The 1990s

Professor Caroline Mellinger, HACC-Central Pennsylvania's Community College

Overview

Topic Three Questions

Answer the questions from THREE of the FOUR focus groups to complete topic three.

Focus One: The Clinton Presidency

Answer three of the four bulleted questions to complete Focus One

Focus Two: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

What was NAFTA and what did it try to accomplish? Was it successful, if so how? Use detail in your answers.

Who tends or tended to resist trade agreements like NATFA? What were/are their reasons for resistance? Who seems to benefit most from free trade

Focus Three: Globalization

What is globalization and how did it effect the United States in the 1990s? Be sure to explain the causes of globalization in your answer.

Who were globalization's major proponents (individual and groups)? Why was/is it supported? What are the arguments for supporting it? Who are the individual and groups against globalization? What arguments are made against globalization? Explain your answers.

Focus Four: The Cultural Wars

Answer three of the four bulleted questions to complete Focus Four

Textbook Reading

Chapter 30. The Recent Past

Revolutionary technological change, unprecedented global flows of goods and people and capital, an amorphous and unending War on Terror, accelerating inequality, growing diversity, a changing climate, political stalemate: our world is remarkable, frustrating, and dynamic. But it is not an island of circumstance-it is a product of history. Time marches forever on.

http://www.americanyawp.com

Primary Sources

The Bush Presidency

George H.W. Bush 1992 Acceptance Speech

President George H.W. Bush accepted his party's nomination for the presidency on the final evening of the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas.

https://www.c-span.org

1992 Democratic Party Platform

A New Covenant with the American People Preamble Two hundred summers ago, this Democratic Party was founded by the man whose burning pen fired the spirit of the American Revolution-who once argued we should overthrow our own government every 20 years to renew our freedom and keep pace with a changing world.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu

Republican Party Platform of 1992

The Vision Shared: The Republican Platform, Uniting Our Family, Our Country, Our World Preamble Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican President, expressed the philosophy that inspires Republicans to this day: "The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities.

https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu

The Clinton Presidency

Bill Clinton 1992 Acceptance Speech

Governor Bill Clinton defined himself and his party's agenda in his acceptance speech on the final night of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. He called himself a product of America's middle class, and pledged not to forget the middle class when he is elected.

https://www.c-span.org

Bill Clinton's First State of the Union Address - Wikisource, the free online library

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Members of the House and the Senate, distinguished Americans here as visitors in this Chamber, as am I. It is nice to have a fresh excuse for giving a long speech. [Laughter] When Presidents speak to Congress and the Nation from this podium, typically they comment on the full range in challenges and opportunities that face the United States.

https://en.wikisource.org

Welfare Reform Act, 1996

Printable Version Welfare Reform Act of 1996 Digital History ID 4100 Annotation: This law revised federal welfare policies. Bi-Partisan legislation revised funding and eligibility for welfare. Among other changes, assisstance was limited to a total of five years and funding was provided by the Federal government to the states as block grants.

https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

Bill Clinton on Free Trade and Financial Deregulation (1993-2000)

During his time in office, Bill Clinton passed the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) in 1993, allowing for the free movement of goods between Mexico, the United States, and Canada, signed legislation repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, a major plank of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal banking regulation, and deregulated the trading of derivatives, including credit default swaps, a complicated financial instrument that would play a key role in the 2007-2008 economic crash.

http://www.americanyawp.com