late 1980s, the Compton and Watts some of its new stars. In 1979, the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” became the fi rst neighborhoods of Los Angeles—two of the most rap single to be played on mainstream commercial radio and the fi rst to become a major distressed minority communities in the city— hit. In the early 1980s, Run-DMC became the fi rst national rap superstars. From there, produced their own style, known as West Coast rap moved quickly to become one of the most popular and commercially successful rap, with such groups as Ice Cube, Ice T, Tupac forms of popular music. In the 1990s and early 2000s, rap recordings routinely sold mil- Shakur, and Snoop Doggy Dog. West Coast rap lions of copies. often had a harsh, angry character, and at its ex-

amendment banning abortion, it also attacked abortion in The changing judicial climate of the late twentieth and more limited ways, at its most vulnerable points. Starting in early twenty-fi rst centuries mobilized defenders of abortion the late 1970s, Congress and many state legislatures began bar- “Pro-Choice” as never before. They called themselves ring the use of public funds to pay for abortions, thus making Movement the “pro-choice” movement, because they them almost inaccessible for many poor women in some were defending not so much abortion it- states. The Reagan and the two Bush administrations imposed self as every woman’s right to choose whether and when to further restrictions on federal funding and even on the right of bear a child. The pro-choice movement was in many parts of doctors in federally funded clinics to give patients any infor- the country at least as strong as, and in some areas much mation on abortion. Extremists in the right-to-life movement stronger than, the right-to-life movement. With the election began picketing, occupying, and at times bombing abortion of President Clinton in 1992, a supporter of “choice,” the im- clinics. Several anti-abortion activists murdered doctors who mediate threat to Roe v. Wade seemed to fade. Clinton’s re- performed abortions; other physicians were subject to cam- election in 1996 was, among other things, evidence that the paigns of terrorism and harassment. The changing composi- pro-choice movement maintained considerable political tion of the Supreme Court between 1981 and 2010 (during strength. But abortion rights remained highly vulnerable. which time new conservative justices were appointed to the Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush, openly opposed abor- Court) renewed the right-to-life movement’s hopes for a rever- tion. Barack Obama supported the right to abortion when he sal of Roe v. Wade. became president.

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much of it is explicitly positive, some of it delib- erately gentle. Chuck D and other successful rap- pers use their music to exhort young black men to avoid drugs and crime, to take responsibility for their children, to get an education. And the form, if not the content, of the original rappers has spread widely through American culture. Rap came to dominate the music charts in America, and its styles made their way onto Sesame Street and other children’s shows, into television com- mercials, Hollywood fi lms, and the everyday lan- guage of millions of people, young and old, black and white. It became another of the arresting, innovative African American musical traditions that have shaped American culture for more than a century. •

RUN DMC The group Run DMC, shown here in concert, was one of rap music’s fi rst superstars. They *Edward Fletcher, M. Glover, and S. Robinson, “The released their fi rst album in 1983 and remained popular fi fteen years later, although by then—given the short Message,” recorded 1982 by Grand Master Flash & The life span of most groups—they were, by their own admission, senior citizens on the rap circuit. At a concert in Furious Five. Reprinted by permission of Sugar Hill New York in 1997, they asked the audience to “put your hands in the air if you love old-school.” A critic from Music Publishing Ltd. Rolling Stone wrote that “from the crowd’s ecstatic reaction,” the answer was clearly yes. (© Lisa Leone)

tremes (the so-called gangsta’ rap), it could be strikingly violent and highly provocative. UNDERSTAND, ANALYZE, Scandals erupted over controversial lyrics—Ice T’s “Cop Killer,” which some critics be- AND EVALUATE lieved advocated murdering police; and the sexually explicit lyrics of 2 Live Crew and other groups, which critics accused of advocating violence against women. 1. What other African American musical But it was not just the lyrics that caused the furor. Rap artists were almost all prod- forms have helped shape American popular ucts of tough inner-city neighborhoods, and the rough-edged styles many took with culture? them into the public eye made many people uncomfortable. Some rappers found them- 2. If rap is so closely associated with the inner- selves caught up in highly publicized trouble with the law. Several—including two of city culture where it originated, what ac- rap’s biggest stars, Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.—were murdered. The business counts for its widespread popularity and of rap, particularly the confrontational business style of Death Row Records (founded by commercial success? What other forms or Dr. Dre, a veteran of the fi rst major West Coast rap group NWA), was a source of public styles of popular music enjoy a popularity controversy as well. that extends far beyond its cultural origins? These controversies at times unfairly dominated the image of rap as a whole. Some 3. Do you think rap’s popularity will endure? rap is angry and cruel, as are many of the realities of the world from which it comes. But Why or why not?

BP OIL SPILL This photograph shows the eff orts of BP attempting to cap the oil spill that was a result of an explosion on an off shore drilling platform. The oil leaked for months, and it continues to damage the ecology of the Gulf of Mexico even a year later. (© Julie Dermansky/Corbis)

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DEBATING THE PAST

Women’s History

have long considered the infl uence of ideas, economic interests, tion to the oppression of women by harsh work- HISTORIANS class, and race and ethnicity on the course of history. Women’s ing conditions and arouse sentiment for reform. history challenged them to consider as well the role of gender. Throughout history, many After the victory of the suffrage movement scholars now argue, societies have created distinctive roles for men and women. How those in 1920, women’s history entered a half century roles have been defi ned, and the ways in which the roles affect how people and cultures of relative inactivity. Women continued to write behave, should be central to our understanding of both the past and the present. important histories in many fi elds, and some— In the nineteenth century, women’s history generally stressed the unrecognized con- for example, Eleanor Flexner, whose Century of tributions of women to history—for example, Sarah Hale’s 1853 Record of All Struggle (1959) became a classic history of the Distinguished Women from “the Beginning” till A.D. 1850. Work of the same sort contin- suffrage crusade—wrote explicitly about ued into the twentieth century and, indeed, continues today. women. Mary Beard, best known for her sweep- But after 1900, people committed to progressive reform movements began to pro- ing historical narratives written in collaboration duce a different kind of women’s scholarship, focusing primarily on the ways in which with her husband, Charles Beard, published women were victimized by industrialism. Feminist scholars such as Edith Abbott, Women as a Force in History (1964), in which Margaret Byington, and Katherine Anthony examined the impact of economic change she argued for the historical importance of or- on working-class families, with a special focus on women; and they looked at the often dinary women as shapers of society. But such terrible conditions in which women worked in factories, mills, and other people’s work at fi rst had little impact on the writing of homes. Their goal was less to celebrate women’s contributions than to direct atten- history as a whole.

