With the end of the Cold War, the invention of the World Wide Web, the widespread availability to cellphones and personal computers, and remarkable advances in space exploration—the 1990s introduced a new era in human history.

During that decade, the United States experienced changes that previous generations never imagined—the abrupt collapse of worldwide communism, the ability of ordinary Americans to connect with individuals and organizations throughout the world via the internet, and the initiation and near completion of the Human Genome Project that led to unprecedented advances in human health. These and other developments changed Americans’ lives forever. This volume in the Daily Life through History series examines how the cultural trends of the 1990s revolutionized the way people were able to teach and learn, conduct business, express themselves, and interact with one another.

The book goes on to explore the evolution in long-held attitudes about the proper roles for women in society, sex, sexuality, and the concept of family to include other kinds of relationships—childless marriages, single-parent and mixed families, and LGBTQ+ relationships. New trends in fashion and music—from grunge to hip hop culture—also had a powerful impact on how some Americans presented themselves, while others rejected these cultural shifts and clung fervently, and sometimes violently, to traditional values and worldviews.

Daily Life in 1990s America enables readers to better understand the significance, complexities, and enduring influence of this era-defining period in American history.