American Culture in the 1980s

Graham Thompson

Paper, 248 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-7486-1910-8
$27.50

September, 2007
Cloth, 248 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-7486-1909-2
Edinburgh University Press
$95.00

This book looks beyond the common label of ‘Ronald Reagan’s America’ to chart the complex intersection of cultures in the 1980s. In doing so it provides an insightful account of the major cultural forms of 1980s America—literature and drama; film and television; music and performance; art and photography—and influential texts and trends of the decade: from White Noise to Wall Street, from Silicon Valley to MTV, and from Madonna to Cindy Sherman. A focused chapter considers the changing dynamics of American culture in an increasingly globalised marketplace.

Key Features:

* Focused case studies featuring key texts, genres, writers, artists and cultural trends

* Detailed chronology of 1980s American culture

* Bibliographies for each chapter

* Twelve black and white illustrations

Related Subjects

• American History

About the Author

Graham Thompson is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Nottingham. He is author of The Business of America: The Cultural Production of a Post-War Nation (Pluto Press, 2004) and Male Sexuality under Surveillance: The Office in American Literature (University of Iowa Press, 2003).

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