HISTORY
302 s.2
Reagan's America:
Society, Culture and
Politics in the 1980s
Scheduling number: 815317
Class meets Mondays 2:30-5:30pm in 415 Weaver Building
Philip
Jenkins
407
Weaver Building
Phone:
863-8946
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/
The Course
This course
considers the political and cultural counter-revolution of the 1980s, the
social movement that is closely associated with the presidency of Ronald
Reagan. Reagan-era conservatism was in many ways an attempt to reverse the
radical changes of the 1960s. Though conservatives failed to achieve many of
their goals, we can see a marked impact on US politics and foreign policy, as
well as on matters as diverse as religion and family life, on attitudes towards
gender and sexuality, on law enforcement and internal security. Throughout, we
will make extensive use of popular culture, particularly literary and cinematic
representations, to understand and illustrate political and social
developments.
The thought
of doing a course on this period might initially seem odd, not least because in
so many history departments, ÒAmerican historyÓ almost seems to end around
1975, with the closing phase of the Vietnam War. This is odd, since people were
already offering courses on Òthe sixtiesÓ within a couple of years after the
end of that over-hyped decade. As we will see though, a case can be made that
the US of the present is far more a product of the eighties era than of the
better-known 1960s. The advantage of studying the later period is that the
issues are so much less defined in scholarly terms, giving us a chance to
undertake some pioneering work.
The
course will take the format of a reading and discussion seminar. I expect that
each week, students will come to class having read a text or a common set of
chapters. In addition, I will be allotting particular books to people, either
as individuals or small groups, so that they can be responsible for leading
discussion about those particular issues. Each student should come to class
with open-ended questions around which the discussion of the readings should be
organized.
Each
student will write a major paper on a topic related to problems and
controversies raised in the readings. The paper (about 25-30 typed pages, fully
referenced) will analyze some issue related to the politics, culture, thought
or social developments of the period under discussion. Please note that this
period is quite under-worked, and there are substantial opportunities to maker
an original contribution to knowledge, so choose a topic in which you can make
substantial use of primary sources and popular culture materials.
One
extraordinarily important source is Congressional hearings and committee
transactions: I will discuss these in detail, but you will be impressed how
many useful incidental texts and miscellaneous materials are often attached to
testimony. Choose your topic wisely, and a few such hearings should give you a
well-documented account of a particular issue.
My
earnest (and quite realistic) hope is that your written work will be good
enough to be submitted to a journal for publication. I will be asking each
participant to make a presentation based on the paper to the whole group
towards the end of the course. Each student will have half an hour to present
his/her research and the questions raised.
Please
note that the ÒdraftÓ to be handed in on November 12 is a full-length version
of the paper, fully referenced, as opposed to a two or three page Òconcept
paperÓ, and it should thus be in connected prose, not in point form. In fact, this
draft should be what you believe the final version of the paper should look
like. That
then gives you a couple of weeks to do any necessary fine-tuning.
One
note about choice of topics. Though this is a history course, that does not
mean that people have to apply strictly historical methodologies, still less
political history. I am open to a wide range of themes – social, cultural,
rhetorical, gender, and so on.
In
addition to the main research paper, I want you to write a paper of about 1,500 words on any one fictional work published in the period
1980-89, describing the content of the work, and discussing it critically as a
historical source for the period in question. By this, I mean either a film or
a book. As to selecting a book or film, excellent places to start would be the
works referred to either in my Decade of Nightmares book, or in Gil TroyÕs Morning
in America
– we both cite a LOT of books and films. As to what to say about it: you
might comment, for example, on how the work reflects the mood of the society at
the particular time it was written; what it reveals about attitudes towards
race, class or gender; and/or what it suggests about the political attitudes of
the time. Basically, I want to know what a historian studying this period might
learn from this film or book.
If
you choose to write on a book, please note that I have none of the novels on
reserve, since they should all be easy to get in cheap editions from any good
bookstore. If you cannot get hold of a library copy, please be sure to order a
copy of your own in lots of time. Any good bookstore should be able to get a
copy within a week or two at most. These are also exactly the sort of items
that will be available second-hand at WebsterÕs Bookstore on Allen Street.
