I. Economic Revolutions Opening 20 th century: United States
steel was the flagship business of Americas booming industrial
revolution Generation later it was General Motors Annually
producing millions of automobiles Characteristic American
corporation Shift to the mass consumer in the 1920s Flowered in the
1950s After World War II the rise of International Business
Machines (IBM) Later Microsoft Corporation led transformation to
the fast-paced information age: the storing, organizing, and
processing of data became an industry.
Slide 3
I. Economic Revolutions (cont.) 21 st century the growth of the
Internetcommunica- tions revolution New corporate giants like
Google Social networking like Facebook and Twitter Peoples
rocketing down the information superhighway Toward the uncharted
terrain of an electronic global village Speed and efficiency of the
new communications tools threatened to wipe out entire occupational
categories Now businesses could be outsourced to other countries
Scientific research propelled the economy New scientific knowledge
raised new moral dilemmas and provoked new political arguments The
threshold of a revolution in biological engineering
Slide 4
I. Economic Revolutions (cont.) The Human Genome Project
established the DNA sequence the way to radical new medical
therapies The cloning industrylegitimacy of applying cloning
technology to human reproduction, human stem cells research
Resulting in unprecedented ethical questions: What principles
should govern the allocation of human organs for lifesaving
transplants? Was it wise to spend money on such costly procedures?
Should resources be better spent on improved sanitation, maternal
and infant care, nutritional and health education? Should society
regulate the increasingly lengthy and often painful process of
dying? (see pp. 994-995)
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p991
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II. Affluence and Inequality Americans were an affluent people
at the beginning of the 21 st century: Median household income
reached $49,400 in 2011 Most enjoyed a higher standard of living
than 2/3 people Americans were no longer the worlds wealthiest
people The richest 20% of Americans raked in the national income
The poorest 20% received a little over 3% (see Table 42.1) This
trend was evident in many industrial societies The Welfare Reform
Bill of 1996: Restricted access to social services Requiring
able-bodied welfare recipients to find work. There were signs of
widening inequality Numbers of those who had health care or did not
Those who remained in poverty
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II. Affluence and Inequality (cont.) Indictment of the
inequities afflicting an affluent and allegedly egalitarian
republic (for comparative data, see Figure 42.1) What caused the
widening income gap? The tax and fiscal policies from Reagan to the
Bushes, which favored the wealthy (see Table 42.2) The intensifying
global economic competition The shrinkage in high-paying
manufacturing jobs for semi- skilled and unskilled workers The
greater economic rewards commanded by educated workers in high-tech
industries The decline of unions The growth of part-time and
temporary work The rising tide of relatively low-skill
immigrants
Slide 8
II. Affluence and Inequality (cont.) The increasing tendency of
educated men and women to marry one another and both work, creating
households with very high incomes Educational opportunities
perpetuated inequality: The underfunding of many schools in poor
urban areas The soaring costs of higher education
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p992
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Table 42-1 p992
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p992
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Figure 42-1 p993
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Table 42-2 p993
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p994
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p995
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Figure 42-2 p995
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III. The Feminist Revolution Women in the workplace: Beginning
of the 20 th century, women made up about 20% of the workforce
Constantly increasing their presence in the workplace over the next
five decades Increased during World War II Beginning in the 1950s
womens entry accelerated dramatically By the 1990s nearly half of
all workers were women Most astonishing was the upsurge in
employment of mothers In 1950s most mothers with children stayed at
home.
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III. The Feminist Revolution (cont.) By the 1990s a majority of
women with children as young as one year old were wage earners (see
Table 42.3) Women brought home the bacon and then cooked it By 2008
population of American women in the workforce was higher than most
countries except Russia and China (see Figure 42.3) In the 1960s
all-male strongholdsYale, Princeton, West Point, southern military
academies like Citadel and Virginia Military Instituteopened to
women By the 21 st century women were piloting airplanes, orbiting
the earth, governing states and cities, and writing Supreme Court
decisions.
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III. The Feminist Revolution (cont.) Yet many feminists
remained frustrated: Women continued to received lower wages Tended
to concentrate in low-prestige, low-paying occupations (the
pink-collar ghetto) Accounting for the population in 1990, they
were: 32% of lawyers and judges (up from 5% in 1970) 32% of
physicians (up from 10% in 1970) Overt sexual discrimination
explained some of this occupational segregation: Most, however,
attributed to the role of motherhood Helped for the persistence of
a gender gap in voting behavior.
