Results by title

4 books match the query 'Eighties'

cover of Politics and Economics in the Eighties

Politics and Economics in the Eighties

Edited by Alberto Alesina and Geoffrey Carliner

University of Chicago Press, 1991

Is the federal budget deficit a result of congressional deadlocks, gross miscalculation of economic trends, or a Republican strategy to tie the budgetary hands of future Democratic leadership? To what extend does the partisan split between Congress and the executive branch constrain the president's agenda? In this volume, political scientists and economists tackle these and many other contentious issues, offering a variety of analytical perspectives.
Certain to provoke controversy, this interdisciplinary volume brings together policy experts to provide a coherent analysis of the most important economic policy changes of the 1980s. Through a detailed examination of voting patterns, monetary and fiscal policies, welfare spending, tax reform, minimum wage legislation, the savings and loan collapse, and international trade policy, the authors explore how politics can influence the direction of economic policymaking.
[more]
cover of Seeing Through the Eighties: Television and Reaganism

Seeing Through the Eighties

Television and Reaganism

Jane Feuer

Duke University Press, 1995

The 1980s saw the rise of Ronald Reagan and the New Right in American politics, the popularity of programs such as thirtysomething and Dynasty on network television, and the increasingly widespread use of VCRs, cable TV, and remote control in American living rooms. In Seeing Through the Eighties, Jane Feuer critically examines this most aesthetically complex and politically significant period in the history of American television in the context of the prevailing conservative ideological climate. With wit, humor, and an undisguised appreciation of TV, she demonstrates the richness of this often-slighted medium as a source of significance for cultural criticism and delivers a compelling decade-defining analysis of our most recent past.

With a cast of characters including Michael, Hope, Elliot, Nancy, Melissa, and Gary; Alexis, Krystle, Blake, and all the other Carringtons; not to mention Maddie and David; even Crockett and Tubbs, Feuer smoothly blends close readings of well-known programs and analysis of television’s commercial apparatus with a thorough-going theoretical perspective engaged with the work of Baudrillard, Fiske, and others. Her comparative look at Yuppie TV, Prime Time Soaps, and made-for-TV-movie Trauma Dramas reveals the contradictions and tensions at work in much prime-time programming and in the frustrations of the American popular consciousness. Seeing Through the Eighties also addresses the increased commodification of both the producers and consumers of television as a result of technological innovations and the introduction of new marketing techniques. Claiming a close relationship between television and the cultures that create and view it, Jane Feuer sees the eighties through televison while seeing through television in every sense of the word.
[more]
cover of The Death Penalty in the Eighties: An Examination of the Modern System of Capital Punishment

The Death Penalty in the Eighties

An Examination of the Modern System of Capital Punishment

Welsh S. White

University of Michigan Press, 1987

The Death Penalty in the Eighties: An Examination of the Modern System of Capital Punishment by Welsh S. White delivers a probing and accessible analysis of capital punishment in the United States following its reinstatement in 1976. Blending legal scholarship, case studies, and practical insights, White explains the major Supreme Court decisions that have shaped the administration of the death penalty and critically examines whether the modern system has succeeded in reducing the arbitrariness and discrimination of the past.White explores a range of pressing topics within the capital punishment system, including plea bargaining, the intricacies of penalty trials, defendants who choose execution, and the controversial “death-qualified” jury. Throughout, compelling case studies—detailing issues of racial bias, prosecutorial discretion, and the lived experiences of those on death row—offer readers an unflinching look at how the death penalty is applied in practice.Recognized as a leading voice in the field, White meticulously evaluates enduring concerns about fairness and reliability in capital sentencing, the psychological and procedural complexities facing courts and defendants, and the political and public pressures influencing prosecutors and the judiciary. Ultimately, The Death Penalty in the Eighties challenges readers to assess whether reforms have meaningfully improved justice, or whether deep risks of error and inequity remain embedded in the system.A vital resource for legal professionals, policy makers, and anyone interested in the realities of the death penalty in America, this book provides both detailed analysis and an essential historical perspective on one of the nation’s most contentious issues.
[more]
cover of The Films of the Eighties: A Social History

The Films of the Eighties

A Social History

William J. Palmer

Southern Illinois University Press, 1995

In this remarkable sequel to his Films of the Seventies: A Social History, William J. Palmer examines more than three hundred films as texts that represent, revise, parody, comment upon, and generate discussion about major events, issues, and social trends of the eighties.

Palmer defines the dialectic between film art and social history, taking as his theoretical model the "holograph of history" that originated from the New Historicist theories of Hayden White and Dominick LaCapra. Combining the interests and methodologies of social history and film criticism, Palmer contends that film is a socially conscious interpreter and commentator upon the issues of contemporary social history. In the eighties, such issues included the war in Vietnam, the preservation of the American farm, terrorism, nuclear holocaust, changes in Soviet-American relations, neoconservative feminism, and yuppies.

Among the films Palmer examines are Platoon, The Killing Fields, The River, Out of Africa, Little Drummer Girl, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Silkwood, The Day After, Red Dawn, Moscow on the Hudson, Troop Beverly Hills, and Fatal Attraction. Utilizing the principles of New Historicism, Palmer demonstrates that film can analyze and critique history as well as present it.

[more]