The Day Before Yesterday

Americans have assumed for fifty years that the years after World War II were normal, and that any deviation from that standard is alarming. In fact, the boom period following World War II, the Golden Age, was a historical aberration. Although it had its roots in the American past, much of the prosperity came out of the country's unique position in the world of 1945. Of all the nations on the planet, only the United States emerged unscathed from the three decades of war and revolution that had crippled all the other great industrial powers - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan. As a result, in 1945 the U.S. reigned supreme. . Then, between the assassination of JFK and the end of the Cod War in 1989, all the factors that had contributed so much to America's self-image went into reverse. American politics went through a period of murderous instability; the federal government was delegitimized; great divisions grew among races, regions, and classes; a wave of immigration transformed the country's ethnic makeup; and the economy slowed down. Now the major debate among politicians is how to fix America's decline. Elliott puts that debate in perspective by showing that we're in a