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New York Times: The Times of the Eighties: The Culture, Politics, and Personalities that Shaped the Decade
From our nation's best source of in-depth daily reporting comes this sweeping retrospective of the news, culture, and personalities of the decade of the 1980s, as told through hundreds of handselected articles and compelling original commentary in this unique and fascinating book.
There is no better record of history than the archives of The New York Times . Now, more than 200 articles from the great decade of the 1980s are culled from these archives and carefully curated, by editor and Times writer William Grimes, to create one complete, compelling, historical and nostalgic collection.
Organized by sections such as politics, business, science & health, sports, arts & entertainment, food, obituaries, and more, The Times of the Eighties covers the biggest stories that shaped the 1980s. Articles include coverage of historic events like Wall Street's "Black Monday," the Iran-Contra scandal, Tiananmen Square, the Challenger disaster, the Human Genome Project, the collapse of communism, and the introduction of the personal computer by IBM; cultural highlights like the launch of MTV, Ted Turner's establishment of CNN, the Cabbage Patch doll craze, reviews of movies like E.T. , Terminator , Raging Bull , and Tootsie , and features on musicians like Michael Jackson, Joan Jett, U2, Wham, Blondie, and more; plus pieces on personalities like Mikhail Gorbachev, Princess Diana, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pete Rose, Bill Cosby, and more.
The stories are penned by well-known Times writers like William Safire, Frank Rich, Anna Quindlen, Serge Schmemann, Russell Baker, Nan C. Robertson, Thomas L. Friedman, Linda Greenhouse, Bill Keller, Clyde Haberman, Paul Goldberger, Francis X. Clines, John Noble Wilford, Nicholas Kristof, Fox Butterfield, John Rockwell, Anthony Lewis, and many more.
Grimes guides readers through the articles he's selected with commentary that puts the stories into historical context and explores the impact that these events and individuals eventually had on the future.
Hundreds of color photographs from the Times and other sources illuminate the stories throughout.
There is no better record of history than the archives of The New York Times . Now, more than 200 articles from the great decade of the 1980s are culled from these archives and carefully curated, by editor and Times writer William Grimes, to create one complete, compelling, historical and nostalgic collection.
Organized by sections such as politics, business, science & health, sports, arts & entertainment, food, obituaries, and more, The Times of the Eighties covers the biggest stories that shaped the 1980s. Articles include coverage of historic events like Wall Street's "Black Monday," the Iran-Contra scandal, Tiananmen Square, the Challenger disaster, the Human Genome Project, the collapse of communism, and the introduction of the personal computer by IBM; cultural highlights like the launch of MTV, Ted Turner's establishment of CNN, the Cabbage Patch doll craze, reviews of movies like E.T. , Terminator , Raging Bull , and Tootsie , and features on musicians like Michael Jackson, Joan Jett, U2, Wham, Blondie, and more; plus pieces on personalities like Mikhail Gorbachev, Princess Diana, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Pete Rose, Bill Cosby, and more.
The stories are penned by well-known Times writers like William Safire, Frank Rich, Anna Quindlen, Serge Schmemann, Russell Baker, Nan C. Robertson, Thomas L. Friedman, Linda Greenhouse, Bill Keller, Clyde Haberman, Paul Goldberger, Francis X. Clines, John Noble Wilford, Nicholas Kristof, Fox Butterfield, John Rockwell, Anthony Lewis, and many more.
Grimes guides readers through the articles he's selected with commentary that puts the stories into historical context and explores the impact that these events and individuals eventually had on the future.
Hundreds of color photographs from the Times and other sources illuminate the stories throughout.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published June 4, 2013
11 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
The New York Times
1,822 books321 followersThe New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally. Founded in 1851, the newspaper has won 112 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. Its website receives 30 million unique visitors per month.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 26, 2017
Shoulder pads, Michael Jackson's moonwalk, Reagan's speeches, the wall in East Berlin, Princess Di's Wedding, pictures of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs looking oh, so young, and the rise of the Evangelicals...yep, this book covers it. Fun stroll down memory lane.
