CHAPTER 27 From Triumph to Tragedy, 1989–2004
This chapter concentrates on the Clinton years. Opening with the 1999 antiglobalization demonstrations held in
Seattle protesting the World Trade Organization, the chapter explores the challenges that the twenty-first century
faces in balancing globalization, economic justice, and freedom. The chapter then travels back in time to the end of
the Cold War and the George H. W. Bush administration. Having an opportunity to remake the world immediately
after the fall of communism, Bush spoke of a New World Order, committed American troops in Panama, and
organized a coalition to fight Iraq in the Gulf War. Unable to sustain his popularity after that war in the face of an
economic recession, Bush lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton. Like Carter, Clinton tried to elevate human rights in
international policy. At home he practiced triangulation, adopting some moderate Republican issues while rejecting
the more contentious ones. Despite Clinton’s series of scandals, he left office in 2001 with a high approval rating.
The contested election of 2000 illustrated how divided American society was at the turn of the century. While many
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Introduction: The Collapse of Communism
II. The Post–Cold War World
A. The Gulf War
1. Bush intervened when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
2. The Gulf War was the first post–Cold War international crisis.
B. Visions of America’s Role
1. Bush identified the Gulf War as the first step in the struggle to create a world based on democracy and
global free trade.
C. The Election of Clinton
2. A third candidate, the eccentric Texas billionaire Ross Perot, also entered the fray.
D. Clinton in Office
1. During his first two years in office, Clinton turned away from some of the social and economic policies of
the Reagan and Bush years.
2. Clinton shared his predecessor’s passion for free trade.
3. The major policy initiative of Clinton’s first term was a plan to address the rising cost of health care and
the increasing number of Americans who lacked health insurance.
E. The “Freedom Revolution”
2. Viewing their electoral triumph as an endorsement of the contract, Republicans moved swiftly to
implement its provisions.
F. Clinton’s Political Strategy
1. Clinton rebuilt his popularity by campaigning against a radical Congress.
3. Triangulation meant that Clinton embraced the most popular Republican policies, such as welfare
4. Clinton easily defeated Republican Bob Dole in the presidential contest of 1996, becoming the first
Democrat elected to two terms since FDR.
G. Clinton and World Affairs
1. Clinton took steps to encourage the settlement of long-standing international conflicts and tried to
elevate support for human rights to a central place in international relations.
3. Like Carter, Clinton found it difficult to balance concern for human rights with strategic and economic
interests.
a. Rwanda
H. The Balkan Crisis
1. The most complex foreign policy crisis of the Clinton years arose from the disintegration of Yugoslavia.
2. With the Cold War over, protection of human rights in the Balkans gave the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) a new purpose.
I. Human Rights
1. Human rights emerged as justification for interventions in matters once considered to be the internal
affairs of sovereign nations.
III. Globalization and Its Discontents
A. The Computer Revolution
2. Microchips made possible the development of entirely new consumer products.
4. The Internet expanded the flow of information and communications more radically than any invention
since the printing press.
B. The Stock Market Boom and Bust
1. In the United States, economic growth and talk of a new economy sparked a frenzied boom in the stock
market reminiscent of the 1920s.
3. The bubble burst on April 14, 2000, when stocks suffered their largest one-day drop in history.
4. Only after the market dropped did it become apparent that the stock boom of the 1990s had been fueled
in part by fraud.
a. Enron
C. Fruits of Deregulation
2. Many corporate criminals were found guilty and had to serve prison terms and/or pay billions in
compensation.
3. Many stock frauds stemmed from the repeal in 1999 of the Glass-Steagall Act, a New Deal measure that
had separated commercial banks from investment banks.
D. Rising Inequality
1. The boom that began in 1995 benefited nearly all Americans.
3. High-tech firms did not create enough high-paying jobs to compensate.
4. Voices of Freedom (Primary Source document feature) focuses on the Declaration for Global
Democracy (1999), which expresses public dissatisfaction with the economic effects of “globalization.”
IV. Culture Wars
A. The Newest Immigrants
2. As in the past, most immigrants became urban residents.
4. For the first time in American history, women made up most newcomers.
B. The New Diversity
2. Latino communities remained far poorer than the rest of the country.
a. Who Is an American? (Primary Source document feature) showcases the song lyrics by Los Tigres
3. Only after 1965 did immigration from Asia assume large proportions.
C. The Changing Face of Black America
2. Most African-Americans remained in a more precarious situation than whites or many recent
immigrants.
3. Despite the nation’s growing racial diversity, school segregation was on the rise.
D. The Spread of Imprisonment
1. African-Americans, compared to other Americans, had an extremely high rate of imprisonment.
2. As the prison population grew, a “prison–industrial complex” emerged.
2. African-Americans were also more likely than whites to suffer execution.
3. New state laws disfranchising persons with a felony conviction impacted 5 million Americans, mostly
4. The continuing frustration of urban African-Americans exploded in 1992.
a. Rodney King
F. The Continuing Rights Revolution
2. The campaign for gay rights continued to gain momentum in the 1990s.
a. AIDS
G. Native Americans in the New Century
1. The Native American population reached 4 million in the 2000 census, reflecting not only natural
H. Multiculturalism
1. “Multiculturalism” was a term used to celebrate group differences and demand group recognition.
