Lexual's Library: 80s History

In this edition of Lexual’s Library, I’m listing the essential texts for studying the 1980s. If you want to know everything there is to know about the 1980s, this list of thirteen books will help you begin or continue your journey.

1. The Seventies: The Great Shift In American Culture, Society, And Politics (Bruce J Schulman)

   

   Yes, this book is about the seventies but the reason why I’m including it on this list is because it provides foundational knowledge for who Ronald Reagan was and why Americans were poised to accept conservatism in 1980. Schulman really knows how to get to the point without being too dry.

   
   

2. The 1970s: A New Global History From Civil Rights to Economic Inequality (Thomas Borstelmann)

   
   

   

   
   

   This book is included on this list for the same reason as above, but with the added bonus of discussing global history on the blood-soaked landscape of imperialism and zionism. In addition to discussing Israel and Palestine, women, and Post-Colonial Africa, Borstelmann’s masterful tracking of the American marketplace, regression of the country’s reputation in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and the eventual growth of neoliberalism are essential. He also plants the seeds for understanding America’s growing list of enemies.  

   
   

3. Fault Lines: A History of The United States Since 1974 (Kevin Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer)

   
   

   

   This is one of my favorite books on the list. Though its a moderately inclusive and dynamic exploration of 70s-2000s history (meaning it’s sorely lacking black women’s history), it’s an entertaining journey that doesn’t spend too long on minute details. There are sources and facts galore, but it is the kind of non-fiction book you could read for fun without a highlighter and notes (though mine is thoroughly annotated). I love that there’s a lot of media history in this book, especially in the chapter “Changing Channels.”

   
   

4. The Other Eighties: A Secret History of America in the Age of Reagan (Bradford Martin)

   
   

   

   I appreciate this book! If you want alternative and niche history, this is the book for you. While other books on this list skimmed through topics like The Nuclear Freeze Campaign and black responses to politics, Martin was much more thorough. His chapter on the South African Divestment campaigns happening on college campuses was interesting too.  

   
   

5. Morning In America: How Ronald Reagan Invented The 1980s (Gil Troy)

   
   

   

   This book is bittersweet for me. Gil Troy is an adept writer of history, drawing you in with plenty of pop culture and fun details to enliven even the most boring republican history. And to do a series like Lexual Does The 70s/80s/90s, yes, you do need to fundamentally understand republican viewpoints and history. He bases the narrative around Reagan’s slogan “It’s Morning in America”, and does a nice job peeling back what that means, breaking down his research by year and location, unpacking layers of political history that is essential for understanding voting habits, increased tribalism, and reactions to supreme court decisions.

   
   

   HOWEVER, like in his follow-up book, The Age of Clinton, it’s obvious that Troy is center-right. I read a wide range of opinions, but if you choose to read make sure you do so with the expectation that his target audience is white men who watch the history channel and find assess themselves to be “pretty flexible” about race and gender issues. Troy’s writing about black American history is flat and his retellings of events like the Central Park Five are laced with law-and-order contempt. So when reading Troy, I always read “against” him in a sense, taking everything he says with a grain of salt and checking out alternate perspectives. But I also read for a great chronological narrative on easily verifiable facts.

   
   

6. Post-Soul Nation: the explosive, contradictory, triumphant, and tragic 1980s as experienced by African Americans (previously known as Blacks and before that Negroes) (George Nelson)

   
   

   

   This book has the most pop culture history and is organized chronologically by year. It’s got extremely esoteric factoids about black culture, but isn’t thoroughly cited if you’re someone who needs a by-the-number bibliography. While dated, it is an essential text because it lists so many things neglected by other books on this list. It’s available for free on Archive! 

   
   

7. Living In The Eighties (Edited by Gil Troy and Vincent J Cannato)

   
   

   

   Bruce L Schulman has an entry in this delightfully specific book of essays called The Privatization of Everyday Life: Public Policies, Public Services, and Public Space in The 80s, exploring the ways that Reagan policies created new third spaces and disrupted community. It serves as a perfect palette cleanser after reading an essay called “An Insiders Look at the Reagan Legacy” by Edwin Meese.

