Description

As we approach twenty years since the end of the 1980s, we have the opportunity to see the decade in perspective, and are in a position to question the glib assumption that the 1980s were a mere conservative foil to the 1960s. The 1980s: A Critical and Transitional Decade, edited by Kimberly R. Moffitt and Duncan A. Campbell, places its topics within the context of a decade described as both critical and transitional because the 1980s, in many respects, marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. For example, the Reagan presidency, the end of the Cold War, MTV, and the appearance of the personal computer all reflect a legacy of political, cultural, and social transformation of the United States and the world, and took place specifically within the 1980s. The function of this interdisciplinary volume is not to simply highlight the significant phenomena of the period, but rather demonstrate how so many apparently disparate events were, in fact, closely inter-related and also products of their age. The 1980s is a holistic analysis of the decade that focuses on major turning points, developments in literature, art, entertainment, politics, and social experimentation.

The 1980s: A Critical and Transitional Decade, edited by Kimberly R. Moffitt and Duncan A. Campbell is a groundbreaking and stand-alone introductory volume that is unapologetically interdisciplinary in nature and encourages students to explore topics of the decade often overlooked or grouped together with other, more memorable decades such as the 1920s or 1960s.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Acknowledgments
Chapter 2 Introduction: The 80s as a Decade
Part 3 PART 1:"FREEDOM AND SECURITY GO TOGETHER:" REAGAN'S INFLUENCE DURING THE 80s
Chapter 4 1. Ronald W. Reagan: Redefining the Presidency
Chapter 5 2. Reagan Revives FBI Spying
Chapter 6 3. The "Real" Right Turn: The Reagan Supreme Court
Chapter 7 4. "Privatizing the Leviathan State: A 'Reaganomic' Legacy"
Chapter 8 5. "Airlines? Lousy Unions." Airline Workers in the Era of Deregulation and Hostile Takeover
Part 9 PART 2:"YEAH, WELL, HISTORY'S GONNA CHANGE:"UNDERSTANDING THE 80s BEYOND REAGAN
Chapter 10 6. Triumph of "The Gipper" and the Democratic Party Malaise in the 1980s
Chapter 11 7. The Christian Right's Traditionalist Jeremiad: Piety and Politics in the Age of Reagan
Chapter 12 8. New Right, New History, Common Ground: Populism and the Past
Chapter 13 9. An Army of One in 1:18 Scale: The Profit of Patriotism in G.I. Joe
Chapter 14 10. "Fixing" the Fifties: Alex P. Keaton and Marty McFly
Part 15 PART 3:"TAKE A CHILL PILL, MAN:" COMING TO TERMS WITH THE SOCIAL ILLS OF THE 80s
Chapter 16 11. How Broadway has Cared: The AIDS Epidemic and the Great White Way
Chapter 17 12. Counterpublic Art and Social Practice
Chapter 18 13. Date Rape and Sexual Politics
Chapter 19 14. A Culture in Panic: Day Care Abuse Scandals and the Vulnerability of Children
Chapter 20 15. What's Class Got to Do with It?: Facets of Tracy Chapman through Song
Part 21 PART 4:"WE ARE THE WORLD:" UNDERSTANDING THE 80s BEYOND AMERICA'S BORDERS
Chapter 22 16.Reading MTV: The Proliferation of United States Culture in the Age of Globalization
Chapter 23 17. The United States and Apartheid
Chapter 24 18. The Opening of China and the Evolution of China-U.S.Cross-Cultural Understanding
Chapter 25 19. U.S. Foreign Policy in Latin America on Film: The Case of Salvador
Chapter 26 20. Cold War Crucible: The Berlin Wall and American Exceptionalism
Part 27 PART 5:"TOTALLY AWESOME, 80s:" A DECADE OF ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Chapter 28 21. Fear of a Black Planet: Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Eddie Murphy and the Globalization of Black Masculinity
Chapter 29 22. Matter and Mammon: Fiction in the Age of Reagan
Chapter 30 23. Alternative for Alternative's Sake: Progressive College Radio'sProgramming Struggles
Chapter 31 24. "Life in Marvelous Times:" Commemorative Narratives of the Golden Era in Hip Hop Culture
Chapter 32 25. "Do We Get to Win this Time?" Movies, Mythology, and Political Culture in "Reagan Country"
Chapter 33 Selected Bibliography
Chapter 34 Index
Chapter 35 About the Contributors

Product details

Published Dec 29 2010
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 506
ISBN 9780739143148
Imprint Lexington Books
Dimensions 231 x 156 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

Related Titles

Environment: Staging