The 1990s was a decade of extreme change. Shifts in culture, politics, and technology radically altered the way Americans did business, expressed themselves, and thought about their role in the world. At the center of it all was Bill Clinton, the charismatic and flawed baby boomer president, along with his polarizing but increasingly popular wife, Hillary.
Although it was in many ways a Democratic Gilded Age, the 1990s was also a time of great anxiety. The Cold War was over. America was stable and prosperous. Yet Americans felt more unmoored and isolated. This was the era of glitz and grunge, when we relished living in the Republic of Everything even as we feared it might degenerate into the Republic of Nothing. Bill Clinton dominated this era, but his complex legacy has yet to be clearly defined.
Historian Gil Troy examines Clinton's presidency alongside the decade's cultural changes. Taking the '90s year-by-year, Troy shows how the culture of the day shaped the Clintons even as the Clintons shaped it, offering answers to two enduring questions about Bill Clinton's legacy: How did such a talented politician leave Americans thinking he accomplished so little when he actually accomplished so much? And, to what extent was Clinton responsible for the catastrophes of the following decade, specifically 9/11 and the collapse of the housing market?
Even more relevant as we head toward the 2016 election, The Age of Clinton will appeal to readers on both sides of the aisle as it chronicles the wild, transformative decade and the president at its center.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
PROLOGUE
"Lost in the Funhouse" How Bill Clinton Invented the Nineties
1. 1990: HOUSTON
Cowboy Cosmopolitanism and the End of History?
2. 1991: PHILADELPHIA
"You Just Don't Get It" From the "New World Order" to Domestic Disorder
3. 1992: LITTLE ROCK
"Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" Bubba, Billary, and the Rise of the Adversarials
4. 1993: WASHINGTON, D. C.
"We Must Care for One Another" Clinton's Learning Curve
5. 1994: SEATTLE
The New Nihilism in the Coffee Capital; and Renewed Republicanism in the Nation's Capital
6. 1995: OKLAHOMA CITY
"Their Legacy Must Be Our Lives" Th e Claw- Back Kid Finds Windows of Opportunity
7. 1996: ALPHABET CITY, NEW YORK
"Take Me or Leave Me" Cultural Salvoes from Blue America
8. 1997: SILICON VALLEY
"Think Different" The Everyday Wizardry of Everything and Everywhere Machines
9. 1998: BEVERLY HILLS, 90210
The Great American Moral Panic
10. 1999: CHICAGO
Finding Forgiveness in the Church of Oprah
11. 2000: MIAMI
"The Purpose of Prosperity" Dilemmas of Multiculturalism and Hedonism in America's Pleasure Capital
12. 2001
"Let's Roll" America the Functional Under Attack
AUTHOR'S NOTE ON METHOD AND SOURCES
A GUIDE TO ABBREVIATIONS IN NOTES
NOTES
INDEX
