Paul Oh

Uthara Ramesh

Aashka Shah

Amal Shah

     MYP Unit Question: How did culture, events and leadership shape and reflect post-WWII America?

 

The 1990s

                       

 

Business & the Economy

The 1990s was one of the biggest decades for economic growth, since World War II. The nineties were one of the most successful decades economically because a lot of rules that previously were followed in the business world, were no longer important, and it made for many new oppurtunities for businesses to grow, and though there was great economic success there was not much inflation to bring it down. Also the Internet allowed new businesses to emerge because old businesses were not used to the fast paced Internet. Also it made advertising, communicating, and working much easier and more efficient for businesses allowing them to save money and get more out of the money they spent, leading to a lot of growth for them. Many companies were also merging to form larger companies. One of the biggest companies was Microsoft, which had a market value of 546 billion dollars. Also, women and minorities though not in the upper management part of businesses they had many more opportunities in the economic boom. Many were able to start their own small businesses which also helped the economy. On a much larger scale, there was much more globalization because it was not only American companies anymore, but also multinational companies. Globalization had become huge because these multinational companies had become so powerful on the world stage. By the end of the decade, the United States was still on top of the world market, and the major economic super power of the world.  For example, “eight of the top twenty-five economic entities in the world were corporations. Of the eight companies on the list, seven were American” (Pendergast 40). Some major international changes the government made in the 90s was the National American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, which allowed a free trade zone in North America. The post World War II decades helped the American economic boom in the  90s,  and helped it become one of the most successful economic decades with a growth rate more “than 2.5 percent coupled with an unemployment rate below 5 percent” (Carnegie 30).

 

 

Education

The United States’ education system had not really improved much since World War II, in the 1950s the schools were seen as failing, and the 90s had the same situation. One improvement was with the civil rights movements, the racism in schools was significantly less. Also the United States still had better educational statistics compared to the rest of the world, for example their literacy rates was much higher in the 90s compared to most other countries. The American Education Foundation (AMEDF) was founded in the early 90s to help people access higher education, as it was being taken more seriously and more jobs needed higher education degrees. In 1993 Bill Clinton passed a bill that made it mandatory for schools to improve their math, sciences, English, and History, but they were still not good enough and he called for the bar to be raised even higher in 1997. Throughout the 90s there was a general improvement in the education system, especially compared to previous decades. The AP test passing rate was up, the SAT scores were up, and the high school drop-out rate was nearly five percent less than the 80s. So the 90s showed a definite improvement and helped America become one of the leading educational systems in the world.

 

  

Fashion

American Fashion was altered in the 1990s as more synthetic materials came to stores. People were dressing more casually, and "casual Friday." people were also dressing more casually for work, and the "grunge" style had become more popular with kids. Girls wore bell bottom jeans, and guys sagged their pants, which were also much larger. Business attire also changed a lot since the 80s and previous decades. For example the business suit was less popular, but that was due to “the growth of the computer industry. This industry was dominated by a relatively young workforce, and young management as well. This youth certainly fed the desire to break from the traditional business attire, as did the fact that many workers at such companies did not need to interact so much with the world at large.” (Oxoby 104).  Some designers that became especially popular were DKNY, Liz Claiborne, and Tommy Hilfiger. Fashion was much more publicized, for example "Allure" magazine came out targeted towards fashionable women. People also spent much less on clothing in the 90s, only about one percent of their income which was significantly less than the amount spent on clothing in the previous decades, for example the 1940s where nearly five percent of a persons average income was spent on clothing. In general the 90s were pretty laid back and their clothing style definitely reflected the mood of the decade.

 

                                                                                    

 

Film and Theater 

During the 1990’s, the film industry flourished with the rise of special effects and computer generated images (CGI). The 1990’s gave rise to many popular genres like horror films, comedy films and animated films. Many movies such as Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace relied heavily on the new technologies of CGI and special effects. Horror films made a comeback in the 1990’s, movies such as Scream (1996) and Misery (1990) were huge successes. Along side horror movies, animated movies such as The Lion King (1994) and Toy Story (1995) made history among the young generation. The 1990’s were a record-breaking decade in terms of the film industry, one of the most memorable movies was Titanic (1997), it set the record for the highest grossing film of all time making 1.8 billion dollars (Before Avatar).

