The eighties

The America of the 1980s is often caricatured as a time of yuppie greed and self-absorption. But what was driving that decade's rampant pursuit of individual pleasure? What were the cultural forces behind Madonna's "Material Girl" and Oliver Stone's Wall Street? These fascinating essays, collected by historian Gilbert T. Sewall from the major books, journals, news reports, and public addresses of the day, survey the tumultuous social change that engulfed the nation - and explain why we are still feeling the aftershocks today.