America 250 · 1980–1992
What to read and watch aboutThe Reagan Era
To understand The Reagan Era, start with Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980 (Rick Perlstein, 2020) — the book. 6 further picks — histories, biographies, novels, screen and audio — follow below.
The conservative turn that defined American politics for forty years.
From Reagan's first inauguration through the LA riots — the tax cuts, the Soviet collapse, AIDS, Iran-Contra, the savings-and-loan crisis, the first Gulf War, the rise of cable news. The decade conservatives won and liberals are still arguing about why.
Presidents who served
Histories
Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980
Rick Perlstein · 2020
Volume four of Perlstein's American conservatism series — how Reagan won in 1980, in 1,100 pages.
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
Randy Shilts · 1987
Shilts on the first years of the AIDS epidemic — the political indifference, the public-health failure, the cost.
Lives
Reagan: The Life
H.W. Brands · 2015
The best comprehensive modern one-volume — respect without hagiography.
Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
Jon Meacham · 2015
Definitive with full access to Bush and his diaries — the end of an older Republican tradition.
Fiction
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Tom Wolfe · 1987
Wolfe's 1980s New York — Wall Street, the South Bronx, race and money and ambition.
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis · 1991
Ellis's satirical horror novel — Manhattan investment banker, possibly a serial killer. The 80s as nightmare.
On screen
Wall Street
Oliver Stone · 1987
Stone's Wall Street — Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko. The film that named the era against its will.
Common questions
What is the best book to start understanding The Reagan Era?
Rick Perlstein’s 'Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976-1980' is the essential starting point for this canon. It documents the political shift that defined the conservative turn in American politics, providing the necessary context for the events and policies that unfolded between 1980 and 1992.
How does the film 'Wall Street' represent The Reagan Era?
The 1987 film 'Wall Street' serves as a key screen treatment for The Reagan Era. It captures the spirit of the decade's financial culture, reflecting the economic climate that included the savings-and-loan crisis and the broader push for the tax cuts that characterized the period.
Why does The Reagan Era matter to modern politics?
The Reagan Era matters because it established the conservative turn that defined American politics for forty years. It remains a period that conservatives won, while liberals continue to debate the causes and consequences of the era's major events, including the Cold War collapse and the rise of cable news.
What major health crisis defined The Reagan Era?
The AIDS epidemic was a defining crisis of The Reagan Era. Randy Shilts’ book, 'And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic,' provides a critical account of how the government and society responded to the health catastrophe during the 1980s and early 1990s.
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