 

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Food &  Drink

Print Culture

Newspapers were on a steady decline since World War II, people started to use less and less  of the traditional newspapers because big newspaper companies were pretty much standardizing their newspaper format and content. Tabloids were on the rise as celebrity lives were still very popular and public. "Entertainment Weekly" published its first issue on February 12th 1992, and magazines like "People" which was started in 1974 were steadily becoming more popular. Some of the most famous books published in 1995 was J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. This soon became one of the world’s biggest franchises and huge money making business throughout the rest of the nineties and the 2000s.  In general there was not much print culture in the 90s, but one major change in media and advertising was the Internet. The Internet and other wireless communications became huge in the 90s and changed not only world communications, but also advertising and researching. Along with the internet wireless communications grew a lot in the 90s, and devices like laptops and and cell phones were becoming really popular. Since World War II print culture has changed a lot especially with the advanced technologies and changing media. Obviously a lot had changed since the World War II time period, because information and advertising used to be prominently on the radio and through newspapers, where as in the 90s there were many more tabloids, fictional stories, and of course the biggest change the Internet, which revolutionized the culture, news, and communication throughout the world in the 90s.

 

Sports &  Games

Sports were a huge part of business for the country. “It’s just a game” was a popular quote used by many players, but that was no longer the case as more people became more reliant on money. It was rare to find a player that only cared about the game that they played and did not see the game as just a job. With this, problems of players’ caps escalated. Some sports such as the NBA, MLB, NFL, etc. began to raise salary caps annually. The NFL started at $34 million per team and slowly increased, the NBA began their salary cap as $43 million per team, and the MLB has no salary cap. There was a controversy of which leagues should have a soft, hard, or no cap at all. Meaning, should they have a limit to how much money they pay the players?  Some players even stopped playing their sports because they were not being paid “enough”. There were many problems that were occurring during seasons. Also a problem that came out of these salary caps was surpassing some of them. In a soft cap, teams are allowed to pay a player more than the cap if they have a good reason. Some teams in the NBA took advantage of this rule and used it in order to sign players that were well beyond the cap. A good example of this is Michael Jordan. He was paid $33.3 million, $9 million over the salary cap for NBA players. In the NFL, teams had a hard cap, meaning they were not allowed to pass the limit set on each player. This caused problems with the players because they were paid less than $1 million. Because of this problem, the hard cap for the NFL was increased. For professionals, money was the only thing that mattered. The MLB players went on strike in 1994 and this retarded the season. They went on strike because of the salary caps. There was no World Series for that year because of the strike.

 

     Besides the salary cap problem, the sports in the 90s turned flashier and American leagues became better known throughout the world. This was the time period where huge sports icons sprung such as Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Lance Armstrong, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr., Magic Johnson, etc. In world basketball, the Dream Team was formed and they were victorious in the Olympics. A huge achievement in the NFL was the four consecutive Super Bowl appearances by the Buffalo Bills from 1991 to 1994.

 

Music

There was a big change in style of music from the 1980s to the 1990s. The 80s was more focused on heavy metal, glam metal, hard rock, evolving of hip hop, and the start of techno where as the 90s was more directed toward softer rock, alternative rock, indie rock, grunge, pop punk, pop, contemporary R&B, growth of hip hop, and the roots of country music.

Alternative Rock - The music industry was kicked off by the introduction of alternative rock. Nirvana became well known for their album "Nevermind" and this also began to spread the crave for alternative rock.

Grunge - This style is considered as a sub-genre of alternative rock, but it is more heavily concentrated on the distortion of instruments such as the electric guitar. It can be seen as a mixture of indie rock, punk, and metal. After Nirvana's "Nevermind" was released, Pearl Jam had replicated their style of play and came out with their hit album "Ten". This style of music was not the most appreciated kind of music so many of these bands disbanded by the end of the 90s, but it still made contributions of rock as we know it.

Indie Rock - Indie rock is indeed its own "genre" of music, but in all honesty Indie rock is just more alternative rock music. Small, unknown, "underground" bands are given the title Indie bands because they are not well known. The thing that sets Indie artists aside from alternative or rock artists is how they share their music. The smaller artist distribute music through their own means and play on small tours around colleges. They are small bands that stay small.