The Growth of Environmentalism winning ratifi cation of the treaty. In March 2001, President George W. Bush denounced the treaty for placing too great a The environmental movement, which had grown so dramati- burden on the United States and withdrew it from consider- cally in the late 1960s and early 1970s, continued to expand in ation. And Barack Obama in his fi rst years as president did lit- the 1980s, 1990s, and the early 2000s. In the decades after the tle to advance the goal. The Kyoto treaty was opposed by the fi rst Earth Day, environmental issues gained increasing atten- Chinese government, and many environmentalists consider tion and support. Although the federal government displayed the treaty dead. Environmental only intermittent interest in the subject, Activism environmentalists won a series of signifi - cant battles, mostly at the local level. They THE PERILS OF blocked the construction of roads, airports, and other projects GLOBALIZATION that they claimed would be ecologically dangerous, taking ad- vantage of new legislations protecting endangered species and environmentally fragile regions. The celebration of the beginning of a new millennium on In the late 1980s, the environmental movement began to January 1, 2000, was a notable moment not just because of the mobilize around a new and ominous challenge, which became change in the calendar. It was notable above all as a global known as “global warming”—a steady rise in the earth’s tem- event—a shared and for the most part joyous experience that perature as a result of emissions from the burning of fossil fu- united the world in its exuberance. But if the millennium els (most notably coal and oil). Although considerable celebrations suggested the bright promise of globalization, controversy continues over the pace, and even the reality, of other events at the dawn of the new century suggested its dark global warming, by the early twenty-fi rst century a broad con- perils. sensus was growing around the issue—thanks in part to the eff orts of signifi cant public fi gures such as former vice presi- dent Al Gore. In 1997, representatives of the major industrial Opposing the “New World Order” nations met in Kyoto, Japan, and agreed to a broad treaty estab- In the United States and other industrial nations, opposition lishing steps toward reducing carbon emissions and thus slow- Critics of to globalization—or to what President ing or reversing global warming. Opposition to the treaty from Intervention George H. W. Bush once called “the new Republicans in Congress prevented President Clinton from world order”—took several forms. Many

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Along with the rise in modern feminism in the 1960s and 1970s, interest in women’s that understanding “masculinity” and its role in history revived as well. Gerda Lerner, one of the pioneers of the new women’s history, shaping men’s lives was as important as under- once wrote of the impact of feminism on historical studies: “The recognition that we had standing notions of “femininity” in explaining been denied our history came to many of us as a staggering insight, which altered our the history of women. consciousness irretrievably.” Much of the early work was in the “contributionist” tradi- The notion of gender as a source of social and tion, stressing the way in which women had played more notable roles in major histori- cultural difference raised a powerful challenge to cal events than historians had usually acknowledged. Other work stressed ways in which the way in which scholars view the past. Many women had been victimized by their subordination to men and by their powerlessness historians continue to believe that other catego- within the industrial economy. ries (race and class in particular) have in fact Increasingly, however, women’s history began to question the nature of gender been more important than gender in shaping the itself. Some scholars began to emphasize the artifi ciality of gender distinctions, argu- lives of men and women. But, as Joan Scott, a ing that the difference between women and men was socially constructed, superfi cial, theorist of gender studies, contends, it is not and (in the public world, at least) unimportant. The history of women was, therefore, enough simply to expand the existing story to the history of how men (with the unwitting help of many women) had created and make room for women. Rather, recognizing gen- maintained a set of fi ctions about women’s capacities that modern women were now der as a central force in the lives of societies calls attempting to shatter. for a reconceptualization of the past. • By the early 1980s, some feminists had begun to make a very different argument: that there were basic differences between women and men—not just biological differences, but differences in values, sensibilities, and culture. The feminists of the 1970s and 1980s UNDERSTAND, ANALYZE, did not see these differences as evidence of women’s incapacities. They saw them, AND EVALUATE rather, as evidence of an alternative female culture capable of challenging (and improv- ing) the male-dominated world. Some historians of women, therefore, began exploring 1. What is the emphasis in the “contribution- areas of female experience that revealed the special character of women’s culture and ist” tradition of women’s history? values: family, housework, motherhood, women’s clubs and organizations, female lit- 2. How do women’s history, feminist history, erature, the social lives of working-class women, women’s sexuality, and many other and gender history differ from one another? subjects that suggested “difference” more than “contributions” or “victimization.” 3. What does gender history add to our under- Partly in response, some historians began to make the same argument about men— standing of the past?

Americans on both the left and the right opposed the na- the right claimed that the nation was allowing itself to be tion’s increasingly interventionist foreign policy. Critics on swayed by the interests of other nations—as in the humani- the left charged that the United States was using military ac- tarian interventions in Somalia in 1993 and the Balkans in tion to advance its economic interests, in the 1991 Gulf War the late 1990s—and was ceding its sovereignty to interna- and, above all, in the Iraq War that began in 2003. Critics on tional organizations.

