Read Online Restless Giant: The United States From Watergate to Bush v. Gore by James T. Patterson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: James T. Patterson
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about the malleability of their world, Restless Giant tells a tale of national resilience and even regeneration—until another enormous trauma, the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, once again threatened to transform the tenor and the very terms of American life.
Patterson, the only author to contribute two volumes to The Oxford History of the United States , begins his account of the post-Watergate era by imaginatively recapturing the odd blend of political disillusionment and pop-culture daffiness that gave the 1970s their distinctive flavor. Challenges abounded in that decade—from the oil shocks administered by the newly assertive Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the “tax revolt” that spread from California in 1978 and helped to propel Ronald Reagan to the presidency, the agony of the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, divisive Supreme Court decisions concerning abortion and affirmative action, the continuing sexual revolution, often wrenching redefinitions of women’s role and the nature of the family, the emerging AIDS epidemic, and the stubborn persistence of “stagflation”—a devil’s brew of faltering economic productivity and galloping price increases. All of these Patterson recounts with his customary crispness and color, enlivening his story with deft portraits of figures like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and a cast of supporting characters that includes Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, O. J. Simpson, Bill Gates, and Steven Spielberg.
Patterson ranges broadly across the landscape of American life in the twentieth century’s closing decades, weaving a rich narrative tapestry out of the incidents and anecdotes that he relates so artfully, including the advent of personal computers, the first Gulf War, the triumphs and foibles of televangelists, and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. But larger patterns emerge as well. Patterson explains with admirable clarity the gathering economic recovery of the 1980s that culminated in the “dot-com” boom (or bubble) of the following decade; the halting efforts to redefine American foreign policy as the Cold War wound down and eventually ended with the astonishing implosion of the Soviet Union itself; the pervasive effects of the “information revolution”; the mixed implications of the commitment of successive administrations to free trade and the ongoing process of “globalization,” as embodied in institutions like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the WTO (World Trade Organization); the impact of some 30 million immigrants on the nation’s economy, politics, and culture; the “culture wars” of the 1980s and 1990s; and the vigorous growth of evangelical religion and its contribution to the powerful resurgence of political conservatism by the century’s end.
Recounting the history of those several developments suggests that the last quarter of the twentieth century was a time of unusual stress for the American people—but, as Patterson emphasizes, a time of notable achievements as well. Despite all their travails, he concludes, “Most people of the affluent and enormously powerful United States, though restless, had more blessings to cherish in early 2001 than they had had in 1974.”
It is often said that the history we know least well is the history of our own time, particularly the decades immediately surrounding our own birth. All readers will learn from this book, but James Patterson has done a special service to readers born during and after the Vietnam era. Here they will find a cogent and compelling account of how history has shaped the world they inherited—and the world they now inhabit. James Patterson has superbly delivered on the promise of the Oxford History of the United States— a series dedicated to bringing the very best of rigorous and imaginative historical scholarship to the widest possible audience.
David M.
Patterson, the only author to contribute two volumes to The Oxford History of the United States , begins his account of the post-Watergate era by imaginatively recapturing the odd blend of political disillusionment and pop-culture daffiness that gave the 1970s their distinctive flavor. Challenges abounded in that decade—from the oil shocks administered by the newly assertive Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the “tax revolt” that spread from California in 1978 and helped to propel Ronald Reagan to the presidency, the agony of the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, divisive Supreme Court decisions concerning abortion and affirmative action, the continuing sexual revolution, often wrenching redefinitions of women’s role and the nature of the family, the emerging AIDS epidemic, and the stubborn persistence of “stagflation”—a devil’s brew of faltering economic productivity and galloping price increases. All of these Patterson recounts with his customary crispness and color, enlivening his story with deft portraits of figures like Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and a cast of supporting characters that includes Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, O. J. Simpson, Bill Gates, and Steven Spielberg.
Patterson ranges broadly across the landscape of American life in the twentieth century’s closing decades, weaving a rich narrative tapestry out of the incidents and anecdotes that he relates so artfully, including the advent of personal computers, the first Gulf War, the triumphs and foibles of televangelists, and the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. But larger patterns emerge as well. Patterson explains with admirable clarity the gathering economic recovery of the 1980s that culminated in the “dot-com” boom (or bubble) of the following decade; the halting efforts to redefine American foreign policy as the Cold War wound down and eventually ended with the astonishing implosion of the Soviet Union itself; the pervasive effects of the “information revolution”; the mixed implications of the commitment of successive administrations to free trade and the ongoing process of “globalization,” as embodied in institutions like NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and the WTO (World Trade Organization); the impact of some 30 million immigrants on the nation’s economy, politics, and culture; the “culture wars” of the 1980s and 1990s; and the vigorous growth of evangelical religion and its contribution to the powerful resurgence of political conservatism by the century’s end.
Recounting the history of those several developments suggests that the last quarter of the twentieth century was a time of unusual stress for the American people—but, as Patterson emphasizes, a time of notable achievements as well. Despite all their travails, he concludes, “Most people of the affluent and enormously powerful United States, though restless, had more blessings to cherish in early 2001 than they had had in 1974.”
It is often said that the history we know least well is the history of our own time, particularly the decades immediately surrounding our own birth. All readers will learn from this book, but James Patterson has done a special service to readers born during and after the Vietnam era. Here they will find a cogent and compelling account of how history has shaped the world they inherited—and the world they now inhabit. James Patterson has superbly delivered on the promise of the Oxford History of the United States— a series dedicated to bringing the very best of rigorous and imaginative historical scholarship to the widest possible audience.
David M.
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