Pop Punk - This was not a genre of music that was actually popular or had a role in the music business until blink-182 became famous. Punk brought in a new generation of music listeners (mostly young adults or teens) and bands such as Green Day did a good job of reeling in new listeners. By the mid 90s, pop punk bands such as Weezer, The Offspring, Green Day, and blink-182 had topped the charts and ruled the music industry.

Pop/Contemporary R&B - Pop had many ups and downs in its history. It began as teen pop in the early 90s but then teen pop soon died. during the mid 90s, pop was rejuvenated as major artists such as Michael Jackson and Madonna began to reach their pinnacle of greatness. As for R&B, it quickly changed as time passed. More and more artists began to put in touches of hip hop into their music quickly changing the way R&B sounded. 

Hip Hop - Hip hop was somewhat started in the late 80s, but it really escalated in the early 90s by artists such as the Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg. Hip hop became more mainstream going more into the mid 90s. It began to slowly take over the music business causing problems between Hip hop and Rock and even Hip hop and Hip hop (East coast vs. West Coast).

Country Music - In the 1990s, country music really took off. Garth Brooks led the way in album sales and concert attendance. Country became so much bigger than expected that Time magazine even devoted one issue to the history and up rise of Country music. Country music was distorted into a alternative country and pop country as younger artists rose. 

Some huge artists/bands of the decade were blink-182, Weezer, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Michael Jackson, The Beastie Boys, Dr. Dre, Notorious B.I.G., Madonna, Garth Brooks, Green Day, and maybe one of the biggest icons in the decade, Mariah Carey.

Along with the growth of music, the way peopel listened to music had also drastically changed. In the early 90s, the way people listened to music was through mainly cassettes, but they soon transitioned into the age of the compact disk. Only a few years later, the mp3 Player was created. This was made in order to save space and to make getting music easier. Two of the huge audio companies were Sony and Philips.  

 

"The Way We Lived"

The nineties culture and lifestyle was definitely a lot different from the previous decades. It was different in almost all the aspects of life. One thing that changed was the America was becoming more fast paced and everything from houses to debt was becoming bigger. “Americans built bigger and more elaborate homes and drove more expensive automobiles, then worked longer hours to pay for them. Americans spent more, borrowed more, and went more deeply into debt.” (Pendergast 94). Another thing that definitely increased from the previous decades were the divorce rates and the number of step families there were. Also children were forced to almost grow up faster because they were under more pressure and the adult world had become increasingly open to them. People were also more open to controversial ideas, for example homosexuals. Gays were able to publicly come out and campaign for their rights, even though “the majority of Americans surveyed in 1998 believed that homosexual relations were acceptable, violence and a legal backlash against gay rights occurred throughout the decade.” (Pendergast 94). A major movement started in the eighties called, New Spiritualism, continued to grow in the 90s. The New Age movement “in the 1990s focused on self-fulfillment and personal happiness” (Pendergast 108). This movement was so successful that it made it into the workplace, where it was called “corporate spiritualism.” It made workers more motivated, and it led to more innovative ideas and workers. Another thing that had a huge influence on everyday life in the 90s was the Internet. Millions were now using the Internet, not only for business, but other things like their news source and entertainment. Some other positive sides of the 90s lifestyle was that though people were more busy, the standards especially for clothing were much more relaxed.

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Government & Politics

 

The Persian Gulf War (August 2, 1990 – February 28, 1991), commonly referred to as the Gulf War, was initiated with United Nations authorization, by an alliance force from 34 countries against Iraq, with the purpose of driving out Iraqi forces from Kuwait after its invasion and annexation on August 2^nd, 1990.  The 34 countries that officially opposed the invasion of Iraq were known as the Coalition of the Gulf War.  The country with the majority military force was the United States, while Saudi Arabia, the UK and Egypt were the leading funders.