PROTESTS IN SEATTLE, 1999 When the World Trade Organization held its annual meeting in Seattle, Washington, in late 1999, thousands of demonstrators crowded into the city to protest the WTO’s role in the globalization of the economy and, they believed, the exploitation of working people in the United States and around the world. Their rowdy and at times violent demonstrations postponed the opening of the conference. In this photograph, a protester faces Seattle police in a cloud of tear gas, waiting to be arrested. Similar demonstrations disrupted other meetings of global economic organizations over the next several years, including protests in Washington and Genoa, Italy. (Reuters NewMedia Inc./Corbis)

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AMERICA IN THE WORLD

The Global Environmental Movement

international movement for well over a century, environmentalism has grown Chernobyl itself is expected to be partially con- AN rapidly throughout the world in the late twentieth and early twenty-fi rst centuries. taminated for 24,000 years, the radioactive half- What began as a series of efforts to preserve wilderness sites and to clean up air and life of plutonium-239. A less catastrophic nuclear water in particular nations has evolved into a broad effort to deal with problems that accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, in affect, and threaten, the entire globe. 1979 heightened antinuclear sentiment in the Organizations both in the United States and elsewhere in the world have sought to United States. In 1989, the oil tanker Exxon create an international environmental movement. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) was Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince created in Switzerland in 1961. It eventually attracted more than 5 million supporters in over William Sound, Alaska, and spilled approxi- 90 countries and now claims to be the world’s largest independent conservation organiza- mately 10.9 million gallons of crude oil. Eventually tion. Greenpeace was founded in Canada in 1971 in opposition to U.S. nuclear testing in covering thousands of square miles of ocean wa- Alaska. It too has grown into an international organization, with 2.9 million fi nancial sup- ter (and 1,300 miles of Alaska shoreline) in oil, porters worldwide and a presence in 42 nations. Leading American environmental associa- the spill killed hundreds of thousands of animals tions include the Wilderness Society, the Sierra Club, and the National Audubon Society. instantly and devastated the fragile ecosystem of Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Greenpeace and WWF were not the Sound. An even greater oil spill occurred in the only institutions to recognize environmental concerns. In June 1972, the United Nations the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 from an explosion in a held its fi rst Conference on the Human Environment. Representatives of 113 countries deep well established by BP. Eleven people died attended the conference to discuss issues of global environmental importance—including in the explosion, and almost 5 million barrels of the role of chlorofl uorocarbons (CFCs), a chemical compound used in refrigerants and petroleum were released into the water. aerosol sprays, in depleting the ozone layer. After the conference, the UN created the In developed, industrialized nations, environ- United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to help coordinate international ef- mental advocacy has largely focused on energy forts for environmentalism and encourage sustainable development in poorer nations policy, conservation, clean technologies, and around the world. changing individual and social attitudes about The world’s fi rst “Green” parties—political parties explicitly devoted to environmental consumption (as in the recycling movement). In concerns (and often also to other issues of social justice)—appeared in 1972, beginning in the developing world, however, the growth of en- New Zealand (the Values Party) and Tasmania (the United Tasmania Group). Since then, vironmentalism is often linked to issues of hu- Green parties have proliferated throughout the world, including in the United States. The man and democratic rights and freedom from most powerful Green party to date has been Die Grüne in Germany, founded in 1980. First World exploitation. For example, the Green Large-scale ecological catastrophes have often helped galvanize the global environ- Belt Movement in Kenya, begun in 1977 by mental movement. Among the more signifi cant of these events was the Bhopal disaster Wangari Maathai, encouraged Kenyan women to of 1984, in which a gas leak at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, resulted plant over 30 million trees across the nation to in the deaths of an estimated 3,000 to 15,000 people. Two years later, a nuclear reactor address the challenges of deforestation, soil ero- accident in the Soviet city of Chernobyl in Ukraine caused 56 direct deaths, with predic- sion, and lack of water. The Green Belt Movement tions of many thousands more deaths to follow as a result of exposure. The area around became an important human rights and women’s

But the most impassioned opposition to globalization in they enriched and empowered large multinational corpora- the West came from an array of groups that saw it as an eco- tions and threatened the freedom and autonomy of individuals nomic threat. Labor unions insisted that the rapid expansion and communities. of free-trade agreements led to the export of jobs from ad- The opponents of globalization were mostly agreed on the vanced nations to less developed ones. Other groups attacked targets of their discontent: not just free-trade agreements, but working conditions in new manufacturing countries on hu- also the multinational institutions that policed and advanced manitarian grounds, arguing that the global economy was cre- the global economy. Among them were the World Trade ating new classes of “slave laborers” working in conditions Organization, which monitored the enforcement of the GATT that few Western nations would tolerate. Environmentalists treaties of the 1990s; the International Monetary Fund, which argued that globalization, in exporting industry to low-wage controlled international credit and exchange rates; and the countries, also exported industrial pollution and toxic waste Globalization World Bank, which made money available into nations that had no eff ective laws to control them, and Protested for development projects in many coun- contributed signifi cantly to global warming. And still others tries. In November 1999, when the leaders opposed global economic arrangements on the grounds that of the seven leading industrial nations (and the leader

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rights organization, focused on reducing poverty and promot- Defending Orthodoxy ing peaceful democratic change through environmental con- servation and protection. Maathai, winner of the 2004 Nobel Outside the industrialized West, the impact of globalization cre- Peace Prize, has since served as Kenya’s Assistant Minister for ated other concerns. Many citizens of nonindustrialized nations Environment and Natural Resources. resented the way the world economy had left them in poverty In the past two decades the environmental movement has and, in their view, exploited and oppressed. In some parts of the grown even more global in scope, with multilateral environ- nonindustrialized world—particularly in some of the Islamic mental treaties and worldwide summits becoming principal nations of the Middle East—the increasing reach of globaliza- strategies of advocates. In 1997, an international effort to re- tion created additional grievances, rooted not just in economics duce global warming by mandating the lowering of green- but also in religion and culture. house gas emissions culminated in the Kyoto protocols, which as of late 2010 had been ratifi ed by 183 nations (with the The Iranian Revolution of 1979, in which orthodox Muslims United States a conspicuous exception). A leading fi gure in ousted a despotic government whose leaders had embraced bringing the issue of global warming to wide attention both in many aspects of modern Western culture, was one of the fi rst the United States and around the world has been former vice Rise of Islamic large and visible manifestations of a phe- president Al Gore, whose 2006 fi lm, An Inconvenient Truth, Fundamentalism nomenon that would eventually reach may have done more to raise awareness of the threat of global across much of the Islamic world and warming than any other recent event. The fi lm won an threaten the stability of the globe. In one Islamic nation after Academy Award as Best Documentary Feature, and Gore won another, waves of fundamentalist orthodoxy emerged to defend the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of the traditional culture against incursions from the West. movement he has championed. His co-winner was the One product of these resentments was a growing resort to International Panel on Climate Change, launched in violence as a way to fi ght the infl uence of the West. Militants in Switzerland in 1988 and affi liated with the United Nations. • various parts of the world used isolated incidents of violence and mayhem, designed to disrupt societies and governments and to create fear among their peoples. Such tactics are known UNDERSTAND, ANALYZE, AND EVALUATE to the world as terrorism.

