Intellectual fees. Every saturday American History tv documents american stories it brings you the latest in books and authors. Funding comes from the Television Companies and more including cost. Yeah. Yeah. Good morning, folks. Good morning, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to our semesters. Final class of the american 1990s. Its good to see you all this morning. Today we are going to take up the contested zakk heists of the 1990 and well examine and discuss several ways in which we can will come to our semesters final class of america 1990s. We will examine and discuss several ways in which we can define the decade, a decade that saw the rise of the popular internet. That saw the firstever impeachment of an elected u. S. President , that saw spasms of deadly terror on american soil. But first, before we really got going, let me go over a few terms that will figure in our assessment this morning. And those terms include zeitgeist print this is borrowed from german and refers to that defining or animating spirit of the period of time. The zeitgeist of the 90s in america, we will seek to define that zeitgeist today. The term ipo also will figure in our discussions. Ipo for our purposes refers to the initial Public Offering of shares, of Netscape Communications in 1995. Netscape was a california startup that made and marketed a breakthrough web browser in the mid90s. And its highly successful ipo, its initial Public Offering of shares and audits of 1995 had the effective signaling to the world at large that there was money to be made on internet. The ipo of netscape also eliminated the web for millions of people, who were then just becoming acquainted with the online world. We will refer as well to the double murder case brought against a former football star o. J. Simpson. At the time in the mid90s, it was called the trial of the century. We will also mention the case of the unabomber. This loan wealth terrorist, a harvard graduate, who sent deadly package bombs to his targets periodically from 1978 to 1995. And we will refer to federal crime legislation sponsored and pushed by then senator joe biden , which became law in 1994 during the presidency of bill clinton. This crime legislation has been criticized since then for disproportionately targeting minority is pretty we will make reference as well to the genocide in rwanda is 1994 when he hundred thousand people were slaughtered in a period of 100 days in a gruesome, ethnic driven murder spree that western nations did nothing to stop. We will also mention the y2k phenomenon mother y2k fears, which were that at the end of the decade, the end of 1999, as the calendar switched to the year 2000, the computers would have trouble recognizing the new millennium. And i think it was the year 1900 instead. And if that happened, the fear was that everything computer based would go haywire. The y2k fear. So, lets consider the zeitgeist, the elusive zeitgeist of the 90s and take a look at some of the descriptions that we will go over later today. Are the 90 is best identified as the internet decade . Is it the decade of spectacle . The terrorism decade . The clinton dominated decade . Was it the seinfeld decade . Where they the clueless decade . Or were they the best decade ever . Or was there Something Else . Is the zeitgeist of the 1990s defined by some other term or characterization . And again, the zeitgeist is a finding spirit of the times of the 90s, for our purposes. So, lets take a look and let me say the outset, this presentation is drawn in part from the content of my book about the year 1995 published by the univsity of california press. The book described major that your and how thosevents and developmentsnate and reverberate in americe. And 1995 notably was the year which the internet went from a vague and just a curiosity to phenomenon that would change and alter the way people work, shop, learn, communicate, and teract. So, was it to start with, was it the internet decade . Is that the proper way to define and characterize the zeitgeist of the 1990s . What do you think . Any thoughts . The 1990s as the internet decade . Thanks. Yeah, i mean, [ inaudible ] now is more the Internet Time than 20 or 30 years ago . Okay. [ inaudible ] you think it may have been too primitive back in the 90s, at least compared to the internet now . [ inaudible ] good. Any other thoughts about the 90s as the internet decade . Okay, lets take a look at some of the arguments for the notion. And its undeniable that there were real breakthroughs in the 90s in terms of making the online world accessible. And i am thinking of the emergence of popular web browsers, netscape navigator, and microsoft Internet Explorer were two, two ways in which people began to access the online girl world. They didnt need a code, they didnt need anything but an internet connection, a computer, and web browser software. And it is important and impressive really to keep in mind how some of the prominent entities of the online world that we know today trace their roots to the 1990s. Amazon. Com got going, started selling books online in july 1995, and became the behemoth that it is today. But it is interesting how almost no one noticed when amazon open for business online. In 1995. Selling books. A very modest start to this entity that became huge within a 20, 30 year period. Craigslist traces its origins to the mid1990s. Attracting what newspapers used to refer to as classified advertising and relied on them for a lot of their advertising revenues. Craigslist became a dominant force, again in the bay area of San Francisco and extended, of course, across the country. Google was launched in 1998. You can see these are three important entities important to us today that have their roots in the 1990s. And the ipo that Netscape Communications launcd in august 1995 had the effect of eliminating the web for the world, and also