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III. The Feminist Revolution (cont.) Most voted for Democrats:
Women perceived them as more willing to favor government support
for health and child care, education, job equality, and more
vigilant to protect abortion rights 20 th century mens roles
changed as well: Some employers provided paternity leave in
addition to maternity leave More men assumed traditional female
responsibilities Congress passed the Family Leave Bill in 1993:
Mandating job protection for working fathers as well as working
mothers who needed to take time off from work for family-related
reasons.
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Table 42-3 p996
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Figure 42-3 p996
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p997
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IV. New Families and Old The traditional family suffered heavy
blows in modern America: By the 1990s one out of every two
marriages ended in divorce: Seven times more children were affected
by divorce Kids who commuted between separated parents were
commonplace Traditional families were increasingly slow to form in
the first place: Adults living alone tripled in the four decades
after 1950 By the 1990s nearly one-third of women aged 25-29 had
never married
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IV. New Families and Old (cont.) By the 1960s, 5% of all births
were to unmarried women Three decades later: One out of four white
babies One out of three Latino babies Two out of three African
American babies Were born to single mothers. Every fourth child in
America was growing up in a household that lacked two parents The
collapse of the traditional family contributed to the pauperization
of many women and children As single parents (usually mothers)
struggled to keep their households economically afloat Single
parenthood outstripped race and ethnicity as the highest predictor
of poverty in America.
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IV. New Families and Old (cont.) Childrearing, the familys
foremost function Being increasingly assigned to parent-substitutes
To day care centers or schools To television and DVD players
Parental anxieties multiplied with the Internet Where youngsters
could surf through poetry and problem sets as well as pornography
If the traditional family was increasingly rare, the family itself
remained a bedrock of American society in the early twenty-first
century: As viable families now assumed a variety of forms:
Children in household led by single parent, stepparent, or
grandparent
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IV. New Families and Old (cont.) Children with gay and lesbian
parents Gay marriages took place when Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court ruled them legal in 2003. Teenage pregnancy A key
source of single parenthood, was on the decline after the mid 1990s
Divorce Rates appeared to ebb a bit With 3.4 divorces per thousand
people in 2008, down from 5.3 per thousand in 1981 The family was
not evaporating, but evolving into multiple forms
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p998
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V. The Aging of America Old age was to be a lengthy experience
Americans were living longer Someone born in 2000 could anticipate
a life span of seventy-five years. The census of 1950 recorded that
women for the first time made up a majority of Americans Miraculous
medical advances lengthened and strengthened lives Noteworthy, the
development of antibiotics after 1940 Dr. Jonas Salks discovery in
1953 of a vaccine against a dreaded crippler, polio Longer lives
spelled more elderly people One American in eight was over 65 in
2009
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V. The Aging of America (cont.) Projected that one in every
five would be in the sunset years by 2050 Host of political,
social, and economic questions about older Americans: They form a
potent electoral bloc that lobbies for senior citizens The share of
GNP spent on healthcare for people over sixty- five more than
doubled in three decades after the enactment of Medicare in 1965
The growth in medical payments for the old outstripped the growth
of educational expenditures for the young As late as 1960s over
lived in poverty, three decades only one in ten did
Slide 33
V. The Aging of America (cont.) Triumphs for senior citizens
brought fiscal strains Especially on Social Security and Medicare
systems Social Security payments to retirees did not represent
reim- bursement for contributions that the elderly had made during
their working lives The Social Security payments of current workers
into the Social Security system funded the benefits to current
gener- ations of retirees. The problem intensified with the soaring
rise of health-care costs The huge wave of post-World War II baby
boomers that approached retirement age What the government is
taking in is not matching or cover- ing what is being paid out:
Might rise above $7 trillion.