The reason Iraq wanted to invade Kuwait was because it was virtually bankrupt due to its previous encounter with Iran in the 1980’s.  Iraq owed most of its money to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and tried to waive the debt but it didn’t work.  In the early 1990’s, President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein tried to ease the financial burden on his country. He tried to use the country’s oil revenues from Kuwait to reduce the debt; he claimed that Kuwait was overproducing oil, exceeding the OPEC oil quota, therefore flooding the oil market, and lowering the global price of oil; Hussein’s economist said every dollar off the price of oil reduced Iraq’s export revenue by a billion dollars a year.  So Iraq wants to essentially take over Kuwait to control Kuwait’s oil production, keeping production lower, raising the prices of oil, and in result raising the amount of money Iraq makes. 

On July 23rd, the CIA reported that Iraq had moved 30,000 troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border.  On August 2^nd, Iraq began the invasion by bombing the capital of Kuwait, Kuwait City.  Within hours of the invasion, Kuwaiti and U.S. delegations requested a meeting of the UN Security Council, which passed Resolution 660, condemning the invasion and demanding withdrawal of Iraqi troops.  British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush then called for the establishment of an international military coalition to compel Saddam’s withdrawal, while the UN instituted economic sanctions against Iraq.  Western leaders also concluded that Saddam intended to invade Saudi Arabia and control its vast oil reserves.  If successful, this would enable Saddam to control the Western world by manipulating the price of oil. 

This fear of economic damage to America pushed President Bush to intervene military; he initiated Operation Desert Shield on August 8^th, which British and France would join.  The Iraqi government stated that it would attack Israel if invaded.  The Iraqis though that if they attacked Israel, Israel would enter the war, causing the Arab nations to secede from the war because they wouldn’t fight alongside Israel.  American’s posted in Israel and made sure they stayed out of the war.  Iraq fired scud missiles at Israel.

On February 23^rd, 1991, the 1st Marine Division, 2nd Marine Division, and the 1st Light Armored Infantry crossed into Kuwait and headed toward Kuwait City beginning the Ground Campaign. The U.S. VII Corps launched an armored attack into Iraq early on February 24^th, taking Iraqi forces by surprise.  Once the allies had penetrated deep into Iraqi territory, they turned eastward, launching an attack against the elite Republican Guard, which lasted only a few hours; 50 armored Iraqi vehicles were destroyed and only a few coalition losses.  But on February 25^th, Iraq launched a scud missile attack on Coalition stations in Saudi Arabia, killing 28 American military personnel.  In retaliation, on February 26^th, the Coalition set Kuwaiti oil fields on fire causing Iraqi troops to retreat. The convoy was bombed by Coalition air forces during retreat, and their path became known as the Highway of Death because of the hundreds of troops killed. The forces only withdrew from the Iraqi border when the troops were finally 150 miles of Bagdad. One hundred hours after the ground campaign started, on February 28^th, President Bush declared a cease-fire, and declared that Kuwait had been liberated. 

Technology had a major impact on this war.  First it helped during the battle.  For example, the GPS was used immensely, especially during the ground campaign. Also, it affected the media coverage.  Satellite transmissions televised the war instantly.  For the first time, people from all over the world could see the occurrences and pictures from the war immediately.  In the US, ABC’s Peter Jennings, CBS’s Dan Rather, and NBC’s Tom Brokaw, led the network news’ coverage of the war.  But only the positive view on the war was viewed by the media.  The rallies in D.C. and at universities weren’t covered as much as the small gatherings of people in support of the war with their yellow ribbons. “Not since World War II had such journalistic unity or common opinion been realized” (Dylan Clark)

 

The Soviet Union was known as the successor of the Russian Empire during 1922-1991.  The Soviet Union had one political party – the Communist Party.  On April 3^rd 1922, Joseph Stalin had been named General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and a treaty had been signed that year, establishing the foundation of the USSR. In 1933, the USSR established a diplomatic relationship with the US, and in 1934, it joined the League of Nations. In 1940, The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, between the Soviet and Nazi Germany, that divided Poland, aligning their borders, and establishing their armies in close proximity along a 500 mile frontier.  Leaders Hitler and Stalin had agreed to divide Europe into two great power blocks, separated by a line drawn by the Baltic and Black Sea. The pact entitled Soviet occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, and eastern Poland.  Germany broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union on June 22^nd, 1941 and started the WWII of the Eastern Front and signed the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact.  After 4 years of battle, Germany surrendered; in the same year, to fulfill its agreement with the Allies at the Yalta conference, denounced the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1945 and invaded Japan-controlled territories on August 9^th, 1945.  Japan surrendered and the Soviet Union became an acknowledged military superpower.