May 14, 2024
I liked it.
Does that nostalgia thing for those of us coming up in the eighties.
It was interesting to read the early articles about the AIDS crisis and the crack epidemic knowing what we know now.
Does that nostalgia thing for those of us coming up in the eighties.
It was interesting to read the early articles about the AIDS crisis and the crack epidemic knowing what we know now.
October 16, 2013
I received this book as an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.
I love the eighties! I was between 11 and 21 during this decade, so I was extremely excited to read this book. I did very much enjoy most of the articles. Many of the news stories I remembered as they were happening and others allowed me to get a better understanding of what happened.
The pop culture and entertainment sections did not meet my expectations and were somewhat disappointing. Also, disappointing was that I couldn't receive this ARC as a Kindle edition, but as an Adobe Digital Edition, which meant it had to be read on my desktop, rather than on my Kindle. Had I been able to read it on my Kindle, I'd have finished it in a fraction of the time, instead since I could not read it at my leisure, but only when I felt like sitting in front of the computer, it took me an astonishing 2 months to finish.
I love the eighties! I was between 11 and 21 during this decade, so I was extremely excited to read this book. I did very much enjoy most of the articles. Many of the news stories I remembered as they were happening and others allowed me to get a better understanding of what happened.
The pop culture and entertainment sections did not meet my expectations and were somewhat disappointing. Also, disappointing was that I couldn't receive this ARC as a Kindle edition, but as an Adobe Digital Edition, which meant it had to be read on my desktop, rather than on my Kindle. Had I been able to read it on my Kindle, I'd have finished it in a fraction of the time, instead since I could not read it at my leisure, but only when I felt like sitting in front of the computer, it took me an astonishing 2 months to finish.
October 8, 2020
The New York Times: The Times of the Eighties: The Culture, Politics, and Personalities That Shaped the Decade by William Grimes. Is a snap of a decade of American pop culture. Grimes is the author of four books on food and drink and the current obituary writer for the New York Times. Previously he has been a magazine writer, book reviewer, theater columnist and food critic.
I became a young adult in the early 1980s and hold that decade as the best time of my life. This book was a pleasant trip back to my younger years. Each chapter starts with a brief description of the subject: ranging from International News, Business, Science and Technology, Fashion and Style, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, and New York. The chapters are filled with color pictures and New York Times articles. The only writing is in the chapter introductions. The original articles and pictures make up the bulk of the chapter.
I thought I would remember so much of the 1980s, but this book brought back so much and so many memories. Walter Cronkite left the CBS Evening News. Japan out produced the United States in car production. Many things I remember are in the book too. I remember cutting gym class in high school to go to the library and watch the launch of the first space shuttle: Columbia. I remember coming home to Cleveland from Europe (where I also found myself closer to the Chernobyl accident than I would have liked) and trying to buy leaded gas...it was gone.
Some of the technology that blossomed in the 1980s, are already obsolete like the VCR, Walkman, and the disposable camera. The VCR was an amazing device back in the day; it was really something to record a show and watch it later; something taken for granted today. Some things went away quickly like New Coke and others lingered like the death sentence on Salmon Rushdie. Other things are still going like the Voyager spacecrafts that took the pictures of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. The internet is one of the big successes of the 1980s, now matured and common as radio and newspapers back then.
Any one remember Matthias Rust? That was quite a coup he pulled off. Remember the barge Mobro?
The New York section is particularly interesting, not being from New York I remember many of the stories: Koch, Goetz, the homeless problem, and the horrible rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park. New York was the place where big things happened, good or bad and much more of a cultural center than Los Angles.
This is an excellent book, the print copy will make an excellent coffee table book. I would recommend it to anyone in the forty-five to sixty age group. This was a great decade and those of us who lived it. So much history, culture, and, now, primitive technology. The new stories and pictures will bring the decade back to you.
(I would also recommend this book to the younger crowd so that they can see what they missed out on.)
