Born in 1990

If you were born in 1990, you came into a post-Cold War America that was still figuring out what the peace dividend meant. The Berlin Wall was already rubble. Nelson Mandela was released from prison in February after twenty-seven years and the whole world exhaled.

Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August and suddenly the post-Cold War order had its first test—would America be the world's policeman? Desert Shield was building in the Saudi desert, and the nightly news was all press briefings and maps of the Middle East. At home, the recession was starting and the budget deficit was ballooning.

Home Alone was the biggest film of the year, Kevin McCallister's resourceful terror a particular kind of American fantasy. *Goodfellas* was the year's serious film. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air debuted and Will Smith's charm was immediate and irresistible.

The Simpsons launched as its own series and was immediately controversial for being a dysfunctional family portrayed as a normal one. Milli Vanilli's Grammy was revoked when it emerged they hadn't actually sung a note. New Kids on the Block were the biggest pop act in the country.

The cost of a first-class stamp was twenty-five cents. Americans were renting videos from Blockbuster in their tens of millions, home movie watching having completely changed the entertainment landscape. The world felt big, complicated, and full of possibility.