   
   

8. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (Susan Faludi)

   
   

   

   An emotionally devastating read that helps the reader contextualize women’s rights in the alleged lull between the second and third wave of feminism. How were the hard-won rights of women being threatened and plotted against? Because Faludi published this book in 1992, her in-depth assessments on contemporary figures of the late 80s like Allan Bloom and Betty Friedan give perspective on misogyny and feminism immediately before the rise of the third wave. She started researching and writing in 1986, making her exploration of topics like reproductive rights (which were weakened by 1992’s Planned Parenthood Vs Casey) all the more impressive. This is a top three book on the list for sure. 

   
   

9. Bring The War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America (Kathleen Belew)

   
   

   

   Years before Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols planted a bomb at a federal building in Oklahoma in 1995, extreme right-wing white supremacists had been forming militias, swapping conspiracy theories, and preparing for a cataclysmic war against the government and/or minorities. It’s easy to paint this group with the same brush as Ku Klux Klan or your average conservative senator, but the radical right wing has its own intricate ideology, motivations and history— astutely tracked by Kathleen Belew. Years ago, her research broke down Ruby Ridge for me and helped me see the OKC bombing in a different light. I love this book, and I recommend it for your 70s-90s history journey. 

   
   

10. 1989: Democratic Revolutions at The Cold War’s End (Padraic Kenney)

    
    

    

    In this slim yet powerful reader, the socio-politics of nations on the cusp of the end of the cold war are meticulously detailed with attached primary documents that are hard to find elsewhere (some are first-time English translations). I like the brief overviews of these nations from the post-WWII era to 1989. While I originally got this book to read about China, I really appreciated  the sections on South Africa and The Philippines. 

    
    

11. Conservatives In Power: The Reagan Years (1981-1989) Meg Jacobs and Julian E. Zelizer

    
    

    

    This reader added extra details for my understanding of Reaganism while providing good primary documents. It’s hyper-specific focus on Reagan and political speeches and policies leaves no room for pop cultural observations or “fun” history (compared to Zelizer’s other work with Kruiser), but its one of the most-needed on this list if you want to understand republican propaganda after Nixon and the fall of the esteem of the American empire in the 70s. There’s a range of documents from Oliver North to Elizabeth Dole to Lee Atwater to Newt Gingrich, showing how they sharpened the new right that had coalesced in the 1970s (while still butting heads with the the Gipper and each other.)

    
    

12. The Age of Reagan: A History 1974-2008 (Sean Wilentz)

    

    Published during the Obama era when everybody hated George W Bush, Wilentz argues that 35 years of Reaganism have ended, and explores the foreign and economic policies of conservative leaders since the scandals of Nixon. It’s great for chronological tidbits and quotes, but Wilentz is obviously a neoliberal and Clinton friend, skating by the triangulation strategy that reoriented American politics to the right. Wilentz eventually makes the case that the Supreme Court’s decision in the 2000 elections would destroy the republican party and lead to extremism. How prescient. This tome is heavy on the details, military, and obscure policy for political nerds, but you’ll be disappointed if you want a heavy dose of pop culture. 

    
    

13. Satanic Panic: Pop Cultural Paranoia in The 1980s (Kier-La Janisse & Paul Corupe)

    
    

    

    Out of all of the books on this list, this one is the most fun and whimsical, despite the subject matter. It’s got newspaper clippings, pictures, art, and horror movie references galore. My favorite section was Dicing With The Devil: The Crusade Against Gaming by Gavin Baddley, because it was such a thorough lesson on Dungeons and Dragons anxiety and conspiracy theories. In addition to a brief history of tabletop RPG’s, Baddley’s supply of Christian criticisms of D&D is compelling. I also loved the section on MTV and music videos by Stacy Rusnak. This book is fantastic to learn from but also makes a good coffee table addition for curious visitors to your home. 

When I researched and wrote Lexual Does The 1980s, these books were my guides, but they didn’t scratch every itch. With the 1,000 additional sources I used, I was able to tell the 80s narrative that spoke to me as a black woman. With these resources at your disposal, how will you craft your 1980s narrative?  

Binge Lexual Does The 80s Below!