sialing that there s money to be made online. There was money be made line. And of course, the online world in the 90s was primitive, there is no doubt about it, you needed to access the web through a dialup connection, a funky dialup connection. But this clearly was the launchpad, the launchpad of the internet, the popular internet. Lets take some arguments against it, against this notion that an 90s where the internet decade. It was a primitive online world back in the time, and really only vaguely does the online world of the 90s resemble what we know as the internet today. Only vaguely familiar. Portability and social media, which are of course common features of the contemporary online world, were at best vaguely anticipated in the 1990s. And that was the time when the killer app of the internet was email. Casualti we many among the prominent startups, the prominent entities of the 90s. Netscape lost to microsoft, it was crushed by microsoft and what were called the browser rs of the late 1990s, when microf muster all of its resources and trained them on the upstart, Netscape Communications, effectively crushed them. This got mrosoft into some antitrust ouble that it successfully dodged in the early 2000s, but nonetheless, there were some controversial asures that microsoft took to crush netscape, iceventually was acquedby america online, and enproceeded to be disappeared by aol altavistaused to be the go to web Search Engine in the 90s. But by the early 2000s, it was gone, mostly forgotten, superseded by google. Altavist is remembered today it is remembered as an nostalgic artifact of the 1990s. So, too, is prodigy, which was a populadiup information kind of like the internet on training wheels. Prodigy was a popular way to get online in the 90s, didnt make much money, and really did not survive the decade. The point here is some of the online entities that began and started up in the 90s and were prominent during the decade didnt survive very long. So, lets move on to another possible characterization, definition of e 90s. The 90s as a decade of spectacle. And maybe that is the divining zeitgeist. The o. J. Simpson trial of 1995, the case began in 1994, and unschooled throughout most of the year of 1995, and was an obsession, it was an obsession for many across the American Population in 1995. Oj was a very popular former football star and movie after who was accused of fatally stabbing his wife and her friend outside her condominium in los angeles in 1994. The trial was televised and it gripped america. It was an obsession as it continued over most of the year in 1995. And the trial, which ended in oj simpsons acquittal on both accounts, on both murder counts, left us with a number of questions that remain popular, if you will. And perhaps the most prominent, the decades most important quotation, if it doesnt fit, you must acquit. A line used in the closing arguments of cockney, ojs lead defense lawyer, and it was a reference to the witness gloves that were used by the killer of these two people, and during the trial, the prosecution had 08 try on the gloves and they didnt fit. John cochran remembered that episode and said in his closing arguments, if it doesnt fit, you must acquit. Another spectacle of the 90s, clearly, was that of the impeachment and trial of bill clinton in 1998 and 1999. Clinton was the first u. S. President , elected president , ever to be impeached and put on trial. He was acquitted at trial before the u. S. Senate. But the spectacle was unprecedented. He faced charges of obruction of justice, of perjury, stming from his inner minute affair with a formerntern 27 years his junior. He was acquitted, as i say, but the former intern, monica, was shamed and shunned. And only in recent years has she emerged from the shadows. The case had the effect of deepening partisan divide, partisan bitterness in the country. Those divides, those cleavages have become only more pronounced in the years since the 1990s. So, this partisan rancor in some respects can be traced to the clinton spectacle, a spectacle of impeachment and trial for a sitting u. S. President. There are more spectacles of the 90s, too. Cases of terrorism, including the Oklahoma City bombing in april 1995. That was essentially a lone wolf terrorist attack that killed 168 people, most of them in the target building, Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City. Among the victims, the fatal victims, were 19 children, 15 of them were in the Federal Building at a day care center. This remains to this day the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in u. S. History. The attack on the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was preceded by exactly 2 years, by the fiery assaults undertaken by federal agents on the compound of the sect near waco, texas. The Branch Davidians where suspected of harboring and amassing a store of illegal weapons. Federal authority is held in several attempts to try to get them to surrender those weapons and this led ultimately to april 1993 to the fiery assault on the compound in which more than 75 people were killed. The gulf war of 1991 was also a spectacle in some respects. This was a u. S. Led military action to expel iraqi forces that had invaded and occupied neighboring kuwait in august 1990. The u. Sled coalition in early 1991 expelled the iraqi forces from kuwait. Thwar featured video of showing precision bombing runs and attacks, Precision Air strikes by u. S. Aircraft on targets in iraq and in kuwait. And even more a spectacle related to the goal for was the victory parade in washington, d. C. In june 1991, which featured tanks in the streets of washington, d. C. The decade of spectacle. So, why wasnt it the decade of spectacle . Well, no decade is without its spectacles. And the terrorist attacks of 9 11 really cemented that argument. They eclipsed any 90s act of terrorism and their awful theatricality. Nely 3000 people were killed that day, september 11th, 2001, in coordinated attacks e twin towers in new yorkit and on the airplane. The year 2000 brought an unmatched political spectacle inthe United States. There was a disputed ouryof the race between george bush and Vice President al gore. This dispute ntered around a contested outcome in florida where officially, bush was 537 votes ahead of gore. Whoever won florida wins the election, wins the electoral college, and is sworn in as president. This dispute went on for more than a month. This spectacle of an unsettled president ial election, unresolved president ial election. It wasnt decided until almost mid december 2000 when the Supreme Court essentially decided in a 54 vote. And the spectacle of impeachment was even more of a phenomenon in the 2000s. Donald trump was impeached twice by the house of representatives. Twice tried and twice acquitted. So, impeachment as a spectacle, then this one, if you will, trumps clinton. So, was this the terrorism decade . Was this the decade of terrorism . Have a look. It is striking, it really is striking how often and dramatically terrorism acts of terrorism intruded on the 1990s. And doing so in diverse ways. The World Trade Center bombing of 1993, a truck bombing that sought to topple the north tower into the south tower and collapse the World Trade Center. That didnt happen, but six people were killed in this attack in february 1993. It was a precursor, although we didnt know it at the time, it was a precursor to 9 11. When terrorists did target the twin towers and brought them down. So, the oklahoma truck bombing of 1995 was another moment of terrorism in that United States, in fact, it remains the deadliest act of domestic terror in American History. 168 people were killed there. The atlanta olympics pipe bomb attack in 1996 was another case of terrorism intruding on the 90s. And this led to the false accusation against the person who discovered the bomb and tried to clear the area at Centennial Park in atlanta, clear the area of spectators early in the morning in july 1996. That security guard, Richard Jewel, later was falsely accused by the fbi and the local newspaper in atlanta of being the suspect. Or having planted the bomb. It was a false accusation, but jewel had to live with this for quite a while. And the Columbine High School shooting, the massacre of columbine in april 1999, the shooting and attempted bombing represents another moment of domestic terrorism in e 90s. And of course, there was the unabombe, the unabomber. This recluse who lived in a cabin, a can in montana, who periodically would make and send package bombs to his victims, to his targets. He began this intermittent spree in 1978 and continued until 1995. A total of three people were killed during these intermittent mbgs, and he continued until he is sent to the New York Times and the Washington Post his socalled manifesto. And told the newspapers that he would continue to bomb people unsshey published his manifesto. After considerleebate, th times and the post agreed to split the costs the publication costs on publicizing and publishing the abombers manifesto. That publication was very controversial at the time, in 1995, but it led to the unabombers arrest. His brother, his sisterinlaw recognized some of the writings in this manifesto and thought it was very much resemblance they eventually, the brother and sisterinlaw eventually alerted authorities, who arrested jasinski at his cabin in 1996. So, what are some of the arguments against the notion that the 90s can be described as the terrorism decade . The 90 is written clearly set in motion or accelerated a National Psychology and fear of terrorism and the prospects of a terrorist attack, but the attacks tended to be infrequent. They were not commonplace in the 90 is, by any means. And the vulnerabilities of the United States in the 90s were not very wellrecognized, even after osama bin laden, the leader of the al qaeda terrorist group, declared war against the united. Even then, those reats were not taken terribly seriously. The twin towers were attacked in 2001, a tremendous loss of fe. So, what do you guys think . Is the terrorism decade an appropriate way to characterize the 90s or is it perhaps too narrow . Too constrained . An important element of the 90s , fisher, but maybe not defining. I think what people previously said about defining the internet decade, it is kind of premature to do that here, as we have seen a lot more events of terror in the last two decades rather than in the 1990s. So, i think this was an introduction to a few decades of terror, i wouldnt say this is the defining teacher of the decade. Wouldnt that be enough to characterize it as a terrorism decade . I disagree, i think there are definitely better terms to describe this decade, and i think that looking at the amount of terrorist attacks in the 2000s and the 2010s, and probably what we will see in the next decade, i think it is incomparable. And while, yes, it did plant seeds, i think they were very few and far between, so i think that it is just premature. Okay. All right. Other thoughts about the 90s as the terrorism decade . Katie . I think it is too narrow to describe an entire decade as the terrorism decade, especially the 90s itself. Same with the internet decade, it may be leads into other decades that are the internet decades or terrorism decade. It may have established this National Psychology of fear. We have seen Mass Shootings happen so frequently that its almost like they are instantly forgotten in our minds because they are so frequent. I think because of that, i dont know that terrorism that i would describe the 1990s even though it could be considered a feeder into future decades of terror. But what the establishment or the origin of a National Psychology of fear be enough and sufficient to say, yeah, because of