1. Why are environmental movements in developing na- tions often linked to issues of human rights and protec- The Rise of Terrorism tion from exploitation by developed nations? How do developed nations threaten the environment of develop- The term “terrorism” was used fi rst during the French ing nations? Revolution in the 1790s to describe the actions of the radical 2. How did the 2010 BP explosion and oil spill in the Gulf of Jacobins against the French government. The word continued Mexico affect the environment? What was the effect on to be used intermittently throughout the nineteenth and early the environmental movement? twentieth centuries to describe the use of violence as a form of 3. Environmental organizations include grassroots associa- Origins of intimidation against peoples and govern- tions, worldwide NGOs, and national political parties. Terrorism ments. But the widespread understanding How do these groups focus attention on environmental of terrorism as an important fact of modern issues? Which type of organization do you think would life is largely a product of the end of the twentieth century and be most successful at reaching its goals? Why? the beginning of the twenty-fi rst. Acts of what we have come to call terrorism have occurred in many parts of the world. Irish revolutionaries engaged in terrorism regularly against the English through much of the twentieth century. Jews used it in Palestine against the of Russia) gathered for their annual meeting in Seattle, British before the creation of Israel, and Palestinians used it Washington, tens of thousands of protesters—most of them frequently against Jews in Israel—over several decades. peaceful, but some of them violent—clashed with police, Revolutionary groups in Italy, Germany, Japan, and France smashed store windows, and all but paralyzed the city. A few have engaged in terrorist acts intermittently over the past sev- months later, a smaller but still substantial demonstration dis- eral decades. rupted meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Washington. The United States, too, has experienced terrorism for many And in July 2001, at a meeting of the same leaders in Genoa, years, much of it against American targets abroad. These in- Italy, an estimated 50,000 demonstrators clashed violently cluded the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, with police in a melee that left one protester dead and several the explosion that brought down an American airliner over hundred injured. The participants in the meeting responded Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, the bombing of American embas- to the demonstrations by pledging $1.2 billion to fi ght the sies in 1998, the assault on the U.S. naval vessel Cole in 2000, AIDS epidemic in developing countries, and also by deciding and other events around the world. Terrorist incidents were to hold future meetings in remote locations far from major relatively rare, but not unknown, within the United States itself cities. prior to September 11, 2001. Militants on the American left

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906 • CHAPTER 32

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001 One great American symbol, the Statue of Liberty, stands against a sky fi lled with the thick smoke from the destruction of another American symbol, New York City’s World Trade Center towers, a few hours after terrorists crashed two planes into them. (Daniel Hulshizer/AP/Wide World Photos)

performed various acts of terror in the 1960s and early 1970s. In The War on Terrorism February 1993, a bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York killing six people and causing In the aftermath of September 2001, the United States govern- serious, but not irreparable, structural damage to the towers. ment launched what President Bush called a “war against ter- Several men connected with militant Islamic organizations rorism.” The attacks on the World Trade Center and the were convicted of the crime. In April 1995, a van containing ex- Pentagon, government intelligence indicated, had been plosives blew up in front of a federal building in Oklahoma City, planned and orchestrated by Middle Eastern agents of a power- killing 168 people. Timothy McVeigh, a former Marine who had Al Qaeda ful terrorist network known as Al Qaeda. Its become part of a militant antigovernment movement of the leader, Osama Bin Laden—until 2001 little American right, was convicted of the crime and eventually exe- known outside the Arab world—quickly became one of the cuted in 2001. most notorious fi gures in the world. Convinced that the mili- Most Americans, however, considered terrorism a problem tant “Taliban” government of Afghanistan had sheltered and that mainly plagued other nations. One of the many results of supported Bin Laden and his organization, the United States the terrible events of September 11, 2001, was to jolt the began a sustained campaign of bombing against the regime American people out of complacency and alert them to the pres- and sent in ground troops to help a resistance organization ence of continuing danger. That awareness increased in the overthrow the Afghan government. Afghanistan’s Taliban re- years following September 11. New security measures changed gime quickly collapsed, and its leaders—along with the Al Qaeda the way in which Americans traveled. New government regula- fi ghters allied with them—fl ed the capital, Kabul. American tions altered immigration policies and aff ected the character of and anti-Taliban Afghan troops pursued them into the moun- international banking. Warnings of possible new terrorist at- tains, but failed to capture Bin Laden and the other leaders of tacks created widespread tension and uneasiness. his organization. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 907 4/20/11 4:44 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 907

SOVIET ITALY UNION SOVIET UNION GREECE Ankara TURKEY Caspian Kabul 1974—Fighting between Turkey Sea TUNISIA and Greece over Cyprus AFGHANISTAN M e threatens NATO unity Tehran 1979—U.S. supports guerrillas d i 1980—Iran-Iraq war fighting Soviet invaders Tripoli t e r r a n CYPRUS SYRIA 2003—American invasion 2001—U.S. begins military e a n Beirut IRAQBaghdad Gulf of S e a LEBANON and occupation of Iraq action against Taliban regime Sidra Damascus for its support of terrorism ISRAEL Amman Jerusalem IRAN PAKISTAN INDIA LIBYA JORDAN Strait of 1969—Qaddafi seizes power Cairo KUWAIT P Hormuz e 1977—Abortive border war rs EGYPT iaBAHRAIN with Egypt n OMAN Gu 1986—U.S. responds to Libyan- 1990—Iraq invades Kuwait lf Gulf of 1991—U.S. and others Abu backed terrorism by bombing 1978—Egypt and Israel DhabiOman agree to Camp David accords drive Iraq out of Kuwait QATAR Tripoli Muscat 1979—Formal peace treaty in Gulf War UNITED Riyadh ARAB Arabian signed between Egypt EMIRATES Sea and Israel1981—Sadat assassinated R SAUDI ARABIA e OMAN d Mecca CHAD SUDAN 1953—U.S. supports shah, helps S put down anti-U.S. Socialist e a SOUTH government YEMEN 1979—Shah overthrown YEMEN 1979–1981—Hostage crisis Sana EXPANSION OF ISRAEL en LEBANON Aden Ad f of 1958—U.S. intervention Gul supports pro-West Beirut DJIBOUTI government Damascus 1981–1984—U.S. joins UN Sidon SOMALIA peacekeeping force, suffers 1976—Invasion series of violent attacks Tyre of Lebanon INDIAN ISRAEL SYRIA ETHIOPIA OCEAN 1993—Israel and PLO sign GOLAN accords for Palestinian HEIGHTS self-rule in Jericho and Gaza Strip 2002–2003—Escalating Tel Aviv WEST Amman violence leads to erection BANK

of wall along border of Jerusalem Jordan River West Bank 0 500 mi GAZA Dead STRIP Sea KENYA 0 500 1000 km