I became a young adult in the early 1980s and hold that decade as the best time of my life. This book was a pleasant trip back to my younger years. Each chapter starts with a brief description of the subject: ranging from International News, Business, Science and Technology, Fashion and Style, Arts and Entertainment, Sports, and New York. The chapters are filled with color pictures and New York Times articles. The only writing is in the chapter introductions. The original articles and pictures make up the bulk of the chapter.
I thought I would remember so much of the 1980s, but this book brought back so much and so many memories. Walter Cronkite left the CBS Evening News. Japan out produced the United States in car production. Many things I remember are in the book too. I remember cutting gym class in high school to go to the library and watch the launch of the first space shuttle: Columbia. I remember coming home to Cleveland from Europe (where I also found myself closer to the Chernobyl accident than I would have liked) and trying to buy leaded gas...it was gone.
Some of the technology that blossomed in the 1980s, are already obsolete like the VCR, Walkman, and the disposable camera. The VCR was an amazing device back in the day; it was really something to record a show and watch it later; something taken for granted today. Some things went away quickly like New Coke and others lingered like the death sentence on Salmon Rushdie. Other things are still going like the Voyager spacecrafts that took the pictures of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in the 1980s. The internet is one of the big successes of the 1980s, now matured and common as radio and newspapers back then.
Any one remember Matthias Rust? That was quite a coup he pulled off. Remember the barge Mobro?
The New York section is particularly interesting, not being from New York I remember many of the stories: Koch, Goetz, the homeless problem, and the horrible rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park. New York was the place where big things happened, good or bad and much more of a cultural center than Los Angles.
This is an excellent book, the print copy will make an excellent coffee table book. I would recommend it to anyone in the forty-five to sixty age group. This was a great decade and those of us who lived it. So much history, culture, and, now, primitive technology. The new stories and pictures will bring the decade back to you.
(I would also recommend this book to the younger crowd so that they can see what they missed out on.)
April 21, 2021
This compendium of articles and stories from the New York Times, as published in the period 1980-1989, will have limited appeal outside those with some interest in the decade or the NYT itself. This is because at heart there is no real narrative or cohesive structure to book other than what the editor has decided represents the 1980s as reported in the Times. That means that invariably the information presented herein is heavily focused on US politics, culture, business and society. Also, what is included in this book are a plethora of limited, highly contemporaneous reports that show little to no long term interpretative value. The reader of this book will not get much more out of his or her experience than what are in effect old newspaper stories, and as the maxim goes, today's newspapers are tomorrow fish and chips wrappers.
Of course the high topicality of the articles included here do give the reader an opportunity to engage with the attitudes and ideas that dominated the Eighties. Capitalistic greed, technical innovation, a globalising world, growing consumerism, the last years of the Cold War are all on display here. I would imagine that this book will be fertile ground for anyone wanting to find a cohesive collection of source material about the 1980s.
The obsessive focus on all things American in this book will undoubtedly alienate those outside the USA, but to be fair if one picks this title up you should know what you're getting. It goes without saying that a chapter on New York itself is not going to appeal to anyone without a real interest in the Big Apple. Yet this is the embodiment of why the original material was written.
Ultimately this is not a great book and certainly not one that you would want to read like a more narrative-driven history text. The ideal reader of this title will be the New Yorker who either lived through the 80s and wants to engage in some nostalgic revelry, or a younger person from the same city who wants to know what his or her elders got up to up to 40 years ago.
Of course the high topicality of the articles included here do give the reader an opportunity to engage with the attitudes and ideas that dominated the Eighties. Capitalistic greed, technical innovation, a globalising world, growing consumerism, the last years of the Cold War are all on display here. I would imagine that this book will be fertile ground for anyone wanting to find a cohesive collection of source material about the 1980s.
The obsessive focus on all things American in this book will undoubtedly alienate those outside the USA, but to be fair if one picks this title up you should know what you're getting. It goes without saying that a chapter on New York itself is not going to appeal to anyone without a real interest in the Big Apple. Yet this is the embodiment of why the original material was written.