Victory over Germany restored peace to Europe, but was already threatened by a growing rift between partners. At the Potsdam Conference, President Truman and Prime Minister Churchill were on one side; they were determined to secure political freedom and democratic governments through post-war Europe.  Their partner Joseph Stalin had other plans; he wanted to rule all of Europe and impose communism on all of the nations.  President Truman asked Stalin to withdraw his troops from Eastern and Western Europe and hold the elections he had promised, but Stalin refused (this turned into the Cold War).  The rising tension of the Cold War turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, into enemies.

December 1988, leader of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev met George Bush and out-going president Ronald Reagan; he decided that the cold war had to be brought to an end.  He had said “it was no longer possible to stabilize the world by military methods,” (Gorbachev).  In 1989 he loosened the Soviet Control of the nations in the communist bloc; he told the people that they had the right to choose their own futures, assuming they’d choose someone of the socialist party and not turn away from Moscow, keeping ties with the Soviet. On April 7, 1990, a law was passed allowing a republic to secede if more than two-thirds of that republic's residents vote for secession on a referendum. A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on March 17, 1991; 9/15 republics voted for the preservation of the Union. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost; in the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by eight republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation.  The August Coup disrupted the signing of the treaty. Members of the government and the KGB who wanted to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics, had attempted the coup d’état against Gorbachev.  After the coup died down, Yeltsin came out as a hero and Gorbachev's power had ended.  On December 8^th, 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place.  When the highest governmental body, the Supreme Soviet, went into bankruptcy, the general public officially recognized it as the final dissolution of the Soviet Union. 

Leadership

 

There were two Presidents of the United States in the 90’s, President George H.W. Bush (George Bush Sr.) and President William J. Clinton (Bill Clinton). George Bush Sr. was in office from January 20^th, 1989 – January 20^th 1993 serving only one term in office. He lost the 1992 presidential election to Bill Clinton, who was named “The Comeback Kid”. Clinton’s first term included passing many bills and laws that helped middle class America such as the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) which required large companies to allow their employees to take unpaid leaves of absence due to pregnancy or a serious medical condition. Clinton had an average approval rating of 50% during his first term.

Clinton was re-elected for a second term in the 1996 presidential election against Bob Dole (Republican) with 49.2% of the popular vote and over 70% of the Electoral College vote. During his second term, Clinton was able to pass The Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a major healthcare bill, with the help of Senator Ted Kennedy. This bill helped uninsured children from families whose income was low, but too high to qualify for Medicaid receive medical care. Clinton left office with an approval rating at 66%, the highest end of office rating of any president since World War II

Law &  Justice

Supreme Court Justices that Served (1990’s)	Active Service:
William J. Brennan Jr	(1956-1990)
Thurgood Marshall	(1967-1991)
Byron White	(1962-1993)
Harry Blackmaun	(1970-1994)
William Rehnquist	(1972-2005)
Sandra Day O’Connor	(1981 -2006)
David Hackett Scouter	(1990-2009)
John Paul Stevens	(1975-2010)
Antonin Scalia	(1986 –present)
Anthony Kennedy	(1988 – present)
Clarence Thomas	(1991 – present)
Ruth Bader Ginsburg	(1993 – present)
Stephen Breyer	(1994 – present)
John G. Roberts	(2005 – present)
Samuel Alito	(2006 – present)
Sonia Sotomayor	(2009 – present)

 

• Religion in Public Schools:

In Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches Union Free School District (1993) the Court held that any religious groups must be allowed the use of public school facilities after hours if that access was granted to any other groups.

The Court ruled in Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995) that the failure of school administrators to fund a student magazine written by a fundamentalist Christian group while it provided money for nonreligious publications violated the First Amendment.

 

• Assisted Suicide:

In 1990 the Supreme Court, in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, ruled against the parents of a young, brain-injured, comatose woman who wished to remove their daughter's feeding tubes.

Upholding several state laws, the Court declared in Vacco v. Quill (1997) that terminally ill persons did not have a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.

