1980s

Kimberly R. Moffitt is assistant professor of American studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.Duncan A. Campbell is assistant professor of history at National University.

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

The 1980s: A Critical and Transitional Decade provides a reading of the American 1980s in the broadest possible terms, expanding our understanding of the decade across politics, sociology, and culture. Its multi-disciplinary approach offers new ways in which to conceptualize both America's relationship with itself and the nation's position in a rapidly globalizing world. The book is an excellent resource for thinking about how one writes the history of the recent past.