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A Bubble in Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001

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Dr. O'Neill got his Ph. D. from Berkeley and has taught American history (World Wars I & II as well) at Rutgers University since 1971 (full disclosure: I took three classes with him in the late 90's). O'Neill has written several other books about 20th century America, and after reading this book, I'm hoping that he will write about the first decade of the 21st century as well.

In the preface, O'Neill states that the period of 1989 to 2001 (the fall of the Berlin Wall to 9/11) was marked by peace, prosperity and freedom from fear (and that it looks even better since it was followed by "a government whose arrogance was exceeded only by its ineptitude" (ix)). At the time, O'Neill marveled at new technologies (wireless laptops, cell phones, the internet, camcorders, satellites, cable news) and how they allowed more people to access more information at an ever increasing pace. Over time, he was disheartened to discover that despite these new technologies, people actually knew less and less about meaningful topics. He dubbed the media and its followers "Tabloid Nation," and their frenzy over Anita Hill, OJ, and Monica were just precursors to the media-saturated and celebrity-obsessed world that we live in today. The other major themes in his book (besides a narrative history of the 90's) are the failure of health care and the first clear evidence of the polarization of American politics into two ever acrimonious sects. Most significantly, he describes Clinton and Congress's failure to transform the military to handle future conflicts and to lessen the expenditures on antiquated aircraft carriers, tanks and other weapons.

The book's first chapter is about the election and presidency of Bush I. Bush comes across as a smart man with a deft touch regarding international politics. Clearly, Bush understood its dirty nature:

"In a private conversation Bush told Gorbachev that he expected to become the next president and wanted to improve Soviet-American relations. But to win the election he would have to say and do things that Gorbachev might find offensive. He urged Gorbachev to pay no attention to these political tactics and trust that Bush would do right by him in the end. Gorbachev later called this the "most important talk Bush and I ever had." (14).

Bush's failures include the empowerment of the Christian right by embracing it; the nomination of Clarence Thomas (who despite being against affirmative action benefited from it numerous times throughout his life (side note: Biden comes across terribly during the Thomas-Hill hearings)); and his inability to understand the unsustainability of Reaganomics (borrowed foreign capital, huge government spending and tax cuts for the rich).

O'Neill's chapter on the first Gulf War combines his impressive knowledge of military equipment with an analysis of the politics and strategy behind the war.

Clinton's childhood, education, background and his collision with Bush & Perot are covered in the third chapter. O'Neill read a plethora of books by Clinton's staffers, including Carville, Stephanopoulos & Morris, and he describes the fights and tensions between them (and he correctly compares the Clinton Whitehouse and its battles to FDR's Whitehouse (in only that way)).

O'Neill brilliantly sums up the backlash politics where people continually vote against their interests on page 120:

"Religious leaders stir the passions of angry and disposed people by attacking abortion, evolution, fluoridation, sacrilegious art, affirmative action, sex in movies and TV shows; backlash political leaders, often born-again Christians, exploit these "values" or "social" issues to win election to statehouses and Congress. There they vote for everything corporate America wants: lower taxes and less regulation, in ever more successful efforts to bring back the 1920's. The worse off they are, the more working people and small farmers vote to put people in office who hate labor unions and love agribusiness."

He covers the military sex scandals of Tailhook, Aberdeen and Ft. Leonardwood, and points out that while minority males have fared well in the military, women continue to get treated quite poorly (between this and the inter-branch squabbling during the Sudan and Afghanistan bombings, the military comes out looking terribly).

Twenty-seven pages are devoted to OJ Simpson. The chapter covers the history, crime, trial and aftershocks quite thoroughly (no one needs to read a 450 page book about it).

In his 40 page chapter on higher education, O'Neill chronicles the problems of race-based admissions policies, grade inflation, underpaid adjuncts, and the decline in the quality of students' work. He uses hard data to make his points on these issues.

The chapters on Clinton's two terms are very strong. He explains Morris's triangulation strategy that Clinton employed from both the Democratic and the Republican perspective (both parties were unhappy about it). The Bosnian conflict gets only eight pages (this is a history of America, not the world in the 90's though), but O'Neill provides a summary of the conflict and hits Clinton hard for his delays and praises him for coming through in the end. The government shut-down, balancing the budget, Monica, the near Middle East peace agreement, and the 2000 election all receive heavy attention.

O'Neill is always informative, often critical and sometimes humorous. In the epilogue, he details the problems of the military-industrial complex and its insane costs (both economically and opportunistically). In closing, he sets the reader up for his book (hopefully) on Bush II:

"Flying under the media's radar in little-read publications, think tanks, and other shadowy venues, neoconservatives and their allies plotted to invade Iraq, alienate the rest of the world, and ruin the American economy by means of runaway spending, massive tax cuts, and lax regulation - the trifecta of looters. Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the multiple disasters of the Bush years were incubating in the heart of Clinton's America." After him came the deluge.

A BUBBLE IN TIME: AMERICA DURING THE INTERWAR YEARS, 1989-2001 provides a powerful survey of the decade leading up to the second Bush presidency and 2001, offering a view of the prosperous 1990s and the evolution of terrorism, struggles abroad, and botched government programs and arrogance. A powerful social history, this deserves a place in any contemporary American history library.