On a Bubble in Time

In truth, I’m a bit disappointed with this one. The first and last thirds are good, but the middle section is tough to get through. The early chapters are on the Bush presidency, Clinton’s election, and Clinton’s first term, while the last is on Clinton’s second term. The middle section, however, is an odd amalgamation that focuses on sexual assault in the military, the OJ Simpson Trial, and Affirmative Action in higher education. Although these three things are critically important, they could have been trimmed to smaller sections and instead placed in chapters about race, as well as gender/sexuality, or even have a separate chapter for the creation of “Tabloid Nation.”

Ultimately, “Tabloid Nation” is the title that O’Neill tends to apply to the entire period at hand, and he makes this case, but as a general history of the 90s, it would have been useful to also include more sections on social and cultural history, rather than two or three events and arguing that they stand for all the conditions at the time. They were important, without doubt, but there is a great deal missing here.