1990’s was an age in which religion shaped Ameri-
can beliefs and values or whether American pragma-
tism reshaped American religion.
Further Reading
Eck, Diana.A New Religious America: How a “Christian
Countr y” Has Become the World’s Most Religiously Di-
verse Nation. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2002.
Explores the growth of non-Christian religions in
modern America.
Kosmin, Barry, and Seymour Lachman.One Nation
Under God: Religion in Contemporar y American Soci-
ety. New York: Harmony Books, 1993. Sociological
analysis based on a comprehensive demographic
analysis of American religion.
McGraw, Barbara. Rediscovering America’s Sacred
Ground: Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a
Pluralistic America. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2003. Academic analysis of religion
and the culture wars in America at the end of the
twentieth century.
Porterfield, Amanda.The Transformation of American
Religion: The Stor y of a Late Twentieth-Centur y Awak-
ening. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Places recent American religiosity in its historical
context, with an emphasis on religious pluralism.
Roof, Wade Clark, ed.Contemporar y American Religion.
New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. Over
five hundred articles on various facets of the mod-
ern religious and spiritual life of the United States.
Wald, Kenneth.Religion and Politics in the United
States. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
Argues that despite America’s increasingly secu-
larized society, religion continues to play an im-
portant political role.
William, Martin.With God on Our Side: The Rise of the
Religious Right in America. New York: Broadway
Books, 1996. The accompanying text to a PBS
television series, this book examines the conflu-
ence of religious faith and political life in modern
America.
Wuthnow, Robert.After Heaven: Spirituality in America
Since the 1950’s. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1998. Finds the trend of modern American
religious faith to be practice-oriented, personal-
ized, and ephemeral.
Howard Bromberg
See also Bernardin, Joseph Cardinal; Chopra,
Deepak; Christian Coalition; Conservatism in U.S.
politics; Culture wars; Dead Sea scrolls publication;
Demographics of the United States; Elections in
the United States, 1992; Falwell, Jerry; Farrakhan,
Louis; Heaven’s Gate mass suicide; Holocaust Me-
morial Museum; Jewish Americans; Kwanzaa; Prom-
ise Keepers; Waco siege; WWJD bracelets. Reno, Janet
Identification Attorney general of the United
States, 1993-2001
Born July 21, 1938; Miami, Florida
Reno was the first female attorney general of the United
States. Her tenure as the highest-ranking law-enforcement
official was marked by controversial, high-profile decisions.
After his inauguration as president in 1993, Bill
Clinton turned his immediate attention to filling
cabinet positions. He identified two women as possi-
ble candidates to be attorney general, but both with-
drew. Having twice visited the drug court Janet Reno
established in Florida, Clinton was impressed by the
success of this visionary project that spared first of-
fenders from prison terms.
Clinton examined Reno’s credentials, which in-
cluded considerable judicial experience in Florida
and a law degree from Harvard University. He asked
his aide, Vince Foster, to interview Reno. Foster was
impressed by the candidate and recommended that
she become attorney general. Clinton nominated
Reno on February 11. On March 11, the Senate con-
firmed her appointment unanimously.
The first crisis in a tenure that involved innumera-
ble crises was already raging when Reno assumed of-
fice. In February, 1993, a group of heavily armed re-
ligious fundamentalists, the Branch Davidians,
barricaded themselves inside their compound near
Waco, Texas. Following a shoot-out between David-
ian members and agents from the Bureau of Alco-
hol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) that left four
agents and an undetermined number of Davidians
dead, a siege led by the Federal Bureau of Investiga-
tion (FBI) lasted for fifty-one days.
The FBI pressured Reno to end the standoff,
which deployed dozens of agents who were needed
elsewhere, by storming the compound. Reno took
the proposal to Bill Clinton, who reluctantly as-
sented. On April 19, the assault occurred. The
compound went up in flames, killing seventy-six Da-The Nineties in America Reno, Janet 713