Time Is Never Time at All: Why the 1990s Matter

Calendars to the contrary, most people who talk about the 1990s close the decade with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This is telling: the bliss of the ’90s was American bliss, and the victory over history posited by Francis Fukuyama, Pyrrhic or not, was an American victory. It’s often forgotten that the end of the literal ’90s, which one might have counted down on a PalmPilot or discussed with friends on an instant messaging service like ICQ, itself carried the threat of catastrophe. The electronic storage of dates and times, the worries had it, was done with just two numbers for the year. When the clocks struck midnight, we would be sent back to 1900. Our Pokemon, Tamagotchis, and Neopets might not survive the trip.