Slide 34
V. The Aging of America (cont.) The third rail of American
politics: The electoral power of older Americans Social Security
Medicare Which politicians touched only at their peril (see Figure
42.4)
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p999
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Figure 42-4 p999
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VI. The New Immigration Newcomers continued to come in waves
that numbered 1 million persons per year: Europe contributed fewer
than did Asia and Latin America (see Figure 2.5) They settled in
the traditional ethnic enclaves in cities and towns And in
sprawling suburbs, where many of the new jobs are located What
prompted new immigrants to America? Many came for the same reason
as the old ones did Left countries where the population was growing
rapidly
Slide 38
VI. The New Immigration (cont.) From countries where
agricultural and industrial revolutions were shaking people loose
In search of new jobs and economic opportunity Some came with
skills and even professional degrees and found their way into
middle-class jobs Most came with fewer skills, and less education,
seek- ing work as janitors, nannies, farm laborers, lawn cutters,
or restaurant workers. The Southwest felt the immigrant impact
especially sharplyMexican migrants Latinos made up nearly 1/3 of
the populations of Arizona, Texas, and California 40% in New Mexico
(See, pp. 1002-1003)
Slide 39
VI. The New Immigration (cont.) Mexican American have succeeded
in creating a cultural zone. Some old-stock Americans worry about
the capacity of the modern United States to absorb these new
immigrants. The Immigration Reform and Control Act, 1986: Attempted
to choke off illegal entry by penalizing employers of undocumented
aliens And granted amnesty to many of those already in the U.S.
Only 13% of the American population in 2007 were immigrants
Slide 40
VI. The New Immigration (cont.) Critics of immigration: They
robbed citizens of jobs They dumped themselves on the welfare rolls
at taxpayers expense Some worry about unscrupulous employers who
might take cruel advantage of alien workers Debates over
immigration were complicated by the problem of illegal immigrants
Bush and a bipartisan group of legislators proposed a law to
establish a guest-worker program Anti-immigrant forces condemned
the plan as amnesty
Slide 41
VI. The New Immigration (cont.) Business interests protested
that it would put too great a burden on employers to verify the
right to work Immigrant right advocates claimed it would create
second-class citizens Legislators in Arizona, provoked by
continuing immigrant flows over the states long desert border with
Mexico: Placed a harsh anti-immigrant law in 2010 requiring local
police to detain people if there was reasonable suspicion that they
were illegal Racial profiling Congress rejected the DREAM Act
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Figure 42-5 p1000
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p1001
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p1002
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p1003
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Figure 42-6 p1003
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VII. Beyond the Melting Pot Latinos were becoming an
increasingly important minority The United States was home to about
47 million 31 million Chicanos, or Mexican Americans They elected
mayors in several cities The United Farm Workers Organizing
Committee (UFWOC) headed by Cesar Chavez Succeeded in improving
working conditions for the mostly Chicanos stoop laborers who
followed the cycle of planting and harvesting across America
Increased influence by the presence of Spanish- language ballots
and television broadcasts
Slide 50
VII. Beyond the Melting Pot (cont.) Latinos became the largest
ethnic minority, outnumbering even African Americans in 2003 The
Chicano population of Americas largest state, California, led the
Anglo population In 2003 most newborns in California were Latinos
By 2010 the Census Bureau counted four majority- minority states:
No ethnic group commanded a majority: Texas, New Mex- ico,
California, and Hawaii Nationwide, the birthrate for nonwhites in
2010 was poised to eclipse the white birthrate for the first time
in history.
Slide 51
VII. Beyond the Melting Pot (cont.) Asian Americans By 1980s
they were Americas fastest growing minority Numbering 15 million by
2008 Once called the yellow peril, they were now counted among the
most prosperous Americans Their political influence was heralded in
1998 election When Oregons Taiwan-born David Wu was the first
Chinese American to serve in the House of Representatives. Indians,
the original Americans Numbered more than 2.5 million in the 2010
census Half have left the reservations to live in cities
Slide 52
VII. Beyond the Melting Pot (cont.) Unemployment and alcoholism
had blighted reserva- tion life Many tribes took advantage of their
special legal status as independent nations to open bingo halls and
gambling casinos for the general public on reservation land But the
cycle of discrimination and poverty proved hard to break
Slide 53
VIII. Cities and Suburbs American cities Crime was the greatest
scourge of urban life Violent crimes reached an all-time high in
the drug- infested 1980s and leveled off in the 1990s America
imprisoned a larger fraction of its population than almost any
other nation The migration from the cities to the suburbs were
swift and massive Creating a majority of American who were suburban
dwellers (see Figure 42.7) Jobs became suburbanized The nations
brief urban age lasted 7 decades after 1920
Slide 54
VIII. Cities and Suburbs (cont.) There was a new fragmentation
and isolation in American life By the first decade of the 21 st
century, the suburban rings around big cities were becoming more
racially and ethnical- ly diverse Through individual schools and
towns were often homogeneous Suburbs grew faster in the West and
Southwest In the outer orbits of Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas,
and Phoenix Newcomers came from both the nearby cities and other
regions of the United States
Slide 55
VIII. Cities and Suburbs (cont.) Some major cities exhibited
signs of renewal: New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and even
the classic city without a center, Los Angeles Most did not become
genuine cities of residential integration Cities remained as
divided by wealth and race as the suburban social landscape
surrounding them.