Suez Canal JORDAN Israel, 1948 Territory occupied, 1982–1986

Territory gained, 1949 Area of Israeli settlements EGYPT Territory occupied, 1967 OPEC member nations SINAI Eilat Territory yielded, 1979–1982 Major oil fields PENINSULA Aqaba TAN ZAN IA

a OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries G b

u a (Members not shown are Nigeria, Algeria, Gabon, Indonesia, l q f A Venezuela, and Ecuador)

o f

f o

S f u l PLO: Palestine Liberation Organization e u z SAUDI ARABIA G

0 50 mi

0 50 100 km Red Sea

CRISES IN THE MIDDLE EAST In the 1970s and beyond, the Middle East became one of the most turbulent regions of the world and one of the regions most vital to, and diffi cult for, the United States. The United States intervened in the Middle East frequently during the Cold War and beyond, in ways both large and small, as this map reveals. After the events of September 2001, those interventions increased. • Why did the United States have so much at stake in the Middle East?

American forces in Afghanistan rounded up several hundred under the new laws created by the federal government to deal people suspected of connections to the Taliban and Al Qaeda in with terrorism after September 11, 2001. The Patriot Act of 2001 the aftermath of the fi ghting and eventually moved these pris- was the most important of these new laws. The post–September 11 oners to a facility at the American base in Guantanamo, Cuba. laws and policies made it possible for suspected terrorists to be They were among the fi rst suspected terrorists to be handled held for months, and in many cases years, without access to bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 908 13/04/11 1:50 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

908 • CHAPTER 32

lawyers, without facing formal charges, warfare. Less central to these argu- subjected to intensive interrogation MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. ments, at least in the United States, was and torture. They became examples to the charge that the Hussein govern- PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH many critics of the dangers to basic civil ment was responsible for major viola- liberties they believed the war on terror tions of human rights. Except for the had created. last, none of these claims turned out to be accurate. Several Supreme Court rulings, including one in 2008, dis- In March 2003, American and British troops, with scant missed the Bush administration’s argument that detainees in support from other countries and partial authorization from Guantanamo were outside the reach of American law. But the the United Nations, invaded Iraq and quickly toppled the administration was slow to comply. Before his election in 2008, Hussein regime. Hussein himself went into hiding but was Barack Obama promised to close the Guantanamo prison, eventually captured in December 2003 and executed in 2006. which had become a symbol to many people of unfair treat- In May 2003, shortly after the American capture of Baghdad, ment. But once in offi ce, Obama found it diffi cult to keep this President Bush made a dramatic appearance on an aircraft promise because of popular opposition to moving prisoners carrier off the coast of California, where, standing in front of a into facilities in the United States. large sign reading “Mission Accomplished,” he declared vic- tory in the Iraq War. In fact, the war in Iraq continued for six more years, during The Iraq War which 3,600 soldiers were killed (out of just over 4,200 in total). In his State of the Union Address to Congress in January 2002, Support for the war in the United States steadily declined in the President Bush spoke of an “axis of evil,” which included the fi rst months of the war, especially when it became clear that the nations of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea—all nations with anti- “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq turned out not to exist. American regimes, all nations that either possessed or were Reports of torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers in- thought to be trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Although creased the unpopularity of the war. President Bush did not say so at the time, many people around The invasion of Iraq was the most visible evidence of a basic the world interpreted these words to mean that the United change in the structure of American foreign policy under the States would soon try to topple the government of Saddam presidency of George W. Bush. Ever since the late 1940s, when Hussein in Iraq. the containment policy became the cornerstone of America’s For over a year after that, the Bush administration slowly built role in the world, the United States had worked to maintain a public case for invading Iraq. Much of that case rested on two stability in the world by containing, but not often directly threat- claims. One was that Iraq was supporting terrorist groups that ening or attacking, its adversaries. Even after the Cold War were hostile to the United States. The other, and eventually the ended, the United States continued to demonstrate a reasonable more important, was that Iraq either had or was developing what level of constraint, despite its unchallenged military preemi- came to be known as “weapons of mass destruction,” which in- nence. In the administrations of George H. W. Bush and Bill cluded nuclear weapons and agents of chemical and biological Clinton, for example, American leaders worked closely with the

BAGHDAD, MARCH 21, 2003 At the beginning of the American invasion of Iraq in spring 2003, the United States military used techniques honed in the fi rst Gulf War in Kuwait— the use of heavy bombing of Iraqi targets before deploying troops in the fi eld. This photograph shows explosions in downtown Baghdad at the beginning of the war as American bombers tried to hit strategic targets in the city. (Getty Images) bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 909 13/04/11 1:50 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 909

also, when necessary, by military force. In Latvia in May 2005, President Bush spoke of the decision at the end of World War II not to challenge Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, a de- cision that had rested on the belief that such a challenge would lead the United States into another war. The controversial agreement negotiated at Yalta in 1945 by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, which failed to end the Soviet occupation of Poland and other Eastern European nations, was, the president said, part of an “unjust tradition” by which powerful governments sacrifi ced the interests of small nations. “This attempt to sacri- fi ce freedom for the sake of stability,” the president continued, “left a continent divided and unstable.” The lesson, Bush sug- gested, was that the United States and other great powers should value stability less and freedom more, and should be willing to take greater risks in the world to end tyranny and oppression.