Class
Participation
Do note that
this class is a seminar,
based on extensive discussion and writing, in which your involvement is
essential at every stage.
ÒAttendance and
participationÓ carry a significant 20 percent of your grade. What this means in
practice is that I expect you to do the readings for every class, and I will be
calling on people individually through the term to comment or respond on
particular texts, or issues arising from them. Pretty
much every class will revolve around detailed readings of books or texts, and
you must come prepared to discuss this and give your reactions to it –
and to think of your own questions.
If you do the
readings, and take a full and regular part in class discussions, then that will
have a major positive impact on your grade. On the other hand, consistently not
participating, not doing the readings - or being absent from class without
adequate excuse - is equivalent to missing an exam or failing to do the term
paper. Consistent non-attendance and/or non-participation will have serious
consequences. It does not just mean that you will receive a slightly lower
grade: just like refusing to do a paper or an exam, it means that you would
simply have not completed the class, and would therefore receive a grade of F
for the entire course.
It's important
to spell out that expectation from the outset. If you are not prepared to do
the readings and participate fully in discussions, then please drop the class
now.
One other thing
- deadlines matter, and I intend to enforce them strictly. If you miss a
deadline without getting an extension in advance, you get a non-negotiable
grade of F on that particular paper or project. Do not get in touch with me
after the fact to explain why you missed a deadline, unless you produce a
proper medical note. Excuses must always be supported by documentation. Valid
reasons include medical problems and the like.
In
summary, the grade will be derived as follows:
Research
paper -
50%
film/book
review -
20%
attendance
and participation -
20%
presentation
-
10%
100%
Required Readings
all are in paperback, except
where indicated
William Gibson, Neuromancer (New York: Ace Books 1995)
ISBN: 0441569595
Susan Jeffords, Hard Bodies: Hollywood Masculinity in the
Reagan Era
(Rutgers University Press, 1994)
ISBN: 0813520037
Philip Jenkins, Decade of Nightmares (Oxford University Press, 2006),
hardback
ISBN: 0195178661
Peter Schweizer, Reagan's War (New York: Anchor, 2003)
ISBN: 0385722281
Gil Troy, Morning in America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005),
ISBN: 978-0-691-13060-6
David C. Wills, The First War on Terrorism (Rowman & Littlefield,
2004)
ISBN: 0742531295
The
web-page for the course can be found at:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/reagan.html
The links here
should lead you to rich documentary sources, especially through the various
Presidential libraries. DO please find your way around this page. As you must
know by now, websites change and shift all the time, so donÕt be amazed by
blind links.
Throughout
the course, I will also be distributing various other readings, mainly
electronically: all of these should, of course, be considered as required
reading. YouÕll find copies of most at the web-page listed above.
Work assignments will vary week by week.
Some weeks, we will all read a single text, and make that the basis for
discussion. Other classes, I will be expecting people to read books drawn from
a list of readings to be announced, and to present those to the class. As a
rough guideline, I will expect people to read one book – or the
equivalent - each week of the semester.
1.August 27
Introduction: Going Too Far.
The Sixties and afterwards. Visions,
myths and stereotypes of the 1970s. In what senses do the seventies mark a
Òcultural earthquakeÓ? How is popular culture transformed? Is this really a ÒMe
DecadeÓ? Why is the decade so well remembered for its fads and foolishness?
September 3-
LABOR DAY, NO CLASS
2. September 10
ReaganÕs America
Was there a Reagan
revolution, or was it more of the same? What did the Reagan administration want
to achieve? How far did it succeed? What forces or contradictions prevented it
from achieving its goals, domestic and foreign? What constituencies was it
bound to disappoint? What motivated the new Right? Was it so new? Was it a
Òpolitics of resentmentÓ?
