The Nineties

on videotape, along with thousands upon thousands of trivial moments that meant nothing at all. The record is relatively complete. But that deluge of data remained, at the time, ephemeral and unavailable. It was still a present-tense existence. For much of the decade, Seinfeld was the most popular, most transformative live-action show on television. It altered the language and shifted comedic sensibilities, and almost every random episode was witnessed by more people than the 2019 finale of Game of Thrones. Yet if you missed an episode of Seinfeld, you simply missed it. You had to wait until it was re-aired the following summer, when you could try to manually record it on VHS videotape. If you missed it again, the only option was to go to a public archive in Los Angeles or Manhattan and request a special viewing on eight-millimeter videotape. But of course, this limitation was not something people worried about, because caring that much about any TV show was not a normal thing to do. And even if you did, you would pretend you did not, because this was the nineties. You would be more likely to claim that you didn t own a television.

That, more than any person or event, informed the experience of nineties life: an adversarial relationship with the unseemliness of trying too hard. Every generation melodramatically assumes it will somehow be the last, and there was some of that in the nineties, too but not as much as in the decade that came before and far less than in the decades that would come after. It was perhaps the last period in American history when personal and political engagement was still viewed as optional. Many of the polarizing issues that dominate contemporary discourse were already in play, but ensconced as thought experiments in academic circles. It was, in retrospect, a remarkably easy ti

exercise about the decade that you immediately want to share with a friend. BuzzFeed

Always an astute cultural observer and a fan of deep dives into any subject, Klosterman is focused here on a decade in American life that he says is often portrayed as a low-risk grunge cartoon . . . Klosterman s gift is seizing on those moments that any Gen Xer can readily recall and pulling the strings a bit to put it in some kind of historical perspective. Associated Press

Klosterman s remarkable book made me rethink my decade and rethink myself. Airmail
 
The nineties continue to fascinate, especially with a wonderful guide like Chuck Klosterman. Toronto Star

A book that you ll read in about two days, but then want to re-read to make sure you didn t miss anything. Fatherly

[The Nineties] attempts a comprehensive analysis of the texture of the 1990s the feeling of the era. Perhaps no cultural critic is better suited for this task than Klosterman. . . . By immersing himself in the objectivity furnished by the past, Klosterman opens a critical space wherein we can consider the present. SPIN

Klosterman zooms in on the interplay between the titular decade s opposing generations Generation X and Baby Boomers and puts the era s technological transformations in their rightful historical contexts. . . . His greatest service here is his resistance to assign sharp edges where there is only an underwhelming, fuzzy consensus. Vulture, 49 Books We Can t Wait to Read in 2022

Klosterman is far too ambitious to merely let readers wallow in nostalgia and instead looks at the 90s by applying the accessible style of cultural criticism that has been his brand during a career that has now spanned 12 books. The Nineties examines everything from pop culture (Ross and Rachel) to politics (Ross Perot and Ralph Nader), as well as the Information Age s age of innocence when the internet was looming out there somewhere, waiting to happen and transform society. San Francisco Chronicle

[T]he 1990s is about the arrival of new media technologies that would upend our lives in endless ways large and small. . . . Klosterman s take on all of this often is insightful, prompting the reader to think about what the internet and social media have done to our brains, to our sense of selves, to our physical environments. . . . [A]n entertaining tour. Klosterman skillfully analyzes Gen-X touchstones like Quentin Tarantino and Seinfeld, Nirvana and Garth Brooks. The Oregonian

Wonderfully researched, compellingly written, and often very funny, this is a superb reassessment of an underappreciated decade from a stupendously gifted essayist. Booklist (starred review)

An entertaining journey through the last decade of the 20th century. . . . [Klosterman] brings the decade to vivid new life. . . . As in his previous books of cultural criticism, Klosterman delivers a multifaceted portrait that s both fun and insightful. A fascinating examination of a period still remembered by most, refreshingly free of unnecessary mythmaking. Kirkus (starred review)

There s not much missing from this delightful collection of quotes and culture from the era that most find difficult to define. . . . With humor and history (supported by articles, TV news segments, advertisements, and interviews), Klosterman s volume is the perfect guide for millennials who wear vintage t-shirts ironically. From politics to Prozac, a fascinating exploration of Generation X from the perspective of those who lived it and witnessed it. Readers will be raiding closets for mom jeans and drawers for scrunchies after reading this nostalgia-inducing book. Library Journal (starred review)

The Nineties Is a fun and funny romp through a decade just now distant enough to be viewed in historical relief. Chuck Klosterman is old enough to have grown up in the old order of culture and politics that began to tremble, and eventually collapse, during the 1990s; he s young enough to be immersed fully in the new societal currents that began in those years and define us now. For all the delight Klosterman takes in his narrative excursions, his sketches of the Bill Clinton years evoke melancholy. For a moment, it seemed plausible that a young new president could play usher to a post-Cold War era of humane and rational politics. For now, at least, we must recall the 1990s as the soil in which our contemporary politics of contempt, paranoia, alienation, and violence blossomed. John Harris, founding editor, Politico

The Nineties is a fascinating, wholly original exploration of a bewilderingly bygone time, written by one of our wisest, wryest cultural critics. Who else could pull Quentin Tarantino, college football, and Alan Greenspan not to mention Tiger Woods, Dick Morris, and Reality Bites into a coherent examination of a world about to undergo a paradigm shift? Louisa Thomas, staff writer, The New Yorker

This might be the book Chuck Klosterman was born to write: a witty and unpredictable history of the decade that just won't go away. From OJ to AOL to the GOP, he has a theory about everything, and a story about how all of it fits together. Kelefa Sanneh, author of Major Labels

Chuck Klosterman has done something remarkable and, to be honest, frightening. He's hacked his way through the great clutter of our information age, where we know everything but understand nothing, to arrive at a magical oasis of reckoning and recognition, to discover a fact that's been hiding in plain sight, the only fact that matters anymore, really, namely this: the 1990s were the last decade of the United States of America, as a functioning cohesive society and as an idea. Buy this book right now, not because of the smart history it unspools, although that's a delight, but because of the window it gives you into the future. Wright Thompson, author of Pappyland