LIFE 2000-2009: The Decade that Changed the World

136 Pages·2009·18.813 MB·English

by  Life Magazine

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THE DECADE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
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LIFE
THE DECADE
THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
WE MEASURE OUR HISTORY in terms of
erasand epochs, Loaning a personality to cer¬
tain periods—the Industrial Age, the Roaring
’20s, the American Century and so on. What
to make, then, of the past 10 years, a time of
extraordinary events and seismic shifts? The
first decade of the new millennium will clearly
stand in the American mind-set alongside the
waryears of the 1940sand the social turmoil
of the 1960s as a time of critical significance
to the United States and, indeed, the global
community. Do we call it the Tumultuous
Decade? The Years of Upheaval?
The Decade That Changed the World?
It certainly was that. From the beginning,
with the contested presidential election of
2000, America was looking hard at itself and
the road ahead. How badly divided are we?
Wherearewe headed?Then camethe horrific
events of September 11, 2001, and nothing
would be quite the same thereafter. Not since
Pearl Harbor had we been attacked on our
own soil, and 9/11 put us on a wartime footing
again. We engaged Osama bin Laden's allies
in Afghanistan and then followed that with the
attack on Saddam Hussein's despotic regime
in Iraq, and the U.S. remains active in both
theaters today.
Natural cataclysms that were continu¬
ously shaking the planet paraded forth: the
tsunami, Katrina, the Chinese earthquake.
Unprecedented events took place, as the
pope visited Jerusalem and the American
electorate chose a black President. Illusions
[continued on the back flap1

Digitized by the Internet Archive
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https://archive.org/details/20002009decadeth0000unse

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LIFE Books Editorial Operations Richard K. Prue (DirectorI, Published by LIFE Books
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LIFE
2000-2009
THE DECADE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Introduction. 6 Of the Moment. 48 2007 84
2000 . 8 2004 . 52 2008.
2001 . 18 2005 . 62 2009 .
2002 . 28 2006 . 72 Farewell
2003 . 36 Of the Moment 80
Page 1:Thomas E. Franklin [September 11,2001]
Pages 2-3: John David Mercer/Mobile Register/Polaris (Hurricane Katrina)
These pages: Alessandro Travoti/AP (Lance Armstrong, in the yellow jersey,
in the 2005 Tourde France)
THEDECADETHATCHANGEDTHEWORLD
THERE HAVE BEEN DECADES IN
American history that instantly con¬
jure the one dominating story. Think of
the 1920s, and you can hear the Jazz
Age roar. Think of the '30s, and images
of bread lines and the Dust Bowl imme¬
diately come to mind. With the 1940s, war
thunders. If we consider the 1960s, there
are various things—Vietnam, the civil rights
movement, campus unrest—that combine
to create an overarching impression of a
society tearing itself apart.
With the first decade of the 21st century—the
10 years just now ending—we are confronted
with a parade of major, disparate stories
that made us stop and wonder, at regular
intervals, What is going on in this world?
When we thought yesterday’s news made
us immune to any further shock, we learned
again and again that we were mistaken.
The planet today looks nothing like it did when fire¬ A
FP/G
E
works exploded at midnight on December 31, 1999. Back then, TT
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most Americans felt they were living in a time of general prosperity
and relative peace. Now we are at war in two different countries where thousands of U.S.
troops have already been killed, and our economy is struggling to recover from a calam¬
ity not seen since the Great Depression, one that brought the world’s financial system to
the very brink of collapse. Back then, in 1999, most of us never dreamed we would be
attacked on our own soil. Now, in 2009, we realize we have enemies who would attack us
again tomorrow if given the chance. We live life in a different way and with different
expectations than we did 10 years ago.