Sleepwalking Through History

This research report consists of a summary, analysis and evaluation of Haynes Johnson's above entitled book on the 1980s. As its title suggests, the author believes that the decade represents a period in which America largely failed to come to grips with its principal problems. This decade long escape from reality was aided and abetted by the mythology orchestrated by the Great Communicator, the President for most of the decade, Ronald Reagan, who struck responsive chords in the electorate and by the development of an electronic media well attuned to the age. The book is more successful in describing what happened during the 1980s than in explaining the deeper significance of the events that then transpired and suffers from the author's attachment to a world which clearly was disintegrating before his eyes as well as a strong tendency to overelaborate and belabor the obvious.

Dominant Motifs of the Reagan Years

Myth and Reality. The 1980s were seen as "an age of illusion when America lived on borrowed time and squandered opportunities to put its house in order" (13). According to Johnson, "for most of the decade, president and Congress had avoided acting on many difficult issues. Precious time and opportunities were squandered as problems were allowed to fester" (441).

Johnson takes a cyclical view of history. He sees the 80s as a period in which too much emphasis was placed on the pursuit of private gain, 'greed is good,' a

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ports and other programs and reporting became a very large commercial and entertainment business. The emphasis of the networks, which now included many new cable channels, shifted further to maximize ratings and profits. Johnson speaks of the 80s as a decade which saw the launching of "America's love affair with fame and fortune," with mass audiences tuning in to soap operas such as Dallas, religious appeals by televangelists, and youth-oriented music on VCRs and MTB, many oriented to sex, violence and/or drugs (145). The increasing vulgarization of the mass culture was reflected in several new developments in television advertising which Johnson decries: sound bite messages oversimplifying the issues in campaigns and negative advertising, which were carried to extremes in George Bush's campaign for the presidency in 1988 and which featured ads claiming that Democratic challenger Michael Dukakis had let convicted killer Willie Horton out on parole to prey on an unsuspecting public. According to the author, "in the battle of sound bites and negative TV campaign commercials false symbols mattered more than complex, if accurate substance" (402). Dark side of the Reagan years. Johnson dwells at length on the scandals and other ethic
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Approximate Word count = 1713
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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