Acknowledgments xi
Prelude: The Imperial Logic of the American Dream xiii
Part I The Postwar Decades 1
1 Victory and Anxiety: World War and Cold War, 19451962 3
Colony to Colonizer: American Rise to Globalism 4
Wages of War: Triumph over Germany and Japan 5
First Frost: Dawn of the Cold War 9
Seeing Red: The Cold War at Home 12
Playing with Dominoes: Cold War Hot Spots 17
Cold War Showdown: Cuba 19
culture watch: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955/1956) 23
2 Conformity and Rebellion: American Culture and Politics, 19451963 27
Best Worst Time: Early Postwar Years 28
Boom! The Postwar Economy Explodes 29
Rising Suburbs: Life on the Crabgrass Frontier 32
Restless in the Promised Land: Suburbia's Critics 35
Free Movement: Early Civil Rights Struggles 40
Big Bangs: 1950s Youth Culture 45
culture watch: A Raisin in the Sun (1959) 49
Part II The Long 1960s 53
3 Confidence and Agitation: The American Empire at High Tide, 19601965 55
Dishing: The Kitchen Debate as Domestic Squabble 56
American Prince: JFK 58
Grand Expectations: The Birth of "Sixties" 60
Overcoming: The Civil Rights Movement Crests 61
Voices: Popular Culture of the Early 1960s 64
Countercurrents: Civil Rights Skeptics 65
Lone Star Rising: The LBJ Moment 69
Flanking Maneuver: Johnson in Vietnam 73
Fissures: Democratic Fault Lines 75
culture watch: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1964) 80
4 Fulfillment and Frustration: An Empire in Conflict, 19651974 86
Over the Moon: Winning the Space Race 87
Imperial Quagmire: The Vietnam Wars 89
Down from the Mountaintop: The Civil Rights Movement 93
Turning Point: 1968 96
Right Rising: The Return of Richard Nixon 99
Women's Work: The Feminist Movement 102
Rainbows: Rights Revolutions 105
Grim Peace: Endgame in Vietnam 108
Crooked Justice: The Triumph and Fall of Nixon 109
culture watch: Easy Rider (1969) 113
5 Experimentation and Exhaustion: Political Culture of the Sixties, 19651975 119
The Great Divide: Establishment and Counterculture 120
(de)Construction Sites: The Rise of Postmodernism 125
System Failure: The Reorganization of Hollywood 126
Medium Dominant: Television 128
Fit Print: Publishing 130
Kingdom of Rebels: The Reign of Rock 132
culture watch: "Chuckles the Clown Bites the Dust," The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975) 140
Interlude 144
6 Reassessment and Nostalgia: The American Empire in the Age of Limits, 19731980 144
1973: Hinge of American History 145
Apocalypse Now: The New Gloom 150
Depressingly Decent: Ford and Carter 153
Solitary Refinement: The Me Decade 159
Body Politics: Gender and Its Discontents 163
Rebellion and Revival: Pop Culture of the Late Seventies 166
Right Signal: The Conservative Turn 168
culture watch: Taxi Driver (1976) 175
Part III Indian Summer 181
7 Revival and Denial: The American Empire on Borrowed Time, 19811991 183
Right Man: The Age of Reagan 184
Making the Cut: Reaganomics 187
Breaking Ice: Reagan and the Cold War 191
Headwinds: Second?]Term Blues 193
For God's Sake: Social Conservatism 196
Left Ahead: The Legacy of the Sixties in the Eighties 197
Swan Song: Reagan and the Soviets 201
41: The (First) Bush Years 203
Freely Intervening: United States as Sole Superpower 207
culture watch: The House on Mango Street (1984) 210
8 Innovation and Nostalgia: The Culture of the Eighties, 19811989 215
Small Transformations: The Rise of the Personal Computer 216
Consuming Pleasures: Old Fashions, New Gadgets 220
Seeing Music: Music Television, or MTV 225
Yo! African American Culture and the Birth of Hip-Hop 227
Bourne in the USA: Dissident Voices 231
culture watch: "The Message" (1982) 233
9 Prosperity and Distraction: The Post-Cold War Era, 19912001 238
Opposing Justice: The HillThomas Imbroglio 239
Not Black and White: The Changing Colors of Race 242
Thug Life: Gangsta Rap 244
Running Saga: The O. J. Simpson Case 246
Family Matters: Demography and the Assault on Patriarchy 247
Culture War: The Fall of George Bush 250
Comeback Kid: The Rises and Falls of Bill Clinton 252
La Vida Loca: The Roaring Nineties 258
Tech Sec: Toward the Internet 260
Insulated Intervention: US Foreign Policy 264
Recount: The 2000 Election 267
culture watch: Exile in Guyville (1993) 271
Part IV Present Tense 277
10 Comfort and Dread: The American Empire in Decline, 2001present 279
Towering Collapse: 9/11 280
Unknown Unknowns: The Iraq War 285
Spending Resources: The Debt Society 290
Bushed: Second-Term Blues 291
Downloading: Twenty-first Century Pop Culture 294
Posting: Web 2.0 298
Freely Unequal: The Tottering US Economy 299
Audacious Hopes: The Rise of Barack Obama 303
Future History: The Present as Past 310
culture watch: "Made in America," The Sopranos (2007) 311
Postlude: The Ends of the American Century 316
Index 318
