This chapter brings us close to the present--yet is linked in innumerable ways to those that come before it. The trends discussed so far--the rise of the U.S. as an industrial nation and an international power, the growth of a consumer-driven economy, the debate over the meaning of equality and freedom, the role of government in regulating the economy and maintaining the welfare of its citizens--all remained central to the nation at the end of the twentieth century. More narrowly, this chapter explains a reaction to the events of the Vietnam Era and the Age of Limits (Chapters 30 and 31). Ronald Reagan became one of the most visible leaders of the reaction: He wanted to rein in the programs of the Great Society and recommit the U.S. to an interventionist foreign policy. He and his advisers also believed that less government, not more, would reverse the economic slide that had weakened the nation during the 1970s. Conservatives generally objected to the liberal bias they perceived in the courts, media, and schools. These agendas became subjects of conflict that Bill Clinton inherited after his victory in 1992.