 

• Homosexual Rights:

“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy ended the questioning of military personnel about their sexual orientation, but banned service members from revealing their preference under threat of being discharged. (Homosexuals who initially supported Clinton, viewed this as the “hide and lie” policy)

Colorado voters in 1992 passed a state constitutional amendment that nullified several homosexual-rights ordinances.

In 1996 the Supreme Court, in Romer v. Evans, struck down the Colorado amendment, the first time the Court had applied the Fourteenth Amendment to protect homosexuals from discrimination.

 

• Same-Sex Marriage:

The Hawaiian Supreme Court ruled in Baehr v. Lewin (1993) that a ban on homosexual marriage violated equal protection rights under the constitution of that state.

In 1996 Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which President Clinton signed.

 

• Medical Privacy:

In order to provide more comprehensive protection of personal information, U.S. Department of Health proposed in October 1999 the first-ever national standards to protect the privacy of medical records created by health care providers, hospitals, health plans, and health care clearinghouses that were transmitted or maintained electronically, as well as paper printouts.

 

• Freedom of Expression:

Congress passed the Communications Decency Act as part of the Telecommunications Reform Act (1996) saying that the Internet was not the electronic equivalent to the printing press, so it did not clash with the first amendment.

In 1997 the Supreme Court overturned the law, in Reno v. ACLU, arguing that the statute was too broad and vaguely worded, thus violating free speech protections.

 

• Miranda Challenged:

On 6 December 1999 the Supreme Court announced that it would review the legal and constitutional basis for the Miranda v. Arizona (1966) ruling with Dickerson v. United States.

 

• Decriminalization of Marijuana:

  In a 1996 referendum, California voters passed Proposition 215, which decriminalized marijuana use for medical purposes.

 

In its Chandler v. Florida (1981) decision, the Court ruled that TV coverage of criminal trials could be allowed providing they did not violate the defendants' rights.  In 1990 the Federal Judicial Conference issued an experiment allowing cameras in some federal courts for three years; the report on the experiment concluded to continue coverage, but members of the Conference voted against it. Since this ruling, several courtrooms’ court cases became televised, and by the 1990’s, almost all states allowed them into some judicial proceedings.  But in 1995, the O.J. Simpson trial occurred, making people rethink allowing the camera into the courtroom.  The former football star was accused for murdering his wife and her friend, and the trial was broadcasted live by several networks, including CNN.  The judge didn’t conduct the trial well and camera’s allowed the world to view the demonstration.  People blamed television for influencing the trial and judges began to rethink allowing cameras into the courtroom – especially in high-profile cases.  People argued that broadcasters didn’t present the trials correctly; relying too much on sound bites and ridding of in-depth explanations and analysis’s. For example, in the Simpson trial, the television focused on the thrilling and influenced the proceedings.  But journalists argued back, saying that the fault rested upon Ito’s inability to control his courtroom and the lawyers’ attempts to persuade the public’s opinion with statements outside the courtroom. “The Sunshine in the Courtroom Act”, to allow cameras into federal courtrooms, was pending for approval in 1999. 

The O.J. Trial wasn’t the only very public court case of the 90’s.  Another popular court case was the trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez (1994).  They were two brothers from Beverly Hills that were accused of murdering their parents. Cameras were banned from 1995-1996 during their retrial after jurors couldn’t come to a verdict; during the retrial, the brothers were convicted for first-degree murder.  Television took a step up from showing live trial proceedings and broadcasted judicial news updates, segments on consumer law, small claims courts, and parole and death penalty issues; of course because of their ratings, it only showed the sensational cases.  Some of the popular Courtroom shows were Divorce Court (1986 – 1991), People’s Court (1981 – 1993), and Judge Judy which started in 1996.

One of the most remembered trial’s of the 1990’s was our very own President’s Senate Trial.  On December 19^th, 1998 the House of Representatives voted on the four articles of impeachment; Article I, alleging perjury before a grand jury (passed 228 to 206); Article II, accusing the president of perjury in a civil lawsuit (failed 229 to 205); Article III, alleging obstruction of justice (passed 221 to 212); Article IV, charging abuse of power (failed 285 to 148).  Thirteen white, male, republican House of Representative members were the prosecutors of the case against the president.  President Clinton chose his defense team which included Cheryl D. Mills, a young, black female lawyer (later proved to be a good spokesman). “Each side was given twenty-four hours to present its case, and the senators then had sixteen hours to question the parties,” (Foster).  Clinton didn’t appear at the trial.  On February 12^th, 1999, neither of the two articles achieved simple majority (Article I lost 45-45 and Article II was defeated with a 50-50 tie).

