I remember talking to a historian shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. I envy your generation, she said. The grip of history is tightening around you, even if you don't know it yet.
She was right. In short succession, the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan, then Iraq. It began to torture captives from those conflicts and stepped up surveillance of its citizens. The financial system temporarily collapsed — and it almost took the economy with it.
The nation's first black president was inaugurated. The U.S. government found itself in charge of American International Group and General Motors. Congress passed the largest stimulus bill in history followed, at long last, by health care reform.