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Rating: 
Summary: decade of decline
Review: London provides an interesting survey of the 1990s. The decade he paints is one mired in postmodernism and relativism, one that denies that man is imperfect and not perfectible. 90s culture was basically a wasteland, driven mostly by marketability and greed, in which previous conceptions of the family, or of art, or of excellence, were eroded and replaced. "Nothingness" (a la Seinfeld) was celebrated. It was a media-driven era.London dedicates the majority of his book to education--kindergarten through college. Curricula were turned into mulicultural and postmodern nightmares. Other cultures were to be studied either to the exclusion or outright denigration of the US. Feminist ideas turned physical education classes into "genderless" activity times, instead of rigorous classes in physical exercise and well-being. They also ate away at high school athletics, as girls sought to join football teams. All notions of excellence were fading away, as educators feared offending people or elevating one above another, or insisted that regardless of performance, all were equal somehow. I personally would have enjoyed a section devoted to government and politics in the 1990s and how they fit in with everything else. Still, from what London has presented here, it's not too difficult, I suppose, to figure out that the transformation of politics (and the Clinton business) are part and parcel of these other trends. All in all, the book is a solid (and slim) overview of this decade that witnessed unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, even as culture and society sank deeper and deeper into the ashbin. The two developments are not entirely unrelated, and in many ways, the trends of the 1990s only continue into 2002.
Rating:
Summary: decade of decline
Review: London provides an interesting survey of the 1990s. The decade he paints is one mired in postmodernism and relativism, one that denies that man is imperfect and not perfectible. 90s culture was basically a wasteland, driven mostly by marketability and greed, in which previous conceptions of the family, or of art, or of excellence, were eroded and replaced. "Nothingness" (a la Seinfeld) was celebrated. It was a media-driven era. London dedicates the majority of his book to education--kindergarten through college. Curricula were turned into mulicultural and postmodern nightmares. Other cultures were to be studied either to the exclusion or outright denigration of the US. Feminist ideas turned physical education classes into "genderless" activity times, instead of rigorous classes in physical exercise and well-being. They also ate away at high school athletics, as girls sought to join football teams. All notions of excellence were fading away, as educators feared offending people or elevating one above another, or insisted that regardless of performance, all were equal somehow. I personally would have enjoyed a section devoted to government and politics in the 1990s and how they fit in with everything else. Still, from what London has presented here, it's not too difficult, I suppose, to figure out that the transformation of politics (and the Clinton business) are part and parcel of these other trends. All in all, the book is a solid (and slim) overview of this decade that witnessed unprecedented economic growth and prosperity, even as culture and society sank deeper and deeper into the ashbin. The two developments are not entirely unrelated, and in many ways, the trends of the 1990s only continue into 2002.
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