America The Story of Us

Episode 12: Millennium

World Trade Center Light Memorial

America booms in both population and prosperity. The "baby boomers" become the next generation to reinvent the country. Powerful new technologies sweep the nation. Television brings the world into Americans' living rooms, changing lives and values in unexpected ways. This revolution is not only about entertainment. Just as newspapers helped define America's identity during the Revolution and sense of self during the Civil War, television captures and influences a distant war in Vietnam, shaping Americans' response to their changing society. The conflicts of the late 1960s and 1970s remind America of the rifts that divided the nation before the Civil War, but the boom of the 1980s heralds better times, along with a sense of assurance that mirrors the 1920s. A piece of plastic-the credit card-shapes the decade and spurs spending, creating new affluent classes such as the "yuppies." The government spends, too-on the technology that drives the last phase of the Cold War and launches the Shuttle into space. But as America reaches once more for the stars, technology meets tragedy in the Challenger disaster. As Americans have discovered time and time again over 400 years, some pioneers must pay the ultimate price. A new California Gold Rush ensues when innovation yields the biggest technological advances yet: the personal computer and the internet. Just like the telegraph and railroad before them, these new breakthroughs transform America. America's confidence is rocked by 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, but the country remains the world's superpower. As the nation launches into the 21st century, what does the future hold? Where is the next new frontier, and who will inherit America's longstanding pioneering tradition?