Jim Cullen is chair of the History Department of the Fieldston School in New York. He is the author of numerous books, among them The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (2003) and Essaying the Past: How to Read, Write and Think about History, Third Edition (Wiley Blackwell, 2016). He lives in Hastings on Hudson, New York, with his wife and four children.

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• Acknowledgments xiPrelude: The Imperial Logic of the American Dream xiiiPart I The Postwar Decades 11 Victory and Anxiety: World War and Cold War, 1945–1962 3Colony to Colonizer: American Rise to Globalism 4Wages of War: Triumph over Germany and Japan 5First Frost: Dawn of the Cold War 9Seeing Red: The Cold War at Home 12Playing with Dominoes: Cold War Hot Spots 17Cold War Showdown: Cuba 19culture watch: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1955/1956) 232 Conformity and Rebellion: American Culture and Politics, 1945–1963 27Best Worst Time: Early Postwar Years 28Boom! The Postwar Economy Explodes 29Rising Suburbs: Life on the Crabgrass Frontier 32Restless in the Promised Land: Suburbia's Critics 35Free Movement: Early Civil Rights Struggles 40Big Bangs: 1950s Youth Culture 45culture watch: A Raisin in the Sun (1959) 49Part II The Long 1960s 533 Confidence and Agitation: The American Empire at High Tide, 1960–1965 55Dishing: The Kitchen Debate as Domestic Squabble 56American Prince: JFK 58Grand Expectations: The Birth of "Sixties" 60Overcoming: The Civil Rights Movement Crests 61Voices: Popular Culture of the Early 1960s 64Countercurrents: Civil Rights Skeptics 65Lone Star Rising: The LBJ Moment 69Flanking Maneuver: Johnson in Vietnam 73Fissures: Democratic Fault Lines 75culture watch: "The Times They Are A-Changin'" (1964) 804 Fulfillment and Frustration: An Empire in Conflict, 1965–1974 86Over the Moon: Winning the Space Race 87Imperial Quagmire: The Vietnam Wars 89Down from the Mountaintop: The Civil Rights Movement 93Turning Point: 1968 96Right Rising: The Return of Richard Nixon 99Women's Work: The Feminist Movement 102Rainbows: Rights Revolutions 105Grim Peace: Endgame in Vietnam 108Crooked Justice: The Triumph and Fall of Nixon 109culture watch: Easy Rider (1969) 1135 Experimentation and Exhaustion: Political Culture of the Sixties, 1965–1975 119The Great Divide: Establishment and Counterculture 120(de)Construction Sites: The Rise of Postmodernism 125System Failure: The Reorganization of Hollywood 126Medium Dominant: Television 128Fit Print: Publishing 130Kingdom of Rebels: The Reign of Rock 132culture watch: "Chuckles the Clown Bites the Dust," The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1975) 140Interlude 1446 Reassessment and Nostalgia: The American Empire in the Age of Limits, 1973–1980 1441973: Hinge of American History 145Apocalypse Now: The New Gloom 150Depressingly Decent: Ford and Carter 153Solitary Refinement: The Me Decade 159Body Politics: Gender and Its Discontents 163Rebellion and Revival: Pop Culture of the Late Seventies 166Right Signal: The Conservative Turn 168culture watch: Taxi Driver (1976) 175Part III Indian Summer 1817 Revival and Denial: The American Empire on Borrowed Time, 1981–1991 183Right Man: The Age of Reagan 184Making the Cut: Reaganomics 187Breaking Ice: Reagan and the Cold War 191Headwinds: Second]Term Blues 193For God's Sake: Social Conservatism 196Left Ahead: The Legacy of the Sixties in the Eighties 197Swan Song: Reagan and the Soviets 20141: The (First) Bush Years 203Freely Intervening: United States as Sole Superpower 207culture watch: The House on Mango Street (1984) 2108 Innovation and Nostalgia: The Culture of the Eighties, 1981–1989 215Small Transformations: The Rise of the Personal Computer 216Consuming Pleasures: Old Fashions, New Gadgets 220Seeing Music: Music Television, or MTV 225Yo! African American Culture and the Birth of Hip-Hop 227Bourne in the USA: Dissident Voices 231culture watch: "The Message" (1982) 2339 Prosperity and Distraction: The Post-Cold War Era, 1991–2001 238Opposing Justice: The Hill–Thomas Imbroglio 239Not Black and White: The Changing Colors of Race 242Thug Life: Gangsta Rap 244Running Saga: The O. J. Simpson Case 246Family Matters: Demography and the Assault on Patriarchy 247Culture War: The Fall of George Bush 250Comeback Kid: The Rises and Falls of Bill Clinton 252La Vida Loca: The Roaring Nineties 258Tech Sec: Toward the Internet 260Insulated Intervention: US Foreign Policy 264Recount: The 2000 Election 267culture watch: Exile in Guyville (1993) 271Part IV Present Tense 27710 Comfort and Dread: The American Empire in Decline, 2001–present 279Towering Collapse: 9/11 280Unknown Unknowns: The Iraq War 285Spending Resources: The Debt Society 290Bushed: Second-Term Blues 291Downloading: Twenty-first Century Pop Culture 294Posting: Web 2.0 298Freely Unequal: The Tottering US Economy 299Audacious Hopes: The Rise of Barack Obama 303Future History: The Present as Past 310culture watch: "Made in America," The Sopranos (2007) 311Postlude: The Ends of the American Century 316Index 318