Lawrence Public Library

The age of Clinton, America in the 1990s, Gil Troy

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [317]-348) and index

individual biography

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

The age of Clinton

bibliography

905520988

Gil Troy

America in the 1990s

"The 1990s was a decade of extreme change. Seismic 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 talented, charismatic, and flawed Baby Boomer president and his controversial, polarizing, but increasingly popular wife Hillary. Although it was in many ways a Democratic Gilded Age, the final decade of the twentieth century was also a time of great anxiety. The Cold War was over, America was safe, stable, free, and prosperous, and yet Americans felt more unmoored, anxious, and isolated than ever. Having lost the script telling us our place in the world, we were forced to seek new anchors. This was the era of glitz and grunge, when we simultaneously relished living in the Republic of Everything even as we feared it might degenerate into the Republic of Nothing. Bill Clinton dominated this era, a man of passion and of contradictions both revered and reviled, whose complex legacy has yet to be clearly defined.In this unique analysis, historian Gil Troy examines Clinton's presidency alongside the cultural changes that dominated the decade. By taking the '90s year-by-year, Troy shows how the culture of the day shaped the Clintons even as the Clintons shaped it. In so doing, he offers answers to two of the enduring questions about 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 decade that followed his departure from office, 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"--, Provided by publisher

Prologue : "Lost in the funhouse" : how Bill Clinton invented the Nineties -- 1990 : Houston : Cowboy cosmopolitanism and the end of history? -- 1991 : Philadelphia : "You just don't get it" : from the "new world order" to domestic disorder -- 1992 : Little Rock : "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow" : Bubba, Billary, and the rise of the adversarials -- 1993 : Washington, D.C. : "We must care for one another" : Clinton's learning curve -- 1994 : Seattle : the new nihilism in the Coffee Capital, and renewed Republicanism in the nation's capital -- 1995 : Oklahoma City : "Their legacy must be our lives" : the Claw-Back Kid finds windows of opportunity -- 1996 : Alphabet City, New York : "Take me or leave me" : cultural salvoes from Blue America -- 1997 : Silicon Valley : "Think different" : the everyday wizardry of everything and everywhere machines -- 1998 : Beverly Hills, 90210 : the Great American Moral Panic -- 1999 : Chicago : Finding forgiveness in the Church of Oprah -- 2000 : Miami : "The purpose of prosperity" : dilemmas of multiculturalism and hedonism in America's pleasure capital -- 2001 : "Let's roll" : America the function under attack

America in the 1990s