America in the 21st Century: A History of the Past Quarter Century

A sweeping political, economic, and social history of the United States from 2000 to 2025.

America’s 21st century began with a bug—and nearly ended with another.

Having survived the Y2k scare, the United States, having ended the Soviet Empire, expected to settle down into a period of quiet, if uninspiring, growth.

What followed was anything but calm.

After the 9/11 attacks, Americans were pulled inexorably into a pair of wars in the Middle East that saw President George W. Bush’s popularity go from nearly universal to nearly the worst in history. Bush’s presidency was finished off by the “Subprime Mortgage Crisis,” which in part enabled the rise of a young Barack Obama to the presidency.

Instead of uniting America, Obama divided it further as Congress descended into years of futility while the American working class collapsed and American industry left. In 2016, Donald Trump ran on the platform of restoring the American dream, but was hamstrung by “resist” and “lawfare,” two relatively new political strategies that limited his achievements.

A second “bug,” COVID-19, struck America in Trump’s final year, building enough dissatisfaction that, under questionable circumstances, Joe Biden was elected. A dissatisfied America boomeranged to make Trump only the second president in history to win an election, lose it, then win it again. Throughout, America’s economy, technology, and social structure changed in volcanic ways.