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Unit 9
4–6% of examSince 1980, a revived conservative movement led by Ronald Reagan has reshaped debates over taxes, regulation and the size of government, and the Cold War ended with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. You'll see how computers, the internet and global trade changed work and daily life, how immigration from Latin America and Asia made the country more diverse, and how the September 11, 2001 attacks turned U.S. foreign policy toward fighting terrorism.
Longer videos that cover the whole unit. Good for a first pass or a final review.
By 1980 many Americans had lost faith in government after Vietnam, Watergate and stagflation, opening the door to a conservative revival. New technology, a global economy and the end of the Cold War framed the decades that followed.
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Ronald Reagan, elected in 1980, cut income taxes, loosened regulations on industries and trimmed some social programs, backed by a coalition that included the religious right. The economy grew after a sharp early-1980s recession, but federal deficits soared and popular programs like Social Security and Medicare stayed. Conservatives kept pushing after Reagan, as in the Republicans' 1994 Contract with America, and debates over taxes, trade and the safety net continued.
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Reagan first built up the military and called the Soviet Union an 'evil empire,' then negotiated arms cuts such as the INF Treaty (1987) with reform-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Communist governments in Eastern Europe fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991; historians still debate how much credit goes to U.S. pressure versus the Soviet Union's own economic problems and Gorbachev's reforms. Afterward the U.S. led a coalition that drove Iraq out of Kuwait in the Persian Gulf War (1991) and kept debating when to use its power abroad.
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Computers, cell phones and the internet transformed daily life and helped American businesses join a global economy, while trade deals like NAFTA (1994) tied the U.S. more closely to other countries. Jobs shifted from manufacturing to services, union membership fell and the gap between rich and poor widened.
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Immigration, mostly from Latin America and Asia, made the U.S. more diverse, and Americans argued over undocumented immigration, border security and assimilation, starting with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. People also kept moving to the South and West, growing those regions' political power.
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After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the U.S. launched a war on terrorism, including long, controversial wars in Afghanistan (from 2001) and Iraq (from 2003). Americans debated whether measures like the USA PATRIOT Act and the detention of suspects at Guantánamo Bay kept the country safe or went too far against civil liberties, and argued over dependence on fossil fuels and climate change.
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This skill topic asks you to explain causes and effects across the period, such as why conservatism rose after 1980 or how the end of the Cold War and 9/11 changed U.S. foreign policy. Practice telling short-term triggers apart from long-term causes.
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