The ’90s: With us still
In ways metaphoric and real, the 1990s linger, offering reference points and context for contemporary events and personalities. A telling example came at Times Square on New Year’s Eve, when … Continue reading
Colin Powell, three electoral votes, and what might have been
Colin Powell, the former U.S. secretary of state and a hero of the 1990-91 Gulf War, scored three electoral votes in this week’s formal election of the next American president. … Continue reading
The mixed lessons of the Dayton peace accords
More than 20 years have passed since U.S.-backed negotiations at Dayton, Ohio, produced an agreement ending the brutal war in Bosnia, Europe’s deadliest conflict since the time of the Nazis. … Continue reading
Clinton-Lewinsky affair hovers over presidential campaign 21 years later
I was asked at the launch last year of my latest book, 1995: The Year the Future Began, whether the Clinton-Lewinsky sex-and-lies scandal would resurface during the 2016 presidential campaign. … Continue reading
The ‘Netscape Moment,’ 21 years on
Today marks the 21st anniversary of the “Netscape Moment” of 1995, the day when a Silicon Valley startup’s eye-popping market debut illuminated the World Wide Web for millions of people … Continue reading
The O.J. Simpson case: Five readable books
The recent bouts of television-induced fascination with the 1995 O.J. Simpson murder case have eased, thankfully. But residual interest is keen enough that suggestions for reading in some depth about … Continue reading
ESPN’s documentary about O.J. Simpson: A dissenting view
Amid the glowing, even fawning reviews of ESPN’s docu-series about O.J. Simpson, herewith a dissenting view. The first of five installments of O.J.: Made in America aired last night, but … Continue reading
‘Everything O.J. is in the zeitgeist right now’
Call it the long reach of 1995. It is rather remarkable that a 21-year-old murder case — in which most people now think defendant O.J. Simpson committed the grisly crimes … Continue reading
Beyond 1995: Accounting for the pop culture allure of the O.J. case
The week brought word that Martin Sheen plans to produce a docu-series claiming O.J. Simpson was innocent of the brutal slayings in 1994 of his former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, … Continue reading
Ballyhoo over FX series leads to outsize claims about O.J. case
The media ballyhoo over the FX miniseries about the O.J. Simpson murder saga of 1994-95 has been accompanied by a variety of misconceptions and exaggerated claims about the case and … Continue reading
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