THIS ATTEMPT TO SACRIFICE FREEDOM FOR THE SAKE OF STABILITY LEFT A CONTINENT DIVIDED AND UNSTABLE.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

TURBULENT POLITICS

The least years of the Bush administration and the fi rst years of the presidency of Barack Obama were diffi cult times. For President Bush, his last years in offi ce were buff eted by the growing unpopularity of the Iraq War, the weak response to the

“MISSION ACCOMPLISHED,” 2003 President George W. Bush chose the devastating hurricane that damaged New Orleans and the Gulf USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier moored just off the coast of San Diego, for his Coast, and the loss of Republican majorities in both houses. fi rst major address after the end of formal hostilities in the Iraq War on May 1, 2003. To President Obama entered offi ce only months after a historic strengthen his own identifi cation with the military, he fl ew in on an S-3 Viking that economic crisis. Its impact damaged Obama’s popularity and landed on the carrier’s deck and appeared before cameras wearing a fl ight suit and carrying a helmet. Later, dressed in a conventional business suit, he addressed a crowd emboldened the Republicans. of service men and women on the deck, standing beneath a large banner reading “Mission Accomplished.” Later, as fi ghting in Iraq continued with no clear end in sight, and as the war became increasingly unpopular, Bush received much criticism The Unraveling of the and ridicule for what many Americans considered a premature celebration of Bush Presidency victory. (Reuters/Corbis) For most of the fi rst three years of his presidency, George W. Bush enjoyed broad popularity. Although his domestic poli- United Nations and NATO to achieve U.S. international goals cies never had large public support, Bush was revered by many and usually resisted taking unilateral military action. Americans because of his resolute stance against terrorism. There had always been those who criticized these con- Even the controversial Iraq War helped sustain his popularity straints. They believed that America should do more than for a time. maintain stability, and should move actively to topple undem- Bush’s domestic policies did little to strengthen him politi- ocratic regimes and destroy potential enemies of the United cally. The large tax cuts of 2001 went disproportionately to very States. In the administration of George W. Bush, these critics wealthy Americans, refl ecting the view of White House econo- took control of American foreign policy and began to reshape mists that the best way to ensure growth was to put money into it. The legacy of containment was repudiated. Instead, the the hands of people most likely to invest. The tax cuts also con- public stance of the American government was that the United tributed to the nearly 10 trillion dollars that increased the na- States had the right and the responsibility to spread freedom tional debt during the Bush presidency. Other than the tax cuts, throughout the world—not just by exhortation and example, but Bush’s major accomplishment was an education reform bill, bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 910 13/04/11 1:50 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

910 • CHAPTER 32

known as “No Child Left Behind,” which tied federal funding in The Election of 2008 schools to the success of students in taking standardized tests. Still other proposals—an eff ort to privatize some aspects of the Both parties began the 2008 campaign with large fi elds of can- Social Security system, for example—never attracted signifi cant didates, but by the spring the contest had narrowed consider- support in Congress. Even before the Democrats regained con- ably. Senator John McCain of Arizona, who had lost the trol of the Congress in 2006, Bush found himself unable to Republican nomination to George W. Bush in 2000, emerged make progress on any signifi cant legislation. As a result, the from the early primaries with his nomination assured. In the Bush administration began to make much greater use of execu- Democratic race, the primaries quickly eliminated all but two tive orders—laws and policies that did not require congressio- candidates. They were Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, nal approval—to achieve its goals. the former fi rst lady, and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a By 2004, when the president faced reelection, it seemed by young, charismatic politician and the son of an African father no means certain that he would be reelected. The Democrats and a white American mother. As the fi rst woman and the fi rst rallied behind Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, a Vietnam African American to have a realistic chance of being elected veteran with many years of experience in government. Kerry president, their candidacies aroused high expectations and strongly opposed the war in Iraq and based much of his cam- enormous enthusiasm. The passions driving both campaigns paign on criticizing the president’s policies. But harsh attacks led to a primary contest that lasted much longer than usual. on Kerry, combined with the mobilization of large numbers of Not until the last primaries in June was it clear that Obama conservatives, helped Bush win a narrow victory in an election would be the nominee. notable for its very high voter turnout. McCain and Obama entered the fall campaign with starkly dif- Bush’s second term was a diffi cult one. The war in Iraq con- ferent programs. McCain supported the war in Iraq. Obama pro- tinued to go badly, and its unpopularity contributed to the rap- posed a gradual reduction of American troops over a fi xed period. idly declining approval ratings of the president himself—ratings McCain opposed national health insurance, Obama supported it. that by mid-2008 had reached the lowest level of presidential McCain supported additional tax cuts to spur investment, while approval in the history of polling. Perhaps more damaging to Obama urged tax increases on the wealthiest Americans. Bush’s popularity was the government’s response to a disas- By the time of the party conventions in late August, Barack trous hurricane, Katrina, that devastated a swath of the coastline Obama was leading John McCain in the polls. Obama chose of the Gulf of Mexico in August 2005 and gravely damaged the Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware as his running mate. city of New Orleans. The federal government’s incompetent re- McCain chose Sarah Palin, the largely unknown governor of sponse to Katrina aroused anger throughout the nation and Alaska. Palin’s powerful acceptance speech galvanized many greatly damaged the reputation of the president and his admin- Republicans, especially those who shared her very conservative istration. Scandals in the Justice Department, revelations of il- views. But her visible inexperience, much ridiculed by comedi- legal violations of civil liberties, and declining economic ans, disturbed many voters and, over time, seemed to do dam- prospects—culminating in a calamitous fi nancial crisis in early age to the Republican campaign. 2008—all reinforced the growing repudiation of the president Far more important to the outcome of the election, how- and his party. ever, was the series of fi nancial problems that began in mid-2007,

