A Bubble In Time: America During The Interwar Years, 1989-2001

by William L. O'Neill

The all-too-brief period of relative tranquility that extended from the end of the Cold War to the beginning of the War on Terror is the subject of William L. O'Neill's brilliant new study of recent American history. Mr. O'Neill's sharp eye for the telling incident and the apt quotation combine with an acute historical judgment to make A Bubble in Time a compellingly readable informal history. The first Gulf War and President Clinton's interventions abroad notwithstanding, American spirits were freer from fear than they had been since the 1920s, the author argues. No world war loomed before the United States, and after the Berlin Wall came down the specter of nuclear annihilation faded as well. A brief recession in the 1990s gave way to the most prosperous years Americans had known for decades. Unlike in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan, the increase in national wealth trickled down to the middle class thanks to an unusual rise in productivity and large infrastructure investments by firms in the "new economy." To general amazement, crime rates began falling after almost thirty years of increases, so that Americans were happier, safer, and materially better off than before. Although the Republican party turned to the dark side, Mr. O'Neill writes, peace and prosperity enabled people to enjoy the finer things in life and to lavish their concerns on political correctness, the decline of the military, the troubles of higher education, and the manifestations of an out-of-control popular culture he calls "Tabloid Nation" the trials of O.J. Simpson and President Clinton, SUVs, cell phones, and bimbo eruptions. Mr. O'Neill explores them all, and more, with insight and wit. "It was all too good to last," he tells us. "Reality intruded again with the dot.com crash in 2000 and the terrorist attacks of 2001. Still, we will always have Paris Hilton." With 8 pages of black-and-white photographs.

448 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2009

About the author

William L. O'Neill was an historian specializing in 20th century America. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan and his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. He taught at the universities of Pittsburgh, Colorado and Wisconsin before accepting a position at Rutgers University in 1971, where he taught until his retirement in 2006.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less quoting of statistics, more prose. A fine read on the whole.

[The American Conservative]

'After scanning the endnotes and not-so-long bibliography, I realized why reading this work reminded me of listening to my dear late grandfather recalling his heroic exploits during “the war” for the thousandth time. It is not that I have been there, done that; rather that I have read that, watched that. (These days we might add “browsed that.”) It seems that O’Neill has read or watched—and more important, relied on, quoted from, and referred to—exactly the same newspapers, magazines, books, television shows, and films that I read or watched during those years.'

Read the full review, "An Era About Nothing," on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Kenneth Barber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book dealing with the end of Bush 1 presidency Clinton years to the election of Bush 2. It highlights the political issues of the Clinton presidency as well as his personal problems. The book also deals with social issues of these years: affirmative action as it affected college admissions; the Simpson trial; and military sex scandals. Interesting analysis of the years 1989-2001.

[Adam]

A fairly left sided view of of the 90s. A Clinton bookended by the Bushes. So this is the all the stuff that was going on while I was in studying away in school.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, to the point that I felt guilty reading it. I mean, I had to read it because it is assigned in the class I am TA-ing, but it is not at all in my field, and it was so pleasant to read that it felt like I was goofing off by spending time with it.
If you are at all interested in a book about the 1990s I would recommend this one. O'Neill covers a lot of ground, and he has this great sort of emeritus snark that I loved. He was in his 70s and retired when he wrote this. He lets everyone have it too - the left and the right. Sometimes he is really hard to pigeonhole. After chapters in which he savages political correctness and calls affirmative action reverse-racist and counterproductive, I sort of saw him as an old curmudgeon. But then he has a chapter on how Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best show of the 90s, and he sounded like a total fanboy in that one.
I had very vague memories of the first Gulf War, and the whole Bosnia thing, and all the military sex scandal stuff, like Tailhook, and so just about every chapter piqued my interest. This doesn't really feel like history, though, you know? How can the '90s be history? My era of study, the late 18th century, now that's history. It seems so strange to read about things I remember from my own life in a history book. My students weren't even born until the late 90s though, so I guess it's history to them.