2. One sign of multiculturalism could be seen in the spread of academic programs dealing with specific
groups.
I. The Identity Debate
2. Increased cultural diversity and changes in educational policy inspired sharp debates.
3. In 1994, California voters approved Proposition 187, mobilizing Latinos and making the state more
J. Cultural Conservatism
2. It sometimes appeared during the 1990s that the country was refighting old battles between traditional
religion and modern secular culture.
K. Family Values in Retreat
1. The census of 2000 showed family values increasingly in disarray.
2. Casey v. Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania reaffirmed a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.
L. The Antigovernment Extreme
1. At the radical fringe of conservatism, the belief that the federal government posed a threat to American
2. An Oklahoma federal building was bombed by Timothy McVeigh in 1995.
V. Impeachment and the Election of 2000
A. The Impeachment of Clinton
1. In the 1980s and 1990s scrutiny of politicians’ private lives became far more intense than in the past.
c. Monica Lewinsky
B. The Disputed Election
1. The 2000 election was between Al Gore and George W. Bush.
3. It fell to Supreme Court justices to decide the outcome.
C. A Challenged Democracy
2. Evidence abounded in 2000 of a broad disengagement from public life.
VI. The Attacks of September 11
SUGGESTED DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
• What events between 1989 and 1991 encouraged the spread of globalization?
• Why did George H. W. Bush intervene in the Middle East in 1990–1991?
• How did computers change American life? Compare the impact of the computer with the impact of the
automobile in the 1920s.
• Discuss what caused the economic boom of the 1990s and who did and did not benefit from it.
• How did Bill Clinton get elected to the White House and why did George H. W. Bush only serve one term as
president?
• Discuss the Supreme Court in the 1990s. Was it conservative? Liberal?
• Discuss the culture wars. Who was on each side of the debate? How did each side use “freedom”?
• Compare the experiences of different immigrant groups in the late twentieth century.
• How did life for African-Americans change during the 1990s?
• Discuss the American Indian Movement. How did Indians enjoy a kind of quasi-sovereignty? How did they
begin to feel a renewed sense of pride?
• Discuss how Americans by the end of the century viewed freedom as a very individualistic, or private, matter.
SUPPLEMENTAL WEB AND VISUAL RESOURCES
William Jefferson Clinton
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/clinton/
This site focuses on a Frontline series episode and PBS documentary, The Clinton Years. It provides interviews, photos, and
anecdotes as well as a New York Times collection of video and audio clips, as well as a film transcript.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/clinton/
This site features aspects of the American Experience PBS series titled The Presidents, with a focus on the chapter on Clinton.
Articles, clips from the documentary, behind-the-scenes interviews, and a film transcript are provided.
The Gulf War
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/
PBS’s Frontline broadcast documentary on the Gulf War is available on this site. It includes a chronology, maps, and
transcripts from the broadcast.
Is Walmart Good for America?
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/
PBS’s Frontline documentary on Walmart and globalization is available on this site. The site includes a teacher’s guide and
SUPPLEMENTAL PRINT RESOURCES
Bacevich, Andrew. American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2002.
Bradley, Craig M., ed. The Rehnquist Legacy. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Brock, David. Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003.
Cole, David, and James X. Dempsey. Terrorism and the Constitution, New York: The New Press, 2006.
Friedman, Thomas. Hot, Flat, and Crowded. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.
Hsu, Madeline Y. The Good Immigrants: How the Yellow Peril Became the Model Minority. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 2015.
Klein, Joe. The Natural: The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
Lichtenstein, Nelson. The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business. New York: Metropolitan
Books, 2009.
Marrow, Helen, ed. The New Americans. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
McLennan, Rebecca. The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776–1941.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Spence, Michael. The Next Convergence: The Future of Economic Growth in a Multispeed World. New York: Picador, 2012.
Stephanopoulos, George. All Too Human: A Political Education. Boston: Little, Brown, 1999.
Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1994.
INTERACTIVE INSTRUCTOR ACTIVITIES
1. Analyzing the U.S. Census of 2010
www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade.2010.html
1. How have different aspects of our society changed over time based on the census data?
2. How is your own life and the lives of your family members reflected in the census data?
3. Which decade appears to have been the “best” decade in recent memory? Why?
4. What is your prediction for the 2020 census on several issues?
2. The Impeachment Trial of President Bill Clinton
www.famous-trials.com/Clinton
Introduce the topic by showing the students film clips from the 1998 impeachment trial of President Clinton; see the site