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CHAPTER 34
The Age of Globalization
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Bill Clinton assumed office as the country’s manufacturing base continued its long decline in the
face of stiff international competition. Overall economic growth was sluggish, and once again
poverty was on the rise. In addition, difficult social and cultural questions divided the country.
Into this mix came a new wave of immigrants dominated not by Europeans, but by Asians and
Hispanics. If the America of the 1990s was not divided by race, then it was divided by gender or
class. But the economy began a turnaround after 1992 and entered its longest period of
continuous sustained growth in its history, more than eight straight years. It was marked by low
inflation, the lowest unemployment rates in a generation, and the first balanced federal budget in
two generations. And while the reform of national health care—which President Clinton hoped to
make the centerpiece of his administrative accomplishments—was strongly rebuffed, first by
Congress and then by an uneasy public, he did enjoy several successes. The most significant was
the reform of the welfare system and the steep decline since 1994 of recipients on public
assistance. Violent crime dropped significantly as well throughout the decade. Not surprisingly,
President Clinton, who has proven to be a highly effective communicator with the public,
recovered from his early missteps and was reelected in 1996 in another three-way race. What is
perhaps surprising is the degree of support Clinton received despite a continuous line of scandals
that plagued his administration. Even after evidence, and later an admission, of sexual conduct
resulted in an unsuccessful impeachment trial, the public largely stayed with the President.
As the new century approached, the country faced tough challenges of disease, urban
distress, and cultural conflict, to mention but a few. Globalization had come to the forefront of
the economy. Free-trade agreements proved a boom for consumers and for highly educated,
technologically skilled workers, but a bane for American factory workers and the poorly
educated. The nation experienced the initial profound effects brought by the personal computer
and the development of the Internet. Even more nascent but perhaps ultimately more significant,
as the nation moved into the next century, was the field of genetic engineering. The 2000
election, however, between Al Gore, vice president under Clinton, and George W. Bush,
governor of Texas and son of the former president Bush, would dominate the headlines for weeks
that year, after one of the closest and most controversial presidential elections ever. Although
Gore won a narrow majority of the popular vote, neither candidate earned enough electoral votes,
and the race hinged on Florida, where thousands of ballots were in dispute. Only after the
Supreme Court, by a 5–4 vote, essentially declared Bush the victor, was the election formally
resolved. The bitterness and questions over what some felt was the dubious election of Bush
were largely forgotten on September 11, 2001, when the United States suffered a terrorist attack
on a scale beyond most Americans’ imagination. A profound new era, the control and
suppression of terrorism, had been entered.
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OBJECTIVES
A thorough study of Chapter 34 should enable the student to understand:
1. Bill Clinton’s first-term agenda, how it fared and how it changed as the result of Republican
gains in 1994, and the reasons for Clinton’s political comeback and reelection in 1996
2. The enduring aura of scandal surrounding the Clinton administration, the nature of the
allegations, Clinton’s impeachment and trial, and the reasons for his continued high public
approval
3. The reasons for the historic sustained growth of the economy in the decade
4. The development and proliferation of personal computers and the Internet
5. The fundamental changes in the American economy after 1970, focusing on globalization and
the income gulf between those who were well-educated and those who were not
6. The profound demographic changes experienced in the nation from the 1970s into the 1990s
7. The widening societal gulf expressed in the growth of both the black middle class and an
urban black underclass
8. The status of contemporary cultural issues such as crime, drug use, AIDS, abortion, the
environmental movement, and the fragmentation of mass culture
9. The effects and challenges of an aging “baby boom” generation
10. The controversy and course of the 2000 election
11. The implications of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States
MAIN THEMES
1. How Bill Clinton won the presidency by focusing on the economy only to fail to accomplish
his major objectives during the first half of his term in office
2. Why Republicans surged to congressional power in the 1994 elections, how Clinton
responded, and how that response helped his own reelection in 1996
3. How investigations into scandals surrounding Clinton resulted in his being impeached but not
convicted and that Clinton enjoyed strong public support throughout this period
4. That fundamental changes in the American and global economies led to significant changes
in lifestyle and expectations for middle-class Americans
5. That the United States was becoming more ethnically diverse as a result of changes in
immigration patterns after 1965 and the high birth rate of Hispanic Americans
6. That the civil rights movement, affirmative action, and other liberal reforms provided
opportunities for some black Americans to reach—or even exceed—the middle class, even as
the urban black underclass seemed to be sliding further backward
7. That improving technology in computers, access to information, and the science of genetic
engineering have revolutionized the workplace, leisure time, and concepts of life, all while
raising many troubling ethical issues
8. That recent national social trends have seen improvements in some problems, such as
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declining violent crime and the treatment of AIDS, while other concerns are seemingly more
persistent, including drug addiction, environmental hazards, and a growing underclass
9. How the September 11, 2001 attacks thrust the United States into a new era of heightened
domestic security and a new debate over whether and where to put limits on its democratic
traditions of free speech, privacy, and other fundamental American concepts
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What were Clinton’s goals when first elected? Was his agenda liberal or conservative?
Where was he successful and where was he not? Assess his successes and failures.
2. How do you account for the Republican revival of 1994? What factors allowed Clinton to
stage a successful comeback from 1994 to gain reelection in 1996?
3. Describe the scandals that surrounded the Clinton presidency. What were the sources of
Clinton’s troubles? Was he, as supporters claimed, the subject of a “partisan witchhunt?”
Why was he impeached? Why was he not convicted? What accounted for the strong public
approval of Clinton during the many investigations?
4. Compare and contrast the recent accomplishments of the black middle class with the plight of
the black underclass. How do you account for both? What explains this stark disparity? Has
any federal policy or administration since the 1970s encouraged this trend?