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p1004
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IX. Minority America Racial and ethnic tensions exacerbated the
prob- lems of American cities: These stresses were especially
evident in Los Angeles A magnet for minorities Especially
immigrants from Asia and Latin America The Los Angeles riots of
1992 testified to black skepticism about the American system In
1995 O. J. Simpsons murder trial fed white disillu- sionment with
the state of race relations American cities have always held an
astonishing variety of ethnic and racial groups: By the 20 th
century minorities made up a majority of the population of American
cities, as whites fled to the suburbs
Slide 58
IX. Minority America (cont.) The most desperate black ghettos,
housing a hapless underclass, were problematic Successful blacks
who had benefited from the civil rights revolution of the 50s and
60s Followed whites to the suburbs Leaving a residue of the poorest
poor in the old ghettos The inner cities, plagued by unemployment
and drug addiction, seemed bereft of leadership, cohesion,
resources and hope.
Slide 59
IX. Minority America (cont.) Single women headed about 45% of
black families in 2009, three times more than whites Many African
American women, husbandless and job- less, struggled to feed their
children Many fatherless, impoverished African American children
were consigned to suffer from educational handicaps too difficult
to overcome Some African American communities did prosper Black
elected officials had risen to 9,000 Some three dozen members of
Congress Mayors of several large cities And presidentBarack
Obama.
Slide 60
IX. Minority America (cont.) By the 20 th century blacks had
advanced in education Still, the educational gap between blacks and
whites persisted The political assault against affirmative action
in California and elsewhere Compounded the obstacles to advance Won
a key case involving the University of Michigan The Court preserved
affirmative action in university admission policies.
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Figure 42-7 p1005
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p1006
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X. E Pluribus Plures Controversial issues of color and culture
pervaded the realm of ideas The creed of multiculturalism Cultural
pluralists like Horace Kallen and Randolph Bourne embraced it It
celebrated diversity for its own sake And stressed the need to
preserve and promote, rather than squash, a variety of distinct
ethnic and racial cultures in the United States The nations
classrooms became battlegrounds for the debate over Americas
commitment to pluralism
Slide 64
X. E Pluribus Plures (cont.) Multiculturalists attacked the
traditional curriculum as Eurocentric Advocated greater focus on
the achievements of African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans,
and Native Americans Critics: Too much stress on ethnic difference
would come at the expense of national cohesion And an appreciation
of common American values The Census Bureau enlivened the debate in
2000 when it allowed respondents to identify themselves with more
than one of the six standard racial categories: Black, white,
Latino, American Indian, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or other
Pacific Islander
Slide 65
X. E Pluribus Plures (cont.) 7 million Americans chose to
describe themselves as biracial or multiracial As of the 1960s
interracial marriage was still illegal in sixteen states Mixed
marriages of golfer Tiger Woods and actress Rosario Dawson By the
21 st century many Americans were proclaiming their mixed heritage
as a point of pride.
Slide 66
XI. The Postmodern Mind Americans in the 21st century: Read
more, listened to more music, and were better educated Colleges
awarded some 3 million degrees annually Educated people lifted the
economy to advanced levels, creating more consumers of high culture
Every year millions of Americans: Visited museums Patronized
hundreds of opera companies and symphony orchestras As well as
countless popular music groups.
Slide 67
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Postmodernism generally refers
to: A distrust of rational, scientific descriptions of the self or
the world And the insistence that human beliefs and realities are
socially constructed. In place of modernisms faith in certainty,
objectivity, and unity Postmodernism stresses skepticism,
relativity, and multiplicity Postmodernism has enormously
influenced contem- porary philosophy, social theory, art,
architecture, and literature, among other fields.
Slide 68
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Postmodern architecture made
the most visible footprint Robert Venturi and Michael Graves
revived the deco- rative details of earlier historical style
Postmodernists celebrated a playful eclecticism of architectural
elements Frank Gehry used luminous, undulating sheets of metallic
skin Guggenheim Museum (1997) in Bilbao, Spain The Walt Disney
Concert Hall (2003) in Los Angeles
Slide 69
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Postmodern sensibility carried
over into art forms John Adams and John Zorn: Broke down boundaries
between high and low styles Blended diverse musical genres and
traditions in an experimental mix Choreographers Steve Paxton and
Twyla Tharp: Paired everyday movements with classical techniques
and gave contemporary dancers license to improvise Hip hop artists
Biz Markie to Jay-Z sampled beats and overlaid them with complex
rapping schemes.
