Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980's (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America) [Hardcover]

Gil Troy (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0691096457 | ISBN-13: 978-0691096452 | Publication Date: January 24, 2005

Did America's fortieth president lead a conservative counterrevolution that left liberalism gasping for air? The answer, for both his admirers and his detractors, is often "yes." In Morning in America, Gil Troy argues that the Great Communicator was also the Great Conciliator. His pioneering and lively reassessment of Ronald Reagan's legacy takes us through the 1980s in ten year-by-year chapters, integrating the story of the Reagan presidency with stories of the decade's cultural icons and watershed moments-from personalities to popular television shows.

One such watershed moment was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. With the trauma of Vietnam fading, the triumph of America's 1983 invasion of tiny Grenada still fresh, and a reviving economy, Americans geared up for a festival of international harmony that-spurred on by an entertainment-focused news media, corporate sponsors, and the President himself-became a celebration of the good old U.S.A. At the Games' opening, Reagan presided over a thousand-voice choir, a 750-member marching band, and a 90,000-strong teary-eyed audience singing "America the Beautiful!" while waving thousands of flags.

Reagan emerges more as happy warrior than angry ideologue, as a big-picture man better at setting America's mood than implementing his program. With a vigorous Democratic opposition, Reagan's own affability, and other limiting factors, the eighties were less counterrevolutionary than many believe. Many sixties' innovations went mainstream, from civil rights to feminism. Reagan fostered a political culture centered on individualism and consumption-finding common ground between the right and the left.

Written with verve, Morning in America is both a major new look at one of America's most influential modern-day presidents and the definitive story of a decade that continues to shape our times.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Morning in America, Gil Troy's examination of Ronald Reagan's legacy, is not nearly as linear as the subtitle, "How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s," would suggest. While the influence of Reagan's image-oriented presidency (the book's title is drawn from a pivotal campaign commercial) and capital-driven domestic approach influenced the birth of the '80s media explosion and the fashionable status of capitalism, Troy shows that the inverse was also true, with Reagan and his team of advisors responding to trends as much as guiding them. Troy revisits icons of the decade--Madonna, Hill Street Blues, Dynasty, CNN, yuppies--and demonstrates the ways in which they intersected with the guiding principles of Reaganism and in turn why they are what you think of when you think of the '80s. Of course the decade was also notorious for a rise in crime, the emergence of AIDS, and growing fears of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. Troy tackles that duality as well, arguing that unlike the malaise of the Jimmy Carter era, the idea of Reagan, and the notion behind his electoral victories, was one of wishing to see the country how one would like it to be. As might be expected from a book that blends pop culture, politics, and history, some arguments are better than others (can we really glean all that much about abortion by noting that Madonna insists "I'm gonna keep my baby" in the chorus?). But the effort to look at an era as a whole by examining its many different parts is often successful. Although Troy is clearly a big fan of Reagan, this is not necessarily hagiography. In fact, it's not really about Reagan at all. Historian Troy is more interested in Reagan's identity as a cultural symbol than he is in defending or attacking the decisions made during Reagan's two terms in office.--John Moe

From Publishers Weekly

Entering the realm of the proverbial chicken-and-egg problem, historian Troy examines the relationship between Ronald Reagan's presidency and the materialistic and politically vibrant culture of the 1980s. In chapters organized by year from 1980 to 1990, Troy weaves his narrative of Reagan's presidency into an impressionistic portrait of the cultural and political phenomena that defined the decade-from network shows Dynasty and the Cosby Show, through the rise of MTV, CNN, yuppies, Madonna and Donald Trump, to the culture wars of race, gender and political correctness. The effort makes for a lively read, packed with insightful comments about the decade and its legacies. Dubbing Reagan's era "the Great Reconciliation," "where the sixties met the eighties culturally and politically," Troy dismantles the myth of a politically passive mainstream. Treading a line between lionizing Reagan and disparaging him as "airhead," he highlights the contradictions of Reagan's conservatism, with its emphasis on wealth and glamour on the one hand and, on the other, "an ascetic streak that recoiled at such excess." Beside Reagan's vision of a "morning in America," manifested in a soaring economy, surging patriotism and faltering Soviet Communism, Reagan presided over "mourning in America" with spiking crime, drugs, family breakdowns and AIDS. Troy avers that Reagan "dominated, and defined, the times" and "remains the greatest president since Franklin Roosevelt." But the Reagan that emerges from his analysis is less the captain steering American culture than a symbol of the 1980s whose greatest strength lay in placing his finger on the pulse of "the American id." As Troy writes, Reagan projected a vision that "was the vision of themselves most Americans wanted to see." Whether Reagan consciously sought to do so, however, remains an open question. 15 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 417 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (January 24, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691096457
• ISBN-13: 978-0691096452
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #668,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #99 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Reagan, Ronald

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine book, May 19, 2010

By 

VoraciousReader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980's (Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century America) (Paperback)

This book is a fine history of Ronald Reagan and the 1980s. But, ultimatley I wish it offered a little more about the man in terms of analysis. I was left wanting more of the author's opinion, more of his thoughts about Reagan. Nevertheless, it is an able survey of an important decade. Troy seeks to understand Reagan on his own terms, and, ultimatley, offers a fair assessment.

11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hey, remember the 1980's president?, August 25, 2005

By 

Robin Orlowski "political activist" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980's (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America) (Hardcover)

Ronald Reagan campaigned and then was elected on a promise to restore American virility. In the closing years of the cold war, we wanted to believe that America was a super power and that we ourselves were super.

Who better suited for that type of positioning than a former Hollywood actor? I think the "1950's Doc Brown" from the 1985 blockbuster 'Back to the Future' spoke for many people when he just expressed shock that an actor ended up as President of the United States. Yet, it made perfect sense in the early years of the cable revolution when the 'best' public official was one who did manipulate the media for their message.

The author examines how this manipulation provided a needed boost to America. We were still recovering from Vietnam and had difficulty realizing that we were perhaps not the center of the world. Reagan's campaign was genius because it essentially said 'don't' and encouraged swing voters to believe that everything would be solved if they elected Reagan.

Reagan made critical inroads with 'blue-collar' democrats. These voters had supported the party on economic issues but had been increasingly at odds with the Democrats on social issues. Specifically because of his own Hollywood background, Reagan knew these voters could be won if he stressed 'morals' and 'tradition' regardless of how he (a twice divorced man who had signed off on the liberalization of abortion laws as California Governor) actually felt about those same issues. Appearance IS everything in politics.

The author also makes clear that the Reagan years are not admirable. Troy explains how the feel good images of success and luxury were sharply contrasting with the reality being experienced by many people. The rapidly rising cost of living, spending cuts, and the AIDS epidemic prevented many other people from enjoying the prosperity.