November 29, 2009
Name That Decade!
Last month the New York Times noted that the first decade of the new century is just about to officially slip into history and wondered what the results of that "beloved and enduring parlor game known as ‘Name That Decade’" would be. Historians frequently chafe a bit at reductive labels such as the "Roaring Twenties." Nevertheless, the urge to categorize is nearly irresistible, and since it is also virtually inevitable, we are asking AHA members to offer their suggestions—by posting in the comment section below—for a catchy phrase that can wittily sum up the decade. The best entries will be voted on and published in February’s Perspectives on History as well as on the blog. The person with the best phrase will have the distinction of having named the decade. Please be sure to use your real name and leave an e-mail address so that we can contact you for verification purposes.
Comment:
The first decade of the twenty-first century will end at midnight on 31st December, 2010. The New York Times has made an error, alas.
— Christopher Thompson Nov 29, 08:15 AM
Comment:
Time magazine has named the decade “The Decade from Hell.”
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1942834,00.html
— David Darlington Nov 30, 12:33 PM
Comment:
The OMG! Ohs
— Emily Gifford Dec 1, 06:43 PM
Comment:
My nomination is-the decade of Drift. No explanation needed.
— Michael Polley Dec 1, 08:50 PM
Comment:
I read the Times article. I doubt that any historian would be able to maintain that one decade was particularly “from Hell.”
Decade of Audacity? Declaring war on the basis of lies, removing regulations and giving rise to sub-prime mortgages, the proliferation of ponzi investments, and finishing of the decade by having a presidential candidate running on change.
This was a decade of audacious assumptions and personalities, where fearlessness led to neglect but also wide-eyed hope.
— Jen Hassum Dec 1, 09:03 PM
Comment:
The Double Naughts.
— Nancy Jacobs Dec 1, 09:54 PM
Comment:
For the purpose of American history periodization, I propose the label “Bush Decade.” I recognize that George W. Bush is highly unpopular among academic historians. Nonetheless, his decision to take action against first Afganistan and second Iraq in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attack dominated political discussion and American foreign policy during the decade. The enduring visual image of the decade will be the hijacked plane crashing into one of the World Trade Center towers. It would be going too far, however, to designate the 10 years as the “War Against Terror Decade.”
— Rodney Earl Walton Dec 2, 02:53 AM
Comment:
20 O’s
O for zerO – Cubic Fit!
Count the O’s or the Zeros. 20!
2001 through 2010.
— Randy Frushour Dec 2, 10:29 PM
Comment:
Welcome to the Naughties.
— Melissa R. Katz Dec 3, 12:03 PM
Comment:
Considering what connected us and defined so much of what occurred in this decade, I’d call it The Digital Era.
— Donald A. Ritchie Dec 3, 01:01 PM
Comment:
Decade of Terrorism – for Terrorism is the dominant feature and will most probably continue to dominate the world scene for at least the next few years.
— Lavanya Vemsani Dec 4, 12:15 PM
Comment:
The Lost Decade.
— Robert McCusker Dec 7, 08:12 PM
Comment:
It started with Y2K, While Two-Kays doesn’t work, tookies does! Yep, that’s it. THE TOOKIES!!! or ‘the why tookies’
— Jim York Dec 8, 02:59 PM
Comment:
Let’s call it the Decade of Smoke, for the smoke arising from the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville; for the smoke from roadside bombs and military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan and from terrorist attacks in Mumbai; and for the smoke screens put up by countless government officials, cable network pundits, politicians, investment fund managers, Ponzi-scheme artists, corporation executives, philanderers, and reality-show “stars” and “wannabes.”
— John Hench Dec 14, 10:34 AM
Comment:
The Fearful Decade
— David Fortin Dec 14, 10:55 AM
Comment:
With all the terrorism and fear, why not just “The Terrible Decade”?
— James Bergquist Dec 14, 02:51 PM
Comment:
The Bubble & Burst Decade or the Burst Bubble Decade.
Admittedly, this doesn’t roll off the tongue, but perhaps it captures not only the economic developments, but also the bursting of the bubble of national invulnerability and unilateralism.
— Michael Hayse Dec 14, 03:32 PM
Comment:
The Decade of Collapse. Didn’t it seem like everything collapsed? Buildings, economies, Ponzi schemes, and so much more.
— Jarrod Fredericks Dec 14, 04:07 PM
Comment:
I cannot decide which one I prefer the most, so I will suggest both.
– I propose combining both major global events and their aftereffects that resonated throughout this decade, along with our technological advancements; the globally interconnected “Decade of the InFEARmation Highway.” Need I say more!OR – The “NOW” Decade, after all this is the time of the technologically immersed “Now Generation” that knows no other way.
— Patrick Clark Dec 16, 12:11 PM
Comment:
The Unies!! Uni is a Latin prefix that means one. The numbers between 0 and 9 are all one digit. Uni is also a prefix that means to come together to make one, like uniformity and university – a collection of colleges.
Unies can be used to describe the decade as in the 20-00s (Twenty-Unies). It can be used to describe weather, “Temperatures are getting cold tonight in the low- to mid-Unies.” It can be used for ages too, I’m in my thirties and my little sister is in her unies.
It can also be used to describe what this decade represented. This decade represented unification. Unification of the Unies. During this decade we saw the rise of social media sites like Youtube, Flickr, Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. We saw the birth of the Euro which unified the European currencies. We saw file sharing sites like Napster take over. Open source sites like Linux and Wikipedia grew. Google organized and unified the Interent. Even the worlds religion came together during September 11th memorials.
— ryan guerra Dec 19, 12:40 AM
Comment:
The Bush Decade.
— Jody White Dec 24, 11:47 PM
Comment:
The Two-Aughts
— J.T. Riojas Dec 27, 06:58 AM
Comment:
This past decade could properly be called the TwentiOs. There is a
facebook fan page for the name, and a logo. The logo is a Cheerio. The naming convention
will also work in previous and future centuries if you read the info on the page. Search
on Facebook for TwentiOs.
— Maggie LaNoue Dec 31, 10:05 AM
Comment:
the AUGHTITIES
Aught is a synonym of Zero.
noun; A quantity of no importance. pronoun; Anything whatever.
Oddities is ; Eccentricity that is not easily explained; A strange attitude or habit; Something unusual—perhaps worthy of collecting >noun
Clearly the AUGHTITIES !
— Rickey McDaniel Jan 1, 12:53 PM