Mahanth is Editor

We are deep into the Fall of Rome stage of things. For those rooting for, or deriving pleasure from, America’s slow descent into the dark abyss of madness, I’d recommend wiping that smirky smile off your face. Rest assured everyone everywhere loses in a world where America’s best days are behind it, not just We the People in the front row seats.

The only thing standing between partial and total anarchy in international relations is leadership. Like it or not, for our lifetimes America has been the unquestioned leader among nations and ultimate guarantor of the systems keeping the world order from breaking down completely. The UN, NATO, WTO, WHO, IAEA, G7, the petrodollar, and other institutions are deeply flawed, and wide open to parody like America itself. Make no mistake, without them unmitigated Lord of the Flies type chaos will ensue.

Pity then that America, the very country that benefits most from the systems and alliances it helped create, is somehow the one most hell-bent on breaking them to its own obvious detriment. This is the equivalent of the adult staff in the elementary school cafeteria throwing the fruit around, starting the food fight.

Thus if America’s best days are not ahead, and 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the entire little science project in governance our founding fathers fought so hard for, it’s a great time to take a deep retrospective look to crown the greatest decade of U.S. history among those 25. Here are the strongest candidates:

THE 1770s. More so than any decade, this one deserves the title of “Morning in America.” A rowdy revolution was incubated in the years leading up to the Declaration of Independence in 1776, followed by America’s only war for freedom from an overlord superpower, the homeland as battlefield (my, how roles have changed). This decade rightly belongs to the founders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and other polymaths for eloquently birthing America the idea and the possibility, at least on paper. In reality the upstart Continental Army were getting their poorly-appointed rebellious asses kicked royally by the British up and down the land until the early 1780s. The 1770s were about the promise, not the prize. Those years cannot be peak America, for its better days could only be ahead, a fact that the nation’s architects knew full well. It kept Washington’s troops marching on. A great decade, yes. No way we can call it peak though.

THE 1780s. The premise for this decade stems from the aforementioned Revolutionary War. The tide would eventually turn, and the Continental Army finally achieved glorious victory in 1783. I would argue this year may have an even better case than 1776 for the founding year, because without military success the beautiful and brilliant new ideas of the 1770s would be entirely moot. Such is the cruel nature of victory and defeat in war. As importantly, an actual functioning government began to take root after the muskets and cannons stopped popping based on novel, untested democratic ideals. General Washington became President Washington, the first-ever man of that title in 1789, without serious contest or public opposition. It was one hell of a decade, but it sure feels like a logical continuation of what Americans had already set in motion in the 1770s. We also know that America was a poor, weak, and much geographically smaller country than it later became, sharing a continent uneasily with Native tribes, French, British-Canadians, and Spanish-Mexicans. All while grotesquely exploiting slaves from Africa.

THE 1800s. This decade and a new century was punctuated by the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a cheap little business deal with France orchestrated by President Jefferson, the guy who beat incumbent John Adams in the 1800 presidential election. Just like that, the United States had approximately doubled in size and jurisdiction. Soon after, adventurers Lewis & Clark set out to learn what and who the heck was out West of the original states at Jefferson’s request. One thing we know was out there, was a lot of Native American tribes who had no say in the real estate transaction between the French and the Americans. Of course their land was usurped anyway. While this was a great decade for expansion of the American project, and one of relative peace, is that enough to claim Peak America?

THE 1860s. Since Americans from the very beginning have been incredibly enamored with firearms and war, it is only appropriate to make the case for the 1860s, the decade of President Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, the bloodiest conflict that America has ever faced in 250 years. America’s only civil war to date was fought in order to extinguish another would-be revolution, pitting North against South, and even brother against brother. That the North won and kept the union together with great difficulty and pain is well worth celebrating. As is the beginning of the end of slavery, though the aftermath was not so easy. If this war had somehow gone the other way, we’d be living in a very different world today. Most certainly, a worse world. But in a decade where 600,000 Americans were killed by other Americans, surely Peak America is not the best label for it.

THE 1940s. Things get really interesting here. The 1940s were a time of multi-theater war winning for America militarily unlike any other decade. Not only did the US military lead the allies to victory in World War II, widely considered a just war against the Axis Empires. Not only did the United States win the frenzied race to build a nuclear bomb before the Nazis or Russians. The best of American might abroad was proven by the US-led rebuilding of Europe and Asia after the fighting, including the enemy powers Germany and Japan, into the peaceful economic engines they became. A new economic world order with America at the helm was born, one that has endured till now with open global trade routes by land, sea, and air. But can a peak American decade include dropping atomic weapons on hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? That’s a tough sell for not one, but two extremely inhumane actions.

THE 1990s. First of all, full disclosure: this is the first and only decade on the list that I’ve actually lived through. These were the years of my teens, so of course there could be an accusation of bias. But put that aside and examine the facts. The decade began with the fall of the Soviet Union, and a dominant victory in Desert Storm in 1991- I was there! America has not tasted such an overwhelming victory in war since World War II- or since. Americans paid a far lower price than any other war in terms of US casualties. It began the brief but real multipolar era where America had no near-peer rivals for the entire decade. From 1990 to 2000 we had an interlude of balancing budgets, peace and prosperity, and the rise of Internet technology sprung from American soil, which runs the world till today. 9/11 had not happened yet, an event that would shatter the American psyche and mangle our foreign policy for for decades to come.

The choice is only too obvious. The 1990s were Peak America, with no close second place. America was at its strongest on the world stage militarily, culturally, economically, and politically with no adversaries and maximum confidence. Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan flourished in their arenas during peak America, and became not only national icons but global celebrities recognized by children in every country. 1990s America on the world stage had…. swagger. We were so united as a nation that the biggest internal political fight of the decade was about a stupid extramarital affair.

If only that were the worst problem we had today.

via Pitchfork.com