DISCUSS: Jenkins,
Decade of Nightmares, chapters 1
through 6
3. September 17
Shifting Economic
Foundations
How
did America shift so dramatically into the new information economy?
DISCUSS: Gil Troy, Morning in America
4. September 24
Gender and Sexuality. Love in the Age of AIDS
How do feminist issues develop following the early
1970s? What subsequent issues move to the forefront? How do gay issues develop
in this era? Why do both gays and feminists suffer such a political backlash?
DISCUSS: Susan Jeffords,
Hard Bodies
*I NEED TO KNOW THE TOPICS OF
YOUR TERM PAPERS TODAY
5. October 1
The Media and Popular Culture
DISCUSS: Gibson,
Neuromancer
6. October 8
The Politics Of Morality:
The Age Of Threatened Children
One
central theme of this course is the repeal of the 1960s. How did childrenÕs issues
play such a critical role in this process? How do attitudes towards children
change in this era? How do fears
over children feed into concerns over social change?
DISCUSS: Jenkins,
Decade of Nightmares, chapters 7
through 11
*FILM/BOOK REVIEW IS DUE TODAY
7. October 15
The Politics of God
America in the 1970s and
1980s seems to have been in the throes of a major religious revival, a shift
towards spirituality, and especially in fairly orthodox Christian forms. Why
did this happen? How was this manifested?
DISCUSS: TBA
8.October 22
Against the Tide
Liberals,
populists and Democrats; opposing the new Reagan order. What issues caused the
greatest strain to the old New Deal coalition? Who were the ÒReagan DemocratsÓ?
DISCUSS: TBA
*PLEASE WRITE A TWO
PAGE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR PROPOSED PAPER, WITH ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY. CIRCULATE
COPIES OF THIS TO EVERYONE IN THE SEMINAR (PREFERABLY ELECTRONICALLY) AS A
BASIS FOR IN-CLASS DISCUSSION.
9. October 29
Confronting Evil
How
does America reverse the seemingly limitless tolerance for drugs that prevailed
in the mid-1970s? What is the social impact of the drug war? How are social
problems reconfigured to emphasize individual guilt and sin? What are the
consequences for public policy?
DISCUSS: TBA
10.
November 5
Evil
Empires: Neo-Cold War and Military Reconstruction; Nuclearism And Exterminism
President
ReaganÕs nuclear policies were bitterly criticized, especially on the grounds
of his (allegedly) stark apocalyptic vision of good and evil, and charges that
he failed to understand the complexities of international affairs. In
retrospect, how do such charges hold up? Did Reagan take too many risks to
achieve his goals? In the long run, was Reagan right?
DISCUSS: Schweizer,
Reagan's War
11.November
12
Triumphs and Disasters of the Reagan
Doctrine: Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, and Central America
How
was ÒVietnam syndromeÓ put to rest? What was the Reagan Doctrine? How does it
stand in relation to earlier US policies towards enemy states? How does it
relate to the idea of restoring masculinity? How does the Reagan Doctrine
relate to the ÒTerror NetworkÓ debate of the early 1980s? Is there a
fundamental contradiction between the quest for security and for legality? And
finally: can we see a direct line of causation (or even a not-so-direct line)
from the conflicts of the 1980s through 9-11?
DISCUSS: David C. Wills,
The First War on Terrorism
*PAPER DRAFTS DUE
November 19 THANKSGIVING BREAK, NO CLASS
12-13. November 26-December 3
Class presentations
14. December 10
Overview,
Revision, Analysis.
Clearly
this is not a review session in the customary sense, since the class has no
final examination. This is more in a sense of a debriefing to assess what we
have learned about the period, and furthermore, we will pursue a general
discussion arising from the research you have done for your term papers. And a
final overview question: can
we say that this period, rather than the 1960s, marks the roots of modern
American politics and society? How should our view of the 1980s be affected by
what we know of subsequent events – of the Clinton and Bush presidencies,
of 9/11, of the Iraq War?
PAPER IS DUE FIRST DAY OF
FINALS PERIOD
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