Ultimately this is not a great book and certainly not one that you would want to read like a more narrative-driven history text. The ideal reader of this title will be the New Yorker who either lived through the 80s and wants to engage in some nostalgic revelry, or a younger person from the same city who wants to know what his or her elders got up to up to 40 years ago.
March 14, 2020
Interesting
As a child of the 80's this was a fun read. I read all three decades released and it was really interesting.
As a child of the 80's this was a fun read. I read all three decades released and it was really interesting.
November 30, 2015
Gen Xers will both enjoy and despise reliving the Reagan years with this oversize title. Drawn from the New York Times’s news-makiest events, it covers all that stuff you derided back then as well as other things that you didn’t learn to despise until later. “Disbelief” will be your watchword as you glide down memory lane pursued by the nightmares of Teddy Ruxpin, the ’86 Mets, and the $2,500 Macintosh—now boasting 128K of RAM! Coverage of the decade is evenly distributed among the book’s eight sections with titles that range from “National” (remember Gary Hart?) and “International” (the Berlin Wall), with the “Business” section discussing infamous figures such as Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. New York, dominated by Ed Koch, has its own section and “Science, Technology and Health” features what now seems like revolutionary stuff: the artificial heart, AIDS coverage, discovering the wreck of the Titanic. “Fashion and Life & Style” will, for most dudes, be the most icky—Princess Diana, shoulder pads, big hair—but the especially robust A&E section and decent sports coverage including Tour de France titles won by Hinault and LeMond make up for it.
Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.
Find reviews of books for men at Books for Dudes, Books for Dudes, the online reader's advisory column for men from Library Journal. Copyright Library Journal.
August 4, 2013
Anyone growing up in the 1980s remembers Strawberry Short Cake, He Man, Care Bears, and sideways ponytails, but it is easy to forget many of the political, social, and technological landmarks because of the nostalgic memories that dominate. That is precisely why The New York Times: The Times of the Eighties is the absolute best way to bring back the nostalgia of the past.
This collection of articles from The New York Times features the actual articles and photographs that helped to define a generation. Brilliantly broken down into sections (Politics, Business, Health Care & Technology, Fashion, Life & Style, etc.), this book is the perfect way to examine the decade. Whether it be to reminisce or to share historical events with a younger generation, this book is amazing in that it blends the highly respected writing of The New York Times with the most important events of the ’80s. For example, Princess Diana’s wedding, the premiere of “Cats”, Reagan’s declaration to “Raze the Berlin Wall”, the evolution of the modern DNA test, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill impacted a generation and they are concisely and dutifully reported in this book. Whether you want to check facts, reminisce, or share history, The New York Times: The Times of the Eighties is a great read. From shelfishness.blog.com
This collection of articles from The New York Times features the actual articles and photographs that helped to define a generation. Brilliantly broken down into sections (Politics, Business, Health Care & Technology, Fashion, Life & Style, etc.), this book is the perfect way to examine the decade. Whether it be to reminisce or to share historical events with a younger generation, this book is amazing in that it blends the highly respected writing of The New York Times with the most important events of the ’80s. For example, Princess Diana’s wedding, the premiere of “Cats”, Reagan’s declaration to “Raze the Berlin Wall”, the evolution of the modern DNA test, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill impacted a generation and they are concisely and dutifully reported in this book. Whether you want to check facts, reminisce, or share history, The New York Times: The Times of the Eighties is a great read. From shelfishness.blog.com
December 7, 2014
Growing up during the 80's was a great time for me. I was in high school, found my first love and met my best friend. What a great walk down memory lane. I even read a few things that I didnt know was going on about that time.
June 12, 2013
The New York Times’ Times of the Eighties is a nostalgia bomb for any eighties fan. More advanced eighties fans, however, might find it too straightforward for their palettes. If you’d like.
August 11, 2013
Click on the link to read my full review of this: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.co...
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews