1995
The Year the Future Began
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
A hinge moment in recent American history, 1995 was an exceptional year. Drawing on interviews, oral histories, memoirs, archival collections, and news reports, W. Joseph Campbell presents a vivid, detail-rich portrait of those memorable twelve months. This book offers fresh interpretations of the decisive moments of 1995, including the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web in mainstream American life; the bombing at Oklahoma City, the deadliest attack of domestic terrorism in U.S. history; the sensational "Trial of the Century," at which O.J. Simpson faced charges of double murder; the U.S.-brokered negotiations at Dayton, Ohio, which ended the Bosnian War, Europe’s most vicious conflict since the Nazi era; and the first encounters at the White House between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a liaison that culminated in a stunning scandal and the spectacle of the president’s impeachment and trial. As Campbell demonstrates in this absorbing chronicle, 1995 was a year of extraordinary events, a watershed at the turn of the millennium. The effects of that pivotal year reverberate still, marking the close of one century and the dawning of another.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to American University professor Campbell, 1995 was an "improbable" year that "effectively marked the close of one century, and the start of another." Campbell argues that several of the year's major events would come to define the modern American experience: the births of Netscape, Amazon, and the wiki; the Oklahoma City bombing, which ushered in a "national psychology of fear"; O.J. Simpson's "Trial of the Century," notable for introducing DNA testing to the public; the U.S.-brokered peace accords that ended the Bosnian War and revitalized American exceptionalism; and the sexual liaisons between President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Though Campbell's account of 1995 is far-reaching and inclusive in its analysis, it lacks any hint of a unifying structure. What makes these five events more epoch-defining than any other of 1995 for instance, the House Republicans' passing of the "Contract with America," the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, or Clinton's decision to end trade and investment with Iran and what makes 1995 more significant than any other year of that decade? Campbell's book, for all its insight, is hindered by its reluctance to take a larger thematic view of history that would justify 1995 as a truly watershed year rather than simply an eventful one.
