The last year of America's unchallenged geopolitical dominance, 2000 was the year when a little Cuban immigrant became the focus of a media circus, Donald Trump flirted with running for President, and a group of Al Qaeda operatives traveled to America to learn to fly planes. They all converged in Florida, where that fall, the presidential election was decided by the slimmest margin imaginable. It was the opening bell for an era of mayhem, argues Andrew Rice, and he provides a history of what happened, and a portrait of who we've become.