The document summarizes key themes in technology and society from the 1990s to the present. It discusses rising economic inequality, persistent structural racism despite legal gains, and how the economy affected race and gender. The US struggled to define its international role after the Cold War, and faced challenges including terrorism, wars in the Middle East, and debates over immigration and civil liberties. Overall it presents both social progress and setbacks during this period.

1. Technology and Society, 1990s-Present

2. Key Themes
• Technology changed the American economy,
and created a wider gulf between the rich
and the poor.
• In recent decades, the US has become much
more multicultural, but racism has persisted,
creating racial disparities.
• The US has struggled to define a new
international role for itself as the sole global
superpower.

3. The Second Gilded Age
• Greed is good.TV: Lifestyles
of the Rich and Famous;
Movies: Wall Street
• “Yuppie” as household word
Image source: http://speakin-colors.blogspot.com

4. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
showcased the new “greed is good” ethic.
See video clip:

5. Richest 1% of
Americans
owned 40% of
nation’s wealth
by 1990s

6. Clinton: Social and
Economic Policy
• Socially progressive:
appoints women and
African Americans to
cabinet
• “don’t ask, don’t tell” as a
step forward for gay
rights
• Earned Income Tax
Credit: cash payment for
low-income workers
• Health care as failed plan
• 1996: abolishes welfare

7. A New
Economy?
• Yes: expansion + low
unemployment in the 1990s
• Yes: Computer revolution in
the 1990s
• Yes: Rising investment; rising
stock prices in the 1990s
• No: Stock bubble bursts 2000
- billions lost
• No: Fraud drove growth, e.g.
Enron; banks and risky
mortgages

8. Rising Inequality
(Again)• If you’re not the boss, your
wages were lower in the
1990s than they had been in
the 1970s
• Bill Gates owned as much as
the bottom 40% of the
American population
• Shift of production overseas:
NAFTA and maquilas
• A low-paying service
economy:Walmart vs. GM
(1970)

10. Economy and
Culture Wars
• As economic stress led to
anxiety about women’s roles,
it also contributed to new
culture wars about
immigration.
• Post-1965, non-European
immigration grows
• Latinos: overall, poorer and
less educated than U.S.
population
• Asians: very successful or very
poor - income stratification

13. African
Americans in
the 1990s
• End to legal segregation
and overt discrimination
produces gains
• Growing African
population - highly
educated
• Precarious economic
status of African
Americans:
• housing segregation
persists
• school segregation on
the rise

15. Average white student: attends a school that’s 73% white, 8% black, 12%
Latino, and 4% Asian-American.
Average black student attends a school that’s 49% black, 17% Latino, 4%
Asian-American, and 28% white.
Average Latino student attends a school that’s 57% Latino, 11% black, 25%
white, and 5% Asian-American.
2011: more than 40% of black students attended schools 90%+ minority
In 1991, just 35 percent of black students attended schools with such high
levels of segregation.
“Still Separate and Unequal” by Jamelle Bouie for Slate, 15 May 2014

16. The Spread of
Imprisonment• beginning in 1970s: politicians
seek to be “tough on crime”;
War on Drugs
• prison population: 2008: 2.3
million people (25% of the
total for the WORLD)
• 25%+ of black male population
could expect to serve time in
prison
• Why? Higher sentences for
crimes committed by non-
whites; emphasis on cities as
“problems”

17. Conclusions
• Race:As legal discrimination was eradicated by civil rights
movements, structural racism persisted. Real gains, but limited.
• Gender:Women’s workforce participation increased; barriers
to education and employment diminished. Some women
forced into workforce by economic necessity.
• Economy:A weak economy in the 1970s and 1980s gave way
to a boom in the 1990s, but deindustrialization weakened
economic status of working-class people. The 1990s tech
economy increased economic inequality.
• Economy affected race (most racial minorities more
vulnerable) and gender (as women played more significant
roles in the household economy).

18. Where are we now?
The history of the
2000s

19. A Post-Cold-
War Era• The U.S. as sole
superpower - how
should we lead?
• Clinton: human rights
vs. economic interests
• Rwandan genocide
1994: 800,000 killed,
2 million refugees
• Disintegration of
Yugoslavia 1998

20. An Age of Terror?
• World Trade Center
bombing 2001
• Bush Doctrine: launches
“war on terror”
• 10/7/2001: air strikes
against Taliban
• “Axis of Evil” - Iraq, Iran,
and N. Korea - but not
allies, not connected to
9/11

21. • Widespread opposition
to Iraq war:
• 10-15 million
protesters worldwide,
February 2003
• Opponents of war -
• worldwide: violation
of international law
• at home: distraction
from Al Qaeda
America as the
Global Cop?

22. The War on Terror
at Home
• USA PATRIOT act -
expands law
enforcement powers
• Guantánamo Bay -
detention camp for
people accused of
terrorism
• 2001: secret military
tribunals for non citizens
- no right to counsel or
to see evidence
• Torture: January 2002 -
“unlawful combatants”
vs. prisoners of war

23. A More Tolerant
Society?
• Acceptance of interracial dating:
from 45% (1987) to 78% (2003)
• Gays should be fired from
teaching jobs: 50% (1987) to
35% (2003)
• Women: 60% of all college
degrees in early 2000s (vs. 35%
in 1960)
BUT
• gender wage gap persists
• Prop 187; immigration debates
• housing discrimination leads to
school segregation leads to
diminished opportunities

24. Race in the Age of
Obama: 2008-Present
• b. 1961: parents’
marriage still illegal
in many states
• End to era of
“southern
strategy”
• Powerful
symbolism, and
limits to that
symbolism

25. Exceptional
America
• Material prosperity and health:
• 1900:
• no indoor plumbing, no
telephone, no car, little
education
• life expectancy: 46 for men; 48
for women
• 2000:
• life expectancy is 74 for men
and 79 for women

26. • U.S. more religious: 60% vs.
32% in Britain vs. 11% in
France say religion “plays a
very important part in my life”
• Gun murder: 1998 11,789 in
US vs. 54 in Britain
• No requirements for vacation
or sick leave; no paid maternity
leave (one of only 4 in the
world - Liberia, Papua New
Guinea, Swaziland, and US)
• Personal freedom, consumer
freedom, less sense of
common good/social
citizenship
Exceptional
America