Dershowitz: The Most Transformative Events of the 21st Century

As we look back at the events that most transformed our nation in the past year and so far in this century, five stand out.

Each was utterly unpredictable and largely unpreventable. They have changed the course of our history, our ideology, our attitudes and our responses. They will have a continuing impact on our lives for years to come.

In roughly chronological order, they are as follows:

1. The attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/2001
2. The election of Donald Trump on Nov. 8, 2016
3. The COVID pandemic, starting in early 2020
4. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020
5. The Russian attack against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022

Some observers may add other events, but few can deny the centrality of these five, though there may be arguments about the order of their significance. I will offer my own views on that question, but first a description of the impact of each.

The 9/11 attack

It shook our nation to its core and displayed our vulnerability to asymmetrical warfare from small groups capable of turning our own “weapons” against us to inflict enormous damage. It provoked wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, with considerable casualties and not a lot that is positive to show for them. It destabilized the Middle East and strengthened Iran and its proxies in Iraq and Lebanon. Although we killed or captured many of the perpetrators of 9/11, we did so with an enduring cost to civil liberties and the rule of law, as exemplified by the Guantanamo Bay prison and the Patriot Act. It has now been 21 years since that fateful day, and yet its impact on our collective psyche persists.

The killing of George Floyd

The death of this 46-year-old Black man on May 25, 2020, changed the way Americans look at race. The brutality of the policeman who caused his death symbolized, for many Americans, our sordid history of police violence toward Black men and women and resulted in a broad reckoning about the role of race in our nation.

Virtually every American institution was impacted by this reckoning — ranging from politics, the media, education, culture, advertising, corporate board rooms and sports to interpersonal relations and attitudes.

Rarely in our history has one event — which, in years past, would been largely overlooked — had so profound and persuasive an impact on the lives of so many Americans of all races, genders, ages and socioeconomic backgrounds. It is difficult to think of any aspect of American life that has not been impacted by this horrible killing and its aftermath.

People may differ as to the benefits and costs of specific changes that resulted from this tragedy, but no one can doubt the pervasiveness of this reckoning on our national character, attitudes and actions.

The election of Donald Trump

Trump’s presidential victory on Nov. 8, 2016, divided Americans more than any election since Abraham Lincoln defeated John C. Breckinridge in 1860. Although Trump’s election did not cause a civil war, it resulted in the breakup of families, friendships and party affiliations.

It also caused a breakdown of communications, a reduction of nuance and a demand that everyone choose sides and be absolutely loyal to their side. It damaged civil liberties and the rule of law in two ways: First, Trump himself undercut these pillars of democracy by playing fast and loose with the Constitution; and second, his opponents were willing to compromise constitutional rights in their efforts to “get” him. Even organizations long dedicated to civil liberties, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, were prepared to compromise their principles to prevent what they regarded as an even greater threat to liberty — namely, Trump.

The end result is a nation with fewer fundamental rights and greater dangers to our liberty.

The COVID-19 pandemic

COVID came of the blue — or out of China; no one seems sure of its source. We can be sure of its consequences, however.

American and much of the rest of the world was shut down and there were many deaths and considerable illness.

My mother nearly died during the flu epidemic of 1917; I lived through the polio scare of the 1950s. And smallpox was so rampant during the American Revolution that Gen. Washington mandated all troops to be inoculated. Yet, in all of these earlier health crises, there were no shutdowns like the ones we experienced during 2020-21.

The impacts on schooling, workplace absences and business were incalculable. But, owing to the rapid response, the development of vaccines and other treatments, and the widespread wearing of masks, the damage was relatively contained.

We still suffer, however, from the after-effects, both physical and psychological. We also still experience the political repercussions of the highly divisive steps that were taken to control COVID’s spread.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Finally, there is the continuing Russian assault on Ukraine. Although Russia is clearly at fault, even this issue divides Americans, at least to some degree and in spite of the absence of a direct impact on our people. It has shattered the long-time peace of Eastern Europe. No one knows how and when it will end or what its implications will be for the world order.

These, then, are the five events that have most shaped the first 22 years of this century. They have in common that none was entirely predictable or preventable. Accordingly, it was difficult to prepare for them and their consequences; our responses were ad hoc and reactive.

Hopefully, we learned lessons that might help us respond more effectively to the unpredictable future threats we inevitably will face in the year to come and during the rest of this century.

My personal choice for the most transformative event for America is the killing of George Floyd and the widespread racial reckoning that followed. It profoundly altered the role of race in nearly every aspect of American life. It made us more race-conscious and ended Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of a color-blind society in which people are judged by the quality of their character rather than the color of their skin.

The legacy of George Floyd is a world of identity politics based largely on race. For some Americans, this is an entirely positive development. For others, it has negative implications. But no American is entirely immune from its effects — hence, my first place vote.

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and and the author most recently of “The Case for Color Blind Equality in the Age of Identity Politics,” and “The Case for Vaccine Mandates,” Hot Books (2021).​ Read more of Alan Dershowitz”s reports — Here.

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