Why learn about the culture wars of the 1980s and the changing world order of the 1990s?

Figure 1. This striking piece of graffiti from the Berlin Wall, now housed in the Newseum in Washington, DC, contains the name of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), a group formed in 1987 in New York City to combat the spread of AIDS and the perception that AIDS was the product of immoral behavior.

“Act up!” might be called the unofficial slogan of the 1980s counterculture. Numerous groups were concerned by what they considered disturbing social, cultural, and political trends in the United States, as the election of Ronald Reagan signaled a conservative push-back against the progressive policies of prior decades. Internationally, Cold War tensions throughout the decade culminated in 1989 when German protesters began “acting up” and tearing down large chunks of the Berlin Wall, essentially dismantling the Iron Curtain. This symbolic act foreshadowed the collapse of Communist governments in both Central and Eastern Europe, marking the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

In contrast, the 1990s were a time of relative peace, prosperity, and a blurring of political-party lines. In 1991 Republican President George H.W. Bush signed landmark Civil Rights legislation with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 1996, Democrat President Bill Clinton allied with conservative Republicans in Congress in “ending Welfare as we know it” by cutting programs like the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).^[1] Economic growth in the 1990s, such as the rise of the internet, cell phones, and new international economic agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) led to comfortable growth until the collapse of the dot-com bubble and fears of”Y2K” economic collapse near the end of the millennium. Meanwhile, racial tensions such as the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and domestic terrorism like the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing showed that deep rifts remained.

In term of foreign policy, the 1980s and 1990s also saw the end of the Cold War with the Soviet Union (USSR) and a brief moment of the U.S. enjoying the period of relative peace before the shock of the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 shattered such illusions.