Stephen Feinstein - The 2000s

Published in 2016 by Enslow Publishing, LLC.

101 W. 23rd Street, Suite 240, New York, NY 10011

Copyright 2016 by Enslow Publishing, LLC.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Feinstein, Stephen.

The 2000s / Stephen Feinstein.

pages cm. (Decades of the 20th and 21st centuries)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Summary: Discusses the decade 2000-2009 in the United States in terms of culture, art, science, and politics Provided by publisher.

Audience: Grade 9 to 12.

ISBN 978-0-7660-6939-8

1. United StatesCivilization1945Juvenile literature. 2. United StatesPolitics and government2001-2009Juvenile literature. 3. Two thousands (Decade)Juvenile literature. I. Title.

E169.12.F4477 2015

973.931dc23

2015010952

Printed in the United States of America

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Photo Credits: 7831/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images, p..

Cover Credits: Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo, USAF/Wikimedia Commons/Obama family after inaugural address 1-20-09 hires 090120-F-3961R-968.jpg/public domain (Obamas); Spencer Platt/Getty Images News/ Getty Images (9/11 attack); Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images (Michael Phelps); tanatat/Shutter-stock.com (smartphone); tele52/Shutterstock.com (application icons on smartphone).

Contents

Introduction

Pop Culture, Lifestyles, and Fashion

Entertainment and the Arts

Sports

National and International Politics

Advances in Science, Technology, and Medicine

Conclusion

Timeline

Glossary

Further Reading

Index

Introduction

As the United States entered the decade of the 2000s, Americans looked forward to a time of peace and prosperity. They had every reason to feel optimistic. After all, the world had survived the Y2K transition without the slightest hint of the widely predicted disaster when computers around the world would supposedly go haywire and disrupt every aspect of life dependent on technology.

The 1990s under the presidency of Bill Clinton had been a time of relative prosperity for many Americans, and there was low unemployment. The Internet was quickly taking over many aspects of life as people increasingly went online to communicate with others, conduct business, and shop. People even used the Internet for entertainment. Many new businesses were formed to facilitate the functioning of the Internet and to provide various services. Many of these technology companies went public and sold stock to people wishing to invest in the latest and coolest great idea. Indeed, by the late 1990s, it truly seemed possible to get rich quick. The period became known as the dot-com boom.

At the end of the decade of the 1990s, people expected the good times to continue. Sadly, it was not long before the party was over. By March 2000, it became apparent that many of the new dot-com companies were failing and filing for bankruptcy. Suddenly the dot-com boom was widely recognized for the bubble it was. Stock prices would fall dramatically over the next couple of years. First the new dot-coms crashed, followed by the older established technology companies and then all sorts of businesses. Unfortunately, the dot-com bust would lead to a recession, and many would lose their jobs.

Then came that tragic day. A horrific event occurred on September 11, 2001, that shocked all Americans, as well as much of the rest of the world. Members of an Islamic terrorist group known as al-Qaeda hijacked four passenger planes and crashed them, which killed about three thousand people and injured many thousands more.

Fear and panic spread throughout the nation. Never before had Americans felt so vulnerable. Five days later, on September 16, President George Bush declared a war on terror. For the rest of the decade and beyond, the United States would be at warfirst in Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was believed to be hiding, then in Iraq, where its president, Saddam Hussein, was thought to be developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

Also high on the governments list of priorities was ensuring the security of the nation. The Patriot Act, signed into law on October 26th, 2001, gave law enforcement agencies the right to spy on anyone without a court order. A huge new bureaucracy, the Department of Homeland Security, was established to detect and respond to terrorist attacks.

By the middle of the decade, the economy had begun to revive. The stock market, at least in certain sectors, recovered from its losses. And the housing market seemed to go wild as home prices shot up. People began to speculate in houses, just as they had previously done with stocks. It became easy to get a mortgage to buy a house. Banks were willing to loan money to anyone who could put a mark on a lending application whether or not they would be able to pay back the loan. But just like the dot-com bubble, the housing market bubble would soon burst, which almost destroyed the entire financial system and the nations economy. The housing market crash began in August 2007, and home prices would continue to fall throughout the following two years. Meanwhile, in October 2007, the decades second stock market crash began, and the market would not hit bottom until March 2009. America was now in the midst of the worst financial disaster since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 2009, Americas newly elected first African American president, Barack Obama, would have to act quickly to prevent the Great Recession from turning into another Great Depression. He was successful, but millions of Americans lost their jobs, and millions more lost their homes.

So as it turned out, the decade of the 2000s, which started out with great promise, became a time of great troubles.

Barack Obamas presidency began with a major financial crisis.

Pop Culture, Lifestyles, and Fashion

Early in the decade, events occurred in America with an impact that would be felt throughout the rest of the 2000s. These would affect the way Americans lived and thought about themselves and the world.

A Day Americans Will Never Forget

Tuesday, September 11, 2001, began no differently than any other weekday. It was a beautiful morning in New York City with the sun shining in a clear blue sky. People in the streets of lower Manhattan were on their way to work. Many employees in the 110-story Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were already at their desks.

At 8:46 a.m., a plane flying dangerously low over Manhattan approached the World Trade Center and crashed into the upper floors of the North Tower (1 WTC). People in the street looked up and saw a huge explosion and fire that immediately broke out. They assumed that what they were witnessing was a tragic accident. Then at 9:03 a.m., another plane crashed into the South Tower (2 WTC). At that moment, it dawned on everyone watching the event either in person or on TV news that this could not be just a coincidence. Two planes would not crash into the World Trade Center at almost the same time. America was under attack.