Putting It Together: From Cold War to Culture Wars

From Ronald Reagan’s election to the end of the millennium, a dramatic realignment and increasing polarization transformed American society, politics, and culture. The resurgence of the conservative right, coupled with the increasing progressive views of the liberal left, meant that Americans differed widely on issues like abortion, gun control, separation of church and state, recreational drug use, homosexuality, and censorship. These were divisive issues that were marked more by ideological world-views and political-party identification rather than class, gender, or race.

Additional fears at the end of the millennium centered on the “Y2K scare” of potential computer errors related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000.[1] Some companies predicted the global damage caused by the bug would require anything between $400 million and $600 billion to rectify, since many computer programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, making the year 2000 indistinguishable from 1900. Fears revolved around computer systems’ inability to distinguish dates correctly, and the potential computer crash that could collapse world markets. A lack of clarity regarding the potential dangers of the bug led some Americans to stock up on food, water, and arms, purchase backup generators, and withdraw large sums of money in anticipation of a computer-induced apocalypse.[2]

On New Year’s Day 2000, fears of Y2K proved unfounded but the culture wars of deep-seated divisions remained. The first shock of the new millennium would come with the 9/11/2001 attack, during the aftermath of which many Americans momentarily came together.

Critical Thinking Questions

  1. What were some of the long-term effects of the Reagan Revolution and the rise of conservatives?
  2. What events led to the end of the Cold War? What impact did the end of the Cold War have on American politics and foreign policy concerns?
  3. Which issues divided Americans most significantly during the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s?
  4. In what ways was Bill Clinton a traditional Democrat in the style of Kennedy and Johnson? In what ways was he a conservative, like Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush?
  5. Describe American involvement in global affairs during this period. How did American foreign policy change and evolve between 1980 and 2000, in both its focus and its approach?
  1. Committee on Government Reform and Oversight (1998-10-26). The Year 2000 Problem: Fourth Report by the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, Together with Additional Views (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-06-07. ↵
  2. Uenuma, Francine (2019-12-30). "20 Years Later, the Y2K Bug Seems Like a Joke—Because Those Behind the Scenes Took It Seriously". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2021-06-07. ↵