OBAMANIA Posters of and about Barack Obama were widely visible during the 2008 presidential campaign. In this photograph, a New Yorker walks past one example of the Obama street art that spread through many American cities—and, indeed, through cities around the world. Among the depictions of Obama during the campaign were the work of leading artists, who saw in him a fi gure of possibly historic signifi cance. (Photo by Chris McGrath/ Getty Images) bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 911 4/20/11 4:44 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 911

grew slowly worse in the fi rst months of 2008, and reached help the government bail out the banks. Despite considerable crisis level over the summer and early fall. An important fac- popular opposition to the plan, the administration won con- tor in the growth of the fi nancial crisis was a signifi cant gressional approval for a $750 billion package to be used to downturn in the housing market, which in turn triggered a shore up tottering financial institutions. The bailout kept mortgage crisis. For years, fi nancial institutions had been the fi nancial institutions from collapsing, but the credit mar- developing new credit instruments intended to make bor- kets remained constricted, and economic activity by both rowing easier and cheaper, and which lured millions of peo- producers and consumers began to decline. ple into taking on large mortgages—often much larger than This extraordinary crisis formed the backdrop against which would traditionally have seemed safe—on very low short- the presidential candidates fought out the last two months of term rates, many of which escalated sharply after the fi rst few their campaign. Obama benefi ted from the unpopularity of years. Unable to pay their mortgages, which were often worth George W. Bush and from his success at persuading voters that more than the market value of their homes, millions of de- McCain would continue Bush’s policies. Despite the often sharp faulters abandoned their houses. At fi rst, the defaults af- attacks on Obama from the Republicans, he held onto his lead fected mostly companies that specialized in home mortgages, through late September and October, helped by a heavily fi nanced but since most mortgages were quickly sold, and often resold and highly disciplined campaign. several times, the bad debts spread throughout a widening On November 4, 2008, Barack Obama won a decisive victory, swath of the fi nancial world. Over the summer, some of the winning the popular vote 53 percent to 46 percent and the elec- nation’s most important economic institutions began to fail. toral vote by an even larger margin. Obama became the fi rst Some were rescued (and eff ectively taken over) by the federal Democratic candidate since Lyndon Johnson to win so large a government. Others were bought up at very low prices by victory. He succeeded in winning back states that the larger institutions, and a few—including Lehman Brothers, Republicans had carried in 2000 and 2004—among them Ohio, one of the oldest and most prestigious investment banks in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana. In both the America—collapsed altogether. By mid-September, the fi nan- Senate and the House of Representatives the Democratic Party cial crisis showed signs of spiraling out of control. Secretary made substantial gains as well. of the Treasury Henry Paulson, supported by other economic By the time of his election, Obama was already a fi gure leaders, proposed a massive appropriation of federal funds to with a global reputation. He was an eloquent speaker who at- tracted vast audiences. He was young and energetic, with an attractive family. And he was the fi rst African American to reach the presidency, an achievement that electrifi ed the na- tion and much of the world. On the night of his election, mil- lions of people fl ooded into streets and parks, village squares and public spaces of all kinds, across the United States and in 4 every continent in the world, to celebrate the event. Awaiting 11 3 4 Obama were some of the most daunting challenges any presi- 3 3 12 7 10 31 dent had ever faced. 3 10 4 17 7 4 3 21 7 15 4 20 3 21 11 5 1 5 10 The Obama Presidency 5 13 55 9 6 11 8 3 15 11 Few presidents have entered the White House with higher ex- 7 10 5 6 8 pectations than Barack Obama, so it was probably inevitable 6 9 15 that many of his supporters would eventually be disappointed. 34 9 The enormity of the task he inherited—the worst economic cri- 3 27 sis since the Great Depression, a war in Iraq and another in 4 Afghanistan, and a polarized political climate—made his fi rst years in offi ce extraordinarily diffi cult. Candidate (Party) Electoral Vote Popular Vote (%) Even so, Obama’s early achievements were of great signifi - Barack Obama 365 69,297,997 cance. He proposed a larger stimulus package to respond to the (Democrat) (53.7) economic crisis, the largest such economic stimulus in John McCain 173 59,597,520 American history. There was much disagreement about how (Republican) (46.2) successful the stimulus was, but it contributed to shoring up state budgets, creating jobs, and launching important improve- THE ELECTION OF 2008 The election of 2008 broke the pattern of very close ments to schools, scientifi c research, and infrastructure. Many divisions between the two parties and instead produced a decisive victory for Barack people considered the stimulus an important contribution to Obama. For the fi rst time since 1996, Democrats won states in the South and carried recovery from the recession. Others considered it wasteful most of the “swing states.” The election also carried large majorities for the Democrats in both the House and the Senate, only to see the Republicans carry a majority of the spending that unnecessarily contributed to the already very House in 2010. large government defi cits. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 912 13/04/11 1:50 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