  

Religion

Though the country was still mostly Catholic and Protestant throughout the 90s, “by the 1990s, the United States had become the most religiously diverse country in the world.” (Kallen 73). Compared to the post World War II decades and decades prior to WWII, the country had a much higher percentage of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jews, and Buddhists in the country. Though the country was dominantly Christian, Jews were still an influential group. Americans also identified themselves by their religion, especially because there were more religions in the country. Religious service attendance was pretty unchanged from the previous decades, at about forty percent, but 95 percent of Americans believed in God.

 

 

 

Positive Political Cartoon

 

 

This cartoon is positive because it shows that Clinton was able to manage the people as well as the economy and budget.

Negative Political Cartoon

 

This political cartoon is referring to the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

 

MYP Unit Question: How did culture, events and leadership shape and reflect post-WWII America?

 

Though the 90s were about fifty years after World War II, the culture, leadership, and events were all directly affected by World War II. Throughout the post war decades there were many events such as the Cold War that were affected by WWII, but also influenced other things such as culture and leadership in the 90s. Obviously things changed in the fifty years between the war and the 90s, but the leaders of our country, many major events, and the culture was affected either directly or indirectly by World War II.

There were two Presidents throughout the course of the 90s, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. George H.W. Bush had served in World War II, he was one of the youngest pilots in the Navy. His service in World War II tied him directly to the war, and is one example of how our nation’s leaders were influenced by the war. It would have influenced him as a decision maker serving and living through the war and all the post war decades. Bill Clinton was the first President post World War II to not have any direct ties to it. He was born in 1946; one year after the war had ended. This made him much more progressive because he was not as tied down by personal experiences in World War II. Though Clinton may not have been directly affected by the war, he still lived through a lot of the events post-war which shaped the post World War II decades. Also many events during Clinton’s time in Presidency were indirectly related to World War II.

One major event that took place in the 90s was the re-unification of Germany. The Berlin Wall came down in the late 80s and Germany was reunified in 1990. This was all an effect of the Cold War which was related to World War II. After World War II, the Allied forces decided to split up the Nazi’s territory. The Western powers (United States) and the Eastern powers (Soviet Union). The western powers took West Germany, while the eastern powers took East Germany. There was a lot of tension there, and West Germany prospered, while East Germany did not. The reunification of Germany was affected by World War II, in the 90s it was clear that those barriers were coming down, and the traces of World War II were still there. Another major event that took place during the 90s was the bombing of the World Trade Center, the U.S. Embassy bombing in Nairobi, and the attack on U.S.S. Cole. This was all related to World War II, because similar to the splitting of Germany, there were many other countries that were split up. This caused the Korean War, and the Cold War. The Cold War was not actual fighting, but it was pretty much the war between Communism (USSR) and Democracy (U.S). The U.S. was against the spread of Communism while the USSR was for it. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in the late 70s. This made the United States angry because they did not want communism to spread. Though the U.S. did not directly fight in the war, they supported the mujahidin. The Soviet eventually had to leave Afghanistan, and the Taliban took over. After the Soviets were out, there was a civil war between the U.S. supported government and the Taliban. The Taliban won, and the Taliban regime took over Afghanistan. This later led to terrorist attacks on the United States by religious groups such as the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Though so many years had passed between the ending of World War II and the 90s, many major events that involved the U.S. not only in earlier decades, but in the 90s were affected by World War II or post WWII events.

Another thing that was affected by World War II was the American culture. One of the main examples of this is the number of women in high management and government positions throughout the 90s. During World War II, many women had to do the jobs that were not filled by men because they were at war. After this women started to become more independent and started to earn money. It was especially prominent in the 90s because there were many women that were given high government positions. One example is Madeleine Albright, the first woman ever to become Secretary of State. Also minorities had more opportunities in the past, and other groups were more free to voice their opinions in public. World War II helped women progress and become more independent, and without it women would not have gotten as far even in the 90s.

 

 

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