Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years

by Haynes Johnson

Overview

"Elegant prose, devastating insight and a keen historical perspective."—Cleveland Plain Dealer

National bestseller: In this brilliantly readable book, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist chronicles the Reagan decade, when America fell from dominant world power to struggling debtor nation and when optimism turned to foreboding. In human terms and living case histories, Haynes Johnson captures the drama and tragedy of an era nurtured by greed and a morality that found virtue in not getting caught.

"It is morning again in America," Reagan's campaign commercials told us, and for too long we embraced that convenient lie. Indeed, the problems that came to plague us in that decade are with us even more today, as Johnson memorably demonstrates in—his afterword, "Notes on an Era," written especially for this new paperback reissue. This book will remain a signature work of political analysis for years to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393324341
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/17/2003
Edition description:	With a New Afterword
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Haynes Johnson is the author of Divided We Fall: Gambling with History in the Nineties. He lives in Washington, DC.

Editorial Reviews

Washington Post columnist Johnson here presents a stunning indictment of the Reagan administration that details its impact on social, economic and political life in America. He reviews abuses in the S&L institutions, in HUD, in the National Security Council, on Wall Street, in religious broadcasting and, most impressively, reveals how the administration renounced responsibility for ameliorating social distress. The book makes clear why the rich got richer and the poor poorer in the last decade. Johnson portrays President Reagan as a kind of Dr. Feelgood who fulfilled a public need for reassurance, and ironically evaded judgment during the Iran- contra affair because of his reputation for not being in charge. Summarizing what he sees as Reagan's legacy, the ``ethical wastland of the eighties,'' the author points to growing fractionalization, subversion of the constitutional system, corruption and ineffectiveness of government, and cynicism and inattention of the American people. First serial to Vanity Fair. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly