american culture in the nineties an overview of cultural history

AMERICAN CULTURE IN THE NINETIES

An overview of cultural history

ART and ARCHITECTURE • Robert Venturi (winner of the coveted Pritzker Award

), and Richard Meyer (Getty Museum). • theme restaurants (Planet Hollywood) and casinos (

New York-New York in Vegas)• Environmentally friendly architecture: Green

design products included bamboo flooring, a resurgence of linoleum and other environmentally friendly products.

• Feng Shui A Chinese art of home arrangement• Television's Martha Stewart, became the guru of home

crafts and design

BOOKS AND BESTSELLERS

• Reading entire books online became available through such sites as Project Gutenberg. Audio books became the rage - taking a trip? amazon.com.

• Mega-bookstores Borders or Barnes and Noble

• Oprah Winfrey's picks encouraged a new readership and culminated in Oprah's Book Club

MAIN EVENTS

• The world’s policeman:• 1991: Gulf War: liberating Kuwait• 1993: Somalia: state falls apart, struggling

with warlords• 1994: Haiti: removing a military dictatorship• 1998: Bosnia: crisis at the Balkans• 1999: NATO bombing of Yugoslavia

VIOLENCE AT HOME

• 1992: Los Angeles riots (Rodney King: black motorist, Four policemen acquitted of charges of brutality, Daryl Gates: chokehold, police chief of L.A.,Mayor Tom Bradley: people have a right to be angry)

• 1993: Waco siege: FBI storms the compound of a sect, called Branch Davidians 75 people are killed

• 1995, April 19: Oklahoma bombing—domestic terrorism (Timothy McWeigh)

• 1999: Columbine High School shooting (14 students, 1 teacher killed, 23 wounded)—Littleton, Colorado

MUSIC

• Country— Billy Ray Cyrus• Rock: (grunge, Seattle Sound) Nirvana,

Pearl Jam Soundgarden• Metal: Guns and Roses, Metallica

IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES

• Presidency of George Bush 1988-1992• Presidency of Bill Clinton 1992-2000• Rev. Jesse Jackson—civil rights leader, presidential

candidate• Rush Limbaugh: conservative radio talkshow host• Colin Powell, military leader, Bush’s Secretary of State• Sally Ride: first woman astronaut• Women successes: Ophrah Winfrey, tv talkshow host,

Martha Stewart: home care, home design, catering expert

EDUCATION

• Twice as many students completed high school as in the 1960s

• The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, (No Child Left Behind) provided assistance to disadvantaged students or pupils with limited proficiency in English and was intended to improve instruction in areas like drug use prevention, math, and science.

• Attention Deficiency Disorder: treated with Ritalin

HISTORIC DOCUMENTS• Americans with Diabilities Act-1990: protecting

the rights of all Americans with physical and mental disabilities

• 1993: don’t ask, don’t tell: people in military can keep their sexual orientation hidden

• 1994: Brady Bill: 5 day waiting period when purchasing a gun (James Brady: shot in the head during Ronald Reagan assassination attempt)

• 1994: North American Free Trade Agreement: eliminating trade barriers between U.S., Canada, Mexico

TELEVISION

• Sexual orientation (Ellen and Will and Grace) .• Nudity (NYPD Blues)• Sexual themes and innuendoes (Friends)• Foul Language (NYPD Blues)• Crude behavior (Men Behaving Badly and South

Park)• Violence (NYPD Blues)• Political Incorrectness (Politically Incorrect with

Bill Maher)