Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
"It is morning again in America," Reagan's campaign commercials told us, and for too long we embraced that convenient lie. Indeed, the problems that came to plague us in that decade are with us even more today, as Johnson memorably demonstrates in—his afterword, "Notes on an Era," written especially for this new paperback reissue. This book will remain a signature work of political analysis for years to come.
During the dark Bush years, it's too easy to look back on the Reagan years with rose-colored glasses. Johnson masterfully captures the dysfunction and divisiveness of the Reagan years.
Haynes Johnson does a thorough job of documenting and trying to make sense of a decade that was in many respects the ultimate reaction against the Sixties, the pay-back decade, as it were, when conservatism made its successful push to retake the political and moral stage. His sketches of the major players, from Arthur Laffer (whose infamous "Laffer Curve" did so much to persuade so many of the efficacy of supply side economics) to Reagan himself, reveal a pattern of thinking and rearrangement of
Exhaustive examples of the evilness of Reagan and his cohort, but rather difficult to read.
Sleepwalking Through History presents itself as a first-draft history of America in the 1980s. In fact, its something subtly but significantly different. Haynes Johnson is a political reporter, and Sleepwalking is a political book. The material thats not overtly about politics gets tied to political themes (the high-technology boom), glossed over (MTV), or ignored altogether. It might have been better subtitled: The Reagan Administration and what it did to America.It is, in Johnsons eyes, very
This was the first political book I ever read. I read it in college doing research for a paper in Intermediate Macroeconomics. We had to choose an era of growth or recession in the post WWII era and were required four specific sources from different perspectives of what policy defined it. Haynes Johnson's book was not a flattering portrait of Reagan's presidency but juxtaposed against Robert Bartlett's Seven Fat Years and Allen Blinder's Heard Heads and Soft Hearts I began to really understand
Haynes Johnson does a thorough job of documenting and trying to make sense of a decade that was in many respects the ultimate reaction against the Sixties, the pay-back decade, as it were, when conservatism made its successful push to retake the political and moral stage. His sketches of the major players, from Arthur Laffer (whose infamous "Laffer Curve" did so much to persuade so many of the efficacy of supply side economics) to Reagan himself, reveal a pattern of thinking and rearrangement of
Haynes Johnson
Paperback | Pages: 528 pages Rating: 3.96 | 283 Users | 30 Reviews
Define Based On Books Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
Title | : | Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years |
Author | : | Haynes Johnson |
Book Format | : | Paperback |
Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
Pages | : | Pages: 528 pages |
Published | : | June 17th 2003 by W. W. Norton Company (first published 1991) |
Categories | : | History. Politics. Nonfiction. North American Hi.... American History. Economics |
Ilustration During Books Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
National bestseller: In this brilliantly readable book, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist chronicles the Reagan decade, when America fell from dominant world power to struggling debtor nation and when optimism turned to foreboding. In human terms and living case histories, Haynes Johnson captures the drama and tragedy of an era nurtured by greed and a morality that found virtue in not getting caught."It is morning again in America," Reagan's campaign commercials told us, and for too long we embraced that convenient lie. Indeed, the problems that came to plague us in that decade are with us even more today, as Johnson memorably demonstrates in—his afterword, "Notes on an Era," written especially for this new paperback reissue. This book will remain a signature work of political analysis for years to come.
Mention Books Toward Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
Original Title: | Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years |
ISBN: | 0393324346 (ISBN13: 9780393324341) |
Edition Language: | English |
Rating Based On Books Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
Ratings: 3.96 From 283 Users | 30 ReviewsCriticize Based On Books Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
Outstanding presentation of the Reagan administration and 1980s on the whole. The decade of 1980s sounds amazingly similar to our current period in so many ways economically and socially. It is astonishing that Reagan didn't get impeached for the Iran/Contra affair, which was actually considerably more egregious than our impeachable Ukraine situation (although the sum of Reagan's offenses, while numerous, doesn't come close to sum and kind of those of our current president). It is even moreDuring the dark Bush years, it's too easy to look back on the Reagan years with rose-colored glasses. Johnson masterfully captures the dysfunction and divisiveness of the Reagan years.
Haynes Johnson does a thorough job of documenting and trying to make sense of a decade that was in many respects the ultimate reaction against the Sixties, the pay-back decade, as it were, when conservatism made its successful push to retake the political and moral stage. His sketches of the major players, from Arthur Laffer (whose infamous "Laffer Curve" did so much to persuade so many of the efficacy of supply side economics) to Reagan himself, reveal a pattern of thinking and rearrangement of
Exhaustive examples of the evilness of Reagan and his cohort, but rather difficult to read.
Sleepwalking Through History presents itself as a first-draft history of America in the 1980s. In fact, its something subtly but significantly different. Haynes Johnson is a political reporter, and Sleepwalking is a political book. The material thats not overtly about politics gets tied to political themes (the high-technology boom), glossed over (MTV), or ignored altogether. It might have been better subtitled: The Reagan Administration and what it did to America.It is, in Johnsons eyes, very
This was the first political book I ever read. I read it in college doing research for a paper in Intermediate Macroeconomics. We had to choose an era of growth or recession in the post WWII era and were required four specific sources from different perspectives of what policy defined it. Haynes Johnson's book was not a flattering portrait of Reagan's presidency but juxtaposed against Robert Bartlett's Seven Fat Years and Allen Blinder's Heard Heads and Soft Hearts I began to really understand
Haynes Johnson does a thorough job of documenting and trying to make sense of a decade that was in many respects the ultimate reaction against the Sixties, the pay-back decade, as it were, when conservatism made its successful push to retake the political and moral stage. His sketches of the major players, from Arthur Laffer (whose infamous "Laffer Curve" did so much to persuade so many of the efficacy of supply side economics) to Reagan himself, reveal a pattern of thinking and rearrangement of
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