5. Describe the changes that resulted from the introduction of the personal computer and the
Internet? What are the pros and cons of these new technologies? Where do you see these
technologies taking society? Will they come to dominate society, in essence, become
“essential” items as the automobile has been? Will these technologies increase or decrease
the existing gulf in classes in society? How have they affected mass culture?
6. Discuss the nature of the debates over such social issues as AIDS and sexual behavior, and
abortion. What impact have these social issues had on traditional party politics? What role
has the religious right played in these debates?
7. How do modern environmentalists differ from traditional conservationists? How would you
define the social ethic, the economic arguments, and the goals of each? How will the rise of
genetic engineering alter this debate? What ethical arguments were created by this new
science?
8. Should the 2000 election have ended with the Supreme Court decision? Is it fair to say that
George W. Bush one the election by a single vote? What might have happened if the Court
had refused to intervene?
9. What has happened to the traditional concepts of American democracy in the aftermath of the
September 11, 2001 attacks? Should the United States be less of an open society? What
constitutes a security risk today?
MAP EXERCISES
1. Identify the states and regions carried by Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and Ross Perot in 1996. Did
Clinton expand or maintain his areas of support? What happened to the Reform Party’s
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support between 1992 and 1996?
2. Identify the states and regions carried by Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000. What other
closely contested states, besides Florida, could have shifted the outcome of the election? In
what states did Ralph Nadar draw enough support from Gore to enable Bush to carry those
states?
INTERPRETATIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON MAPS AND TEXT
1. By examining maps of post-1968 presidential elections, how do you explain the Republican
dominance during those years?
2. Weigh foreign policy and domestic issues in evaluating presidential elections since 1980.
Does any pattern emerge?
3. How has the rise of the New Right affected presidential politics, especially in the South and
the West?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Jane Abbate, Inventing the Internet (1999)
Robert Bellah et al., The Good Society (1991)
Derek Bok, The State of the Nation: Government and the Quest for a Better Society (1996)
E. J. Dionne, They Only Look Dead: Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era
(1996)
Thomas Byrne Edsall and Mary D. Edsall, Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and
Taxes on American Politics (1992)
John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (1997)
Andrew Hacker, Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal (1992)
David A. Hollonger, Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism (1995)
Robert Huttner, Everything for Sale (1997)
Haynes Johnson, The Best of Times: America in the Clinton Years (2001)
David Marannis, First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clinton (1995)
Carl H. Nightingale, On the Edge: A History of Poor Black Children and Their American
Dreams (1993)
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America (1992)
Jeffrey Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy (1999)
_____, Too Close to Call (2001)
Lawrence Walsh, Iran-Contra: The Final Report (1994)
William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears (1996)
David Yergin, The Commanding Heights: The Battle Between Government and the Marketplace
That Is Remaking the Modern World (1998)
For Internet resources, practice questions, references to additional books and films, and more, see
this book’s Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/unfinishednation4.
GENERAL DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTERS 29–34
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These questions are designed to help students bring together ideas from several chapters and see
how the chapters relate to one another. Some questions will also help students explore how
changes in the landscape and in geopolitical conditions are significant to understanding
American history.
1. Briefly recount the episodes of U.S. military or covert action intervention in Latin America
from 1954 to 1989. Did these actions amount to a repudiation of the Good Neighbor policy
and a return to the days of the Roosevelt Corollary? How has the pattern of intervention
affected U.S. relations with Latin American nations?
2. In 1989 and 1990, commentators were hailing the end of the Cold War. Presuming it has
ended, what specific policies of the United States, if any, promoted the end? What specific
policies of the United States, if any, prolonged the superpower tension and delayed an end to
the Cold War?
3. Trace the course of American policy toward Israel and the Mideast from the end of World
War II to 1990. What mix of motivations shaped American policy? To what extent, if any,
were those motivations in conflict with each other?
4. What forces have been at work since 1945 to make Americans more homogeneous in taste,
thought, and lifestyle? What have been the forces for diversity and change in those areas?
5. Compare and contrast the post–Civil War Reconstruction of the 1860s and 1870s with the
Second Reconstruction of the 1950s and 1960s. What has been the course of American race
relations since the Second Reconstruction brought an end to de jure segregation?
6. The promise of Keynesian economics was consistent economic growth and persistent
economic stability. How successful were Keynesian policies in fulfilling this promise? Why
did Ronald Reagan and the Republicans turn to supply-side theory? How did it work?
7. Trace the evolution of American involvement in Southeast Asia from World War II to 1975.
Why did the United States become involved? Why was the commitment a failure?
8. How has the environmental movement evolved from earlier conservation movements? What
ethical and social arguments separate the two? How does Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring fit
into this evolution? What has happened to the movement since the 1970s? How does the rise
of genetic engineering alter the environmental debate?
9. Describe containment and the bipolar vision of the world that dominated American foreign
policy from 1945 through at least the 1960s. How did this view come to replace the One
World ideal? How realistic a view of world political realities was the bipolar concept of free
world and communist bloc? What impact has the end of the Cold War had on American
foreign policy? What impact has it had on domestic policy?
10. What changes in the regional and ethnic patterns of American population emerged in the
forty years after World War II? How did those changes shape national politics, economics,
and culture?
11. Trace the development of new technology and science since the 1950s. What interests have
most pushed these developments? What new risks have been created? What would you say
have been the notable achievements in technology and science during this period?
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12. Trace the trends in American society between the 1950s and 1990s that support the argument
that the culture has grown increasingly fragmented. What are the major reasons for this
trend? In what areas of society are these trends most pronounced? Does the evidence suggest
that this trend will continue in the future?
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