Slide 70
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Mash-up artists Cleverly fusing
fragments from songs of different musical genres Remixing one songs
vocal track over another songs instrumentals. Visual artists also
felt the eclectic urge: Cindy Sherman, Jenny Holzer, Kara Walker
combined old and new media to confront, confound and even offend
the viewer Jeff Koons and Shepard Fairey borrowed industrial
materials and pop culture imagery to blur the hidebound distinction
between highbrow and lowbrow cultures.
Slide 71
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Postmodern literature William
S. Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon: Pioneered the use of
non-linear narratives, pastiche forms, parody and paradox in their
fiction Michael Chabon, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Zadie Smith: Adapted
these techniques for contemporary audiences David Foster Wallace,
Infinite Jest (1996) Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist (1999)
Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections (2001) and Freedom (2010)
Slide 72
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Toni Morrison: Wove a
bewitching portrait of maternal affection in Beloved (1987) In 1993
became the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for
literature E. Annie Proulx: Comical yet tender portrayal of a
struggling family in The Shipping News (1993) James Welch, Leslie
Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo and Sherman Alexie: Contributed to a Native
American literary renaissance that sought to recover the tribal
past while reimagining its present
Slide 73
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Immigrant writers: Playwrights
David Hwang, novelist Amy Tan Chinese-born Ha Jin, Waiting (1999)
Jhumpa Lahiri explored the painful relationship between immigrant
Indian parents and their American-born children Latino writers:
Junot Diazs Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar
Wao (2007) On stage: Political themes and social commentary
predominated Tony Kushner, Angels in America (1991)
Slide 74
XI. The Postmodern Mind (cont.) Jonathan Larsons Tony
Award-winning musical Rent (1996) Eve Ensler espoused feminist
empowerment and an end to violence against women Cuban American
Nilo Cruz won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for Anna in the Tropics
Films continued to flourish: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James
Cameron and Spike Lee
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XII. The New Media Internet First created by the government for
Cold War intelligence sharing Spread into American homes, schools,
offices To communicate, shop, work, electronically bond with family
and friends The dot-com explosion of Internet-based high-tech
companies drove the tremendous economic boom Giants in retail
(Amazon.com), information gathering (Google), and even finance
(E*Trade) Reshaped the corporate world
Slide 79
XII. The New Media (cont.) Internet has democratizing effect:
Spreading power and information Young people and social-networking
sitesFacebook, Twitter to make connections YouTube allowed everyday
users to post home videos Weblogs, blogs Presented challengers to
traditional mediaespecially newspapers New Media: Supportersadded
fresh voice and new perspectives. Criticsquestioned bloggers
expertise and accused them of spreading misinformation. Americans
became ever less willing to read Internet made the 24-hour news
cycle a reality The Internet drove major readjustments in modern
American economic, social, and cultural life.
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XIII. The American Prospect Problems that confronted the
Republic Women still fell short of first-class economic citizenship
Groped for ways to adapt the traditional family to the new
realities of womens work outside the home Civil rights Full
equality remained an elusive dream for countless Americans of color
Powerful foreign competitors challenged Americas premier economic
status Americans began to fear for their economy Environmental
worries clouded the countrys future
Slide 82
XIII. The American Prospect (cont.) Coal-fired
electrical-generating plants contributed to greenhouse effects
Problem of radioactive waste disposal hampered the development of
nuclear power plants The planet was being drained of oil Disastrous
accidents The cry for alternative fuel sources had given way to
public frustration with solar power and windmills, etc. Energy
conservation an elusive strategy Kyoto treaty, Copenhagen Climate
Conference Cleaning the earth of its abundant pollutants Other
problems: Ways to resolve the ethnic and cultural conflicts New
opportunitiesouter space, inner-city streets, etc.
Slide 83
XIII. The American Prospect (cont.) Unending quest for social
justice, individual fulfillment, and international peace The
terrorist attack on America on September 11, 2001another challenge
to the United States Finding ways to preserve its security without
altering its fundamental democratic values and ways of life Danger
of terrorism: In fighting it, Americans would so compromise their
freedoms at home And so isolate the country internationally that it
would lose touch with its own guiding principles The capacity to
nurture progress abroad Depends on the ability of Americans to
improve their own country, to do so in the midst of new threats to
their security.