912 • CHAPTER 32

His most important, and perhaps his most controversial Things grew considerably worse for Obama as the midterm achievement, was the passage of a bill that had been the hope elections approached. A growing number of dissident of many Americans since at least the 1930s: universal health Americans launched what became known as the “Tea Party” care. Obama’s bill, like any health-care bill, was very compli- movement, which rallied around such issues as defi cit reduc- cated and very expensive (although part of the program was tion, tax reduction, and smaller government. The movement designed to reduce medical costs signifi cantly over several de- also attracted supporters with widely disparate views, ranging cades). Some supporters of health-care legislation were disap- from moderate proposals to very extreme ones. Supporters of pointed by the absence of a “public option”—health care the Tea Party began in late 2009 to organize campaigns for provided by the government at low rates that would set a yard- Congress, governorships, and other public offi ces. Many of the stick for private insurers. Opponents of the health-care bill at- Tea Party candidates had little previous political experience, and tacked it as “government takeover,” even though the legislation some of them campaigned in very unorthodox and sometimes relies primarily on private insurers. The bill was passed by a extreme ways. But they contributed signifi cantly to the energy narrow margin in the House of Representatives and an even and enthusiasm of Republican voters. narrower margin in the Senate. Only one Republican—a mem- In the meantime, President Obama was becoming in- ber of the House of Representatives in Louisiana—voted for creasingly unpopular. By the fall of 2010, his approval ratings the bill. Many Republican members of Congress are commit- had dropped to just above 40 percent. Many Republicans ted to repealing the bill, and the path forward from the legisla- were deeply hostile to the president. Some accused him of tion faces many obstacles—among them a number of court being a socialist. Others charged that he had been born in cases launched by conservative state attorneys general. Those Africa and was, therefore, not eligible to be president. And cases are likely to end up in the Supreme Court. The Obama still others charged that he was a Muslim. None of these administration succeeded as well in passing a signifi cant fi - charges was true. But Obama himself was partly responsible nancial reform bill that was designed to ensure that the prob- for his bad relationship with the Republicans, because he lems that led to the 2008 crisis will not be repeated. It was made little eff ort even to communicate, let alone cooperate, greeted with much opposition, especially from the fi nancial with Republican leaders. It was almost two years before he community. met privately with the Republican leaders of the House and Obama came into offi ce with an ambitious plan for reshap- the Senate. ing America’s role in the world. The end of the American com- But Republicans were not his only problem. Democrats too bat role in Iraq was already under way in the last year of the were disappointed in Obama, charging that he had moved International Bush administration. Obama brought it to too far to the right, had unnecessarily compromised core Relations an end in August 2010. At the same time, he Democratic goals, and had failed to do many of the things he committed signifi cant additional troops to had promised to do in his campaign—for example, closing the war in Afghanistan, where Americans had been fi ghting the prison in Guantanamo, failing to end many unpopular since 2011. Bush administration policies, postponing eff orts to create Obama appointed Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state, new energy and environmental policies, and many others. and together they sought to create peace between Israel and There was far less enthusiasm for Obama in 2010 than there Palestine—an eff ort that, like all previous ones, was extraordi- had been in 2008. narily diffi cult. They sought as well to improve relations with The result was a signifi cant setback for the Democrats. They many nations that the Iraq War had damaged, and to build new lost 6 seats in the Senate, reducing their majority from 59 to 53; international trade opportunities. In the fall of 2010, President and they lost 64 seats in the House of Representatives, giving Obama visited India, China, and South Korea hoping for prog- the Republicans a signifi cant majority. Obama responded to the ress on trade, but China and South Korea failed to reach agree- election with a call for bipartisanship: ment with the United States. None of the challenges we face lend themselves to simple so- In 1993, the fi rst year of the Clinton administration, congres- lutions or bumper-sticker slogans. Nor are the answers found sional Republicans opposed many of the president’s legislative in any one particular philosophy or ideology. As I’ve said be- initiatives with unanimity—blocking many Political fore, no person, no party, has a monopoly on wisdom. And Gridlock of his proposals by using the fi libuster (the that’s why I’m eager to hear good ideas wherever they come rule that allows any senator to block a bill from, whoever proposes them. And that’s why I believe it’s unless at least sixty members of the Senate agree to bring a bill important to have an honest and civil debate about the to a vote). In 2009, the fi rst year of the Obama administration, choices that we face. That’s why I want to engage both congressional Republicans did the same, greeting most of the Democrats and Republicans in serious conversations about president’s legislation—the health-care bill, the stimulus pack- where we’re going as a nation. age, and the fi nancial reform—with unanimous or nearly unan- imous opposition. For Obama, who had built much of his Given the growing gap between the two parties and their campaign around the idea of bipartisanship and conciliation, clashing ideologies, many critics saw reason to doubt that coop- the polarization of the two parties was a great setback. eration and bipartisanship would succeed. bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 913 4/15/11 12:42 PM user-f494 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION • 913

LOOKING BACK

The United States in the fi rst decade of the twenty-fi rst century The United States remains the wealthiest and most power- was a nation beset with many problems and anxieties. U.S. for- ful nation in the world, and it continues to cherish great ideals eign policy after the attacks of September 11, 2001, had not only and great hopes. Moving forward into an uncertain future, divided the American people but had also deeply alienated much Americans are burdened with serious problems and great chal- of the world. The American economy was struggling as early as lenges, but they are also armed with extraordinary resilience 2007 and, in the fall of 2008, experienced the worst economic crisis and energy that has allowed the nation—through its long and since the Great Depression. Political divisions—not only among turbulent history—to endure, to fl ourish, and to imagine and politicians, but also among voters—were as great as they had been strive for a better future. • in many years.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS

Lewinsky scandal rocks Clinton presidency Congress passes Democrats gain in and president signs congressional major welfare reform elections Congress ratifi es North bill, minimum wage American Free Trade increase, and health- Clinton impeached Agreement (NAFTA) insurance reform by House

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

Bill Clinton Congress Showdown Clinton reelected President and Senate acquits elected president rejects health- between president; Congress agree on plan Clinton in care reform president and Republicans to balance budget impeachment trial Congress leads retain control Republicans Justice Department to shutdown of of Congress win control of fi les antitrust suits federal both houses of against Microsoft government Congress bri06953_ch32_886-914.indd Page 914 13/04/11 1:51 PM user-f469 /207/MHSF252/bri06953_disk1of1/0073406953/bri06953_pagefiles

914 • CHAPTER 32

Key Terms/People/Places/Events

AIDS 898 Bill Clinton 888 Newt Gingrich 888 Al Gore 890 George W. Bush 890 North American Free Trade Al Qaeda 906 Hillary Rodham Clinton 890 Agreement (NAFTA) 888 Alan Greenspan 893 John McCain 910 Osama Bin Laden 906 Arpanet 894 Monica Lewinsky 890 Taliban 906 Barack Obama 910 “New World Order” 902

RECALL AND REFLECT

1. What challenges did Bill Clinton face upon his election to 5. How has America’s relationship to the rest of the world the presidency? What were the accomplishments of his ad- changed as a result of the war on terrorism and U.S. in- ministration? What were its setbacks and failures? volvement in Iraq and Afghanistan? 2. What led to the economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s? 6. What have been Barack Obama’s most important achieve- What setbacks to the economy occurred in those years? ments in his fi rst two years as president? What have been 3. On what issues do critics of genetic and stem cell research his principal failures? focus their opposition? 7. What is America’s place in the world today? What are the 4. What was the digital revolution, and how did it aff ect U.S. challenges and opportunities facing the nation? politics, the U.S. economy, and American society?

Hurricane Katrina George W. Bushh Corporate devastates New wins contested scandals rock United States Orleans and the Mortgage crisis presidential election business world invades Iraq Gulf Coast weakens economy

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 Terrorists destroy Bush defeats Democrats Troop “surge” Barack Obama World Trade Center and John Kerry in gain control in Iraq elected nation’s damage Pentagon presidential of both houses fi rst African United States begins election of Congress American military action against president Afghanistan