Talk:History of the United States (1991–2008)

New era
Due to the start of the North Korea crisis that may lead to a war, I propose that this page is moved to History of the United States (1991–2012) and that a new page titled History of the United States (2013–present) is created. Another reason why I believe this is the right choice is considering the fact that the War in Afghanistan is hopefully ending in the estimated 2014. Also, 2012 had ended with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which became a major subject in 2013. Soffredo (talk) 20:19, 8 April 2013 (UTC)
 * no, let's not do so. No national leader or expert or commentator is calling 2013 the start of a new age for USA. -- now Cyprus is a different matter and it shows what a real transition looks like. As for future wars, here at Wikipedia we just wait for them to happen before we write about them. Rjensen (talk) 20:38, 8 April 2013 (UTC)

Same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage in the United States is mentioned next to nowhere (significantly) in this article. Perhaps that should be amended. Dustin ( talk ) 14:57, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Worked on the Crime & Violence section a bit
Think I made it a bit better; made some note of the continuing trend of racial disparities in crime and imprisonment rates, and tried to clean up the paragraph about Brown and Garner, and added links to both of their deaths, as well as Hands up, don't shoot and Black Lives Matter. Titanium Dragon (talk) 07:27, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

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Proposed split
Please split This article is plenty long and there is also plenty of time since 2001 and the September 11th terrorist attacks to justify a split. —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 04:16, 28 June 2016 (UTC)


 * I agree that this article should be split. I would personally favor a split around 2008, using the financial crisis as the new beginning point. Orser67 (talk) 20:49, 2 September 2016 (UTC)


 * Agreed. I think it should go 1991-2007/08 or sometime around when the financial crisis happened. Then 2009-Present would be the most logical method to divide up the time periods. What do you all think? Myownworst (talk) 22:27, 3 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Agreed, I brought it up to the WikiProject.&mdash; JJ Be rs Pub lic ( ta lk ) 16:22, 28 October 2016 (UTC)

This page has been long overdue for a split. The best way to identify the right dividing line is to measure major events in context.

The end of the Cold War in 1991 is a sufficiently significant event to mark a new period, for example. The proposed end date of 2008 is a logical option, due to the economic events that year. However, while the financial crisis did indeed mark a turning point, many preexisting political trends of the era continued beyond 2008.

I would suggest there is a case that a new period is beginning with the swearing in of the newly elected president in 2017. Donald Trump promised policy changes that are at odds with the general political consensus of the last 25 years, shifted the Electoral College map in ways unseen since the mid-1980s, and also dispatched the two family dynasties (Bush, Clinton) who in one way or another dominated the politics of the last generation.

Also, the main foreign policy arc of the 1991-2017 period, military engagement in the Middle East, was characterized by the same response (traditional ground wars) both before and after 2008. The formal end of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last few years, and the shift to low-grade warfare in multiple theaters across the region, is further evidence of a new period. Joachimus (talk) 06:00, 11 November 2016 (UTC)

While I would not dispute a split of the article, are you suggesting a new article, called History of the United States (2017–present), which would only cover Donald Trump's term in office? Do we have enough material for such an article? Dimadick (talk) 06:25, 12 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Although it may initially be odd to have a new section with little content, it might present a good opportunity to develop best practices for how to chronicle recent history on Wikipedia. This article ("...1991-present") began during the site's early days (2001-2005) before any best practices for recent history articles were established. (Some might argue they never have been.) Without such guidance, as Wikipedia grew from 2005-2009, many recent history articles/sections, including this one, became dominated by the events and controversies of that period. This article, as with many others, has never been comprehensively edited as those events have faded in consequentiality over time. In addition to creating a new section, editing this article in this way would be constructive.


 * Starting a new page would allow for a fresh start moving forward. Best practices could include regular editing, perhaps once every year or two, to cull out events that may have initially seemed important but ended up not being consequential in the long-run. Conversely, such regular editing may also allow for further commentary on events whose consequence has grown over time.


 * This article would begin in January 2017, and as times goes on, would cover events that take shape from that point forward. If appropriate, for the sake of having enough content, perhaps the split should not occur until 6-12 months after this date.


 * Joachimus (talk) 01:30, 13 November 2016 (UTC)
 * A split will be made sooner or later but let's not jump the gun predicting what 2017 will bring. (Most of us were 100% wrong in October 2016 when we predicted what would happen in November 2016). Rjensen (talk) 03:31, 13 November 2016 (UTC)


 * I think it's pretty clear that a new president will take office one way or another in January 2017, so for the reasons detailed above, this may be a rational split point at some time in the near future. Joachimus (talk) 20:45, 15 November 2016 (UTC)


 * I think we should split it now. However, instead of having it talk about 2017, maybe when Brexit rumors started to appear (early-mid 2016). After that, there are plenty enough things that happened to the US (elections, alleged hacking, etc.). TheSportsKid0111 (talk) 00:59, 14 January 2017 (UTC)

2016 Presidential Elections and Donald Trump
No mention of Donald Trump or the presidential election. There should be a section of the hotly-contested election between him and Hillary Clinton. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CountHacker (talk • contribs) 05:48, 8 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I actually think there should be a new History of the United States article for 2017-present once Trump takes office. The 25 years from 1991-2016 is best defined as the post-Cold War era; the USSR collapsed in 1991 and the world order changed radically. Nonetheless, 2016 was the year global integration, freer immigration policy in the West, and free trade hit a massive electoral roadblock all around the world, and Trump's election was the capstone on the year of Brexit.Atrix20 (talk) 08:52, 15 December 2016 (UTC)

Further article split discussion
I think the most sensible ways to split this article would be: Or some sort of a combination of these (for example, 1991–2001 + 2001–17 + 17–present). What do you people think? Let's get this thing done. --Tiiliskivi (talk) 20:00, 18 January 2017 (UTC)
 * History of the United States (1991–2001) and History of the United States (2001–present)
 * History of the United States (1991–2008) and History of the United States (2008–present)
 * History of the United States (1991–2017) and History of the United States (2017–present)
 * Also, I would personally prefer 1991–2008 and 2008–present. 2017–present would have so little material in it, and the creation of such article based on Trump would be recentism bias. We don't know yet if history will view this event as a "turning point" like the collapse of the Soviet Union. --Tiiliskivi (talk) 20:06, 18 January 2017 (UTC)


 * As someone who has been an active stakeholder in this discussion, I will agree with this change. Although some notable pre-2008 trends continued beyond that year, the political and economic events of 2008 were significant enough to justify the year as a dividing point. I can also understand concerns about recentism bias and having a limited "2017-present" article, even if it was not created for another year or so. Nonetheless, I stand by the opinion, for reasons myself and others have already discussed at length, that holds that 2016/17 will remain a turning point period even if the impact of the 2016 U.S. presidential election are short lived. Joachimus (talk) 20:35, 20 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I would tend to agree that 1991–2017 and 2017–present would be more sensible. 207.161.86.162 (talk) 04:26, 18 May 2020 (UTC)

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Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:History of the United States (1776–1789) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 00:33, 16 June 2024 (UTC)