Culture in an Age of Money: The Legacy of the 1980s in America

by Nicolaus Mills (Editor)

Overview

Fifteen brilliant essays on the kind of culture created by the magic of the marketplace in 1980s America, from architecture to the yuppie ascendancy. Amusing, caustic and cleverly written....What makes Culture in an Age of Money fun to read is its refreshing candor. —New York Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780929587356
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	07/01/1990
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	6.34(w) x 9.26(h) x 1.02(d)

About the Author

Nicolaus Mills teaches literature at Sarah Lawrence College. Among his books are The New Journalism and The Great School Bus Controversy. He is at work on a book about the Mississippi Freedom Summer.

Table of Contents

Part 1 The Culture of Triumph and the Spirit of the Times 11 Part 2 Blips, Bites and Savvy Talk 29 Part 3 Putting on the Glitz: Architecture After Postmodernism 47 Part 4 The Short Happy Life of the American Yuppie 66 Part 5 Pluggies 83 Part 6 A Culture of Paper Tigers 95 Part 7 Blackness Without Blood 109 Part 8 Civil Rights and the Reagan Court 130 Part 9 The Trials of Televangelism 142 Part 10 Vietnam Screen Wars 156 Part 11 China, Bloomie's and the Met 175 Part 12 The Literature of AIDS 201 Part 13 Fictions of Acquisition 216 Part 14 The End of the Common Reader 234 Part 15 Presidency by Ralph Lauren: Closing the Decade in Style 246

What People are Saying About This

Daniel Bell

Curious and tantalizing...a benchmark not of the present but of history.

Editorial Reviews

A stinging indictment of the Reagan era for its effects on both highbrow and popular culture...The targets are many and the attacks are proudly partisan.

The Progressive

Curious and tantalizing...a benchmark not of the present but of history.

Daniel Bell

Amusing, caustic, and cleverly written.

The New York Times - Herbert Mitgang

Amusing, caustic, and cleverly written.
— Herbert Mitgang

The New York Times

Amusing, caustic, and cleverly written.
— Herbert Mitgang

New York Times

All but a few of the 15 essays that form this book originally appeared in the left-of-center opinion magazine Dissent. Each essay critically examines touchstones of what editor Mills calls the ``conservative culture of the 1980s.'' Among the best pieces are Herman Schwartz's ``Civil Rights and the Reagan Court,'' Robert Reich's look at corporate takeovers in ``A Culture of Paper Tigers,'' Sean Wilentz's profile of Jerry Falwell in ``The Trials of Televangelism,'' and Mark Caldwell's ``The Literature of AIDS.'' This intelligent collection nicely complements John Taylor's Circus of Ambition ( LJ 8/89), another questioning look back at the Eighties. Recommended especially for libraries lacking Dissent. -- Kenneth F. Kister, Tampa, Fla.

Library Journal