Theme: The United States underwent drastic economic and social change in the final decades of the twentieth century. The economic transformation from an industrial age to an information age produced new economic advances as well as a rapidly increasing income gap between the wealthy and the poor. Changes in womens roles, the family, and the arrival of new immigrant groups substantially altered the ways Americans live and work.

Theme: Despite the weaknesses of television and problems in U.S. education, American culture, literature, and art remained the most dynamic and influential in the world. The new diversity of gender, ethnic, and racial voices contributed to the vital energy that made American democracy not simply a political system but an ever-changing source of fresh ideas and popular images.