1980s

Scope|Overview Sources|Personalities and Events|Notable Fiction|Notable Non-Fiction|Periodicals, Journals, & Trade Publications

SCOPE: The decade of the 1980s was an era of conservatism punctuated with the presidency of Ronald Reagan who took office in 1981. Wall Street was booming, as was the wealthy class. For the first time in decades there was a great divide between economic classes.

OVERVIEW SOURCES

REF E 169.1.B664 1990 American Chronicle

REF E 169.12.A419 American Decades, 1980-1989

REF E 169.K985 2002 Daily Life in the United States, 1960-1990 Decades of Discord

REF D 848.M45 1995 Day by Day: The Eighties

REF E 839.V57 1992 The Eighties

REF D 421.G27 2002 Great Events 1984-1993

REF E 174.5.W46 1991 The U.S.A: A Chronicle in Pictures

PERSONALITIES AND EVENTS

Cohen, William S. Men of Zeal: A Candid Inside Story of the Iran-Contra Hearings. New York: Viking, 1988.

Ehrman, John. The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 2005.

Faludi, Susan. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Crown, 1991.

Garwin, Richard L. The Fallacy of Star Wars. New York: Vintage Books, 1984.

Hargrove, Erwin C. Jimmy Carter as President: Leadership and the Politics of the Public Good. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1988.

Hohler, Robert T. I Touch the Future--: The Story of Christa McAuliffe. New York: Random House, 1986.

Johnson, Haynes Bonner. Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years. New York: W.W. Norton, 1991.

North, Oliver. Under Fire: An American Story. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.

Ortega, Bob. In Sam We Trust: The Untold Story of Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, the Worlds Most Powerful Retailer. New York: Times Business, 2000.

Russell, Louie B. The Baby Boom Generation and the Economy. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution, 1982.

Troy, Gil. Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s. Princeton,
N.J: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Walton, Sam. Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

Some representative books from the Circulating Collection (located upstairs in the library):

NOTABLE FICTION

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaids Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986.

Calvino, Italo. Mr. Palomar. San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1985.

Clancy, Tom. The Cardinal of the Kremlin. New York: Putnam, 1988. Clancy, Tom. Patriot Games. New York: Putnam, 1987. Clancy, Tom. Red Storm Rising. New York: Berkeley Pub. Group, 1987.

Clarke, Arthur. 2010, Odyssey Two. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984.

Coover, Robert. Gerald's Party: A Novel. New York: Linden Press, 1986.

Doctorow, E.L. Billy Bathgate, a Novel. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.

Doctorow, E.L. Loon Lake. New York: Random House, 1980.

Eco, Umberto. Foucault's Pendulum. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.

Eco, Umberto. The Name of the Rose. New York: Warner Books, 1984.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine: A Novel. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984.

Follett, Ken. The Key to Rebecca. New York: Morrow, 1980.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. New York: Knopf, 1983.

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.

Irving, John. The Hotel New Hampshire. New York: Dutton, 1981.

Kidder, Tracy. The Soul of a New Machine. Boston: Little, Brown, 1981.

Ludlum, Robert. The Aquitaine Progression. New York: Random House, 1984.

Michener, James A. Alaska. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989.

Michener, James A. Poland. New York: Random House, 1983.

Oates, Joyce Carol. Bellefleur. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1980.

Roth, Philip. The Counterlife. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1986.

Roth, Philip. Zuckerman Unbound. New York: Fawcett Crest, 1982.

Schwartz, Lynne Sharon. Disturbances in the Field. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.

Smith, Martin Cruz. Gorky Park. New York: Random House, 1981.

Theroux, Paul. The Mosquito Coast. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1982.

Tyler, Anne. The Accidental Tourist. New York: Knopf, 1985.

Tyler, Anne. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. New York: Berkley Books, 1983.

Updike, John. Roger's Version. New York: Ballantine, 1987.

Walker, Alice. The Temple of My Familiar. San Diego,CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.

Wolfe,Tom. The Bonfire of the Vanities. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux, 1987.

NOTABLE NON-FICTION

Achebe, Chinua. Anthills of the Savannah. New York: Anchor Press, 1988.

Andreasen, Nancy C. The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry. New York:  Harper & Row, 1984.

Bloom, Allan David. The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Todays Students. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.

Hawking, S.W. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.

Iacocca, Lee A. Iacocca: An Autobiography. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.

Kammen, Michael G. A Machine that Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American Culture. New York: Knopf, 1986.

McCormack, Mark H. What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School. New York: Bantam Books, 1984.

Peters, Thomas J. A Passion for Excellence: The Leadership Difference. New York: Random House, 1985.

Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986.

Shilts, Randy. And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martins Press, 1987.

Tuchman, Barbara. The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam. New York: Knopf, 1984.

PERIODICALS, JOURNALS, & TRADE PUBLICATIONS

Click the link for a list of full text journals available through our databases in:

• United States History-General