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Summary
Summary
Remember worrying about the Y2K bug in 1999? Or life before Twitter? Ten years ago, September 11 was just another day, Facebook didn't exist, and Barack Obama was a little-known state senator. Some have called the jam-packed first decade of the new millennium the 'ten-year century' for all of the history-making, life-changing developments it's contained.
Now, James Sutherland explores these influential years for the audience that's grown up in it, putting history in context and explaining how the world is smaller, faster, and more connected than it's ever been - and why it matters.
Author Notes
Authors Bio, not available
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7-10-Sutherland's focus is clearly on politics, providing in-depth descriptions of the various campaigns and elections that have occurred over the last 10 years, including the Gore vs. Bush election and the wrangling that followed in Florida, ending with the Supreme Court decision. Details about September 11th, the wars that followed, and important players of the decade are all included. References to pop culture or social phenomena are mostly in passing. Lengthy descriptions are sometimes repetitive. However, the writing is accessible and readers will detect no real bias or agenda. The captioned stock photographs do little to enhance the text. Detailed source notes and a lengthy bibliography are included. While not providing any new information, this volume could be a solid choice for libraries looking to have some of recent history available to students.-Jody Kopple, Shady Hill School, Cambridge, MA (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
This overview of the first 10 years of the new millennium focuses on significant developments that have shaped life in the United States today. Former political reporter Sutherland (Up Close: Ronald Reagan) begins each section with a synopsis of trends in popular culture and newsworthy events (such as the creation of Facebook and destruction of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003), before discussing specific topics, which range from the voter recount during the 2000 election to September 11, the war in Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina. After addressing the prevailing pessimism as a result of the current economy, Sutherland ends on a hopeful note, suggesting that solutions come from "learning about the world and always trying to understand the times we live in." The lucid, balanced narration results in a nuanced representation of a rapidly changing era. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Quoting from an August 2009 article in The Wall Street Journal, Sutherland adopts the position that "changes that used to take generations now unfurl in a span of years," and concludes that events of the past decade represent what in other times would be considered a century of change. In eleven chronological chapters beginning with the year 2000 (2001 receives two chapters), he discusses transformations in politics, the media, international relations, and the economy. Some issues, such as climate change, receive slight attention; the bulk of the book focuses on foreign policy and background positions that affect American perceptions today. Cogent explanations of Islam and its differences around the world, the evolving situation in Iran, and historical information about Pakistan are clear and instructive. Chapter titles and subtitles vary in effectively previewing the contents; 2000 is titled "Red America, Blue America" and does focus on the U.S. presidential election, while the chapter on 2006, "You Have Six Billion Friend Requests," is less about social networking and more about international concerns. Overall, however, this quick look backward is a helpful tool for understanding many aspects of contemporary society. Appended with source notes, a bibliography, and an (unseen) index. betty carter (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Nonfiction. 12 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Set on explaining the past decade to readers who lived through it but may have been too young to take a broad view, Sutherland retraces in annual summaries the major events between the worldwide New Year's Eve celebrations in 1999 and the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas of 2009. Along with admitting at the outset that he is writing from an American viewpoint about very recent incidents that may well gain or lose historical significance as time goes on, he reveals a personal perspective in the themes he assigns to each chapter: 2003 is Mission Accomplished, for instance; 2004 has Truthiness ; and 2009 gets Is Compromise a Dirty Word? He focuses almost exclusively on this country's politics and wars, relegating with but a handful of exceptions any notice of cultural or scientific milestones to a paragraph or two of scattered references opening each chapter. Still, these readable essays, capped with an extensive list of sources, will give readers an accurate and comprehensible, if selective, view of the past decade's public affairs.--Peters, John Copyright 2010 Booklist
