Introduction: The United States in the 1990s

Abstract

The dawn of a new century encourages introspection in nations as in individuals. In the United States the last years of the twentieth century highlighted the country’s uncertainties as well as its tremendous energy, resources and self-confidence. The period of the Clinton Presidency itself encapsulated in its short time-frame many of these competing emotions. As is customary with most new presidencies, Clinton’s rhetoric at the beginning of his first term of office in 1993 had been redolent with optimistic calls for a new beginning and held out ambitious promises of large-scale reform. Before long, however, much of the president’s initial agenda had been stymied and critics and commentators were focusing on the general discontent of the American public. By the time of Clinton’s 1998 State of the Union address, however, the public mood had changed again and there was a much more general confidence in America’s future, despite the persistence of strong currents of hostility to government in general and to Washington D.C. in particular. The years leading up to the millennium had also seen the United States veering between self-congratulation at the triumph of democracy in the world under American leadership and a surly nationalism verging on isolationism.