"The Nervous Nineties"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the many changes such as the fall of the Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany and many other events of the decade have left the world spinning, the fin de siecle (or "end of century") phenomenon. The author points out that Barbie's have made a comeback, having been transformed from her previous cultural role as a candy stripper and housewife in the sixties to become "Astronaut Barbie" and "Dr. Barbie," reflecting that women have becoming an increasing part of the work force across the country in every type of career. The paper relates that even the traditional school is changing with the growing popularity of the charter schools, a concept in which a public school operates under a special contract, a charter, arranged between a group of school organizers and a sponsor, which sets forth how the school will be run, what will be taught and how success will be measured, giving it some freedom from the traditional school.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Culture and Thought in the 1990s
Entertainment
Theater
Hobbies
Fads
Schools
Science and Technology
Telecommunications
Tools
Economics
Business
Manufactured Items
World Events
End of the Cold War
Persian Gulf War
Reunification of Germany
Indian/Pakistani Nuclear Tests
International Food Production
Brief Cultural Observations Through the Nineties
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"Tools. While an increasing number of Americans purchasing hand and power tools during the 1990s as Black & Decker and other consumer tool manufacturers targeted niche audiences with home appliances and tools, clearly the most powerful tool of the 1990s must be the personal computer. According to the literature, by 1990 some personal computers had become small enough to be completely portable; they included laptop computers, which could rest in one's lap; notebook computers, which were about the size of a notebook; and pocket, or palm-sized, computers, which could be held in one's hand. At the high end of the PC market, multimedia personal computers equipped with CD-ROM players and digital sound systems allowed users to handle animated images and sound (in addition to text and still images) that were stored on high-capacity CD-ROMs."

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