HIST 151 - Reagan’s America in the 1980’s

Credits: (3)
In his campaign for re-election to the presidency in 1984, Ronald Reagan released a television commercial that began with the line, “It’s morning in America again.” “Under the leadership of President Reagan,” the commercial concluded, “our country is prouder and stronger and better.” Reagan’s campaigns for the nation’s highest office stressed the themes of patriotism and individual responsibility, while his presidential administrations oversaw an economic agenda that privileged wealth production and a foreign policy that focused on defense spending and third world interventions. Reagan’s economic and foreign policies influenced the major events of the decade for sure, while his politics helped to shape the wider culture, a period often characterized as “the greed decade” (and one Madonna called “a material world” in a hit song). This course complicates the traditional narrative of the 1980s, which begins and ends with Ronald Reagan. Students explore and debate Reagan’s politics, policies, and mass appeal while also paying close attention to four defining themes of the 1980s: (1) rapid advancements in personal computer and entertainment/video game technology; (2) the trials of industrial labor; (3) the Cold War, specifically U.S.-Central American relations; and (4) the HIV/AIDS scare. Students will write brief argumentative essays on each of these four themes, as well as complete a creative project of their own design.