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Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years
"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. 32 b/w illustrations
"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. 32 b/w illustrations
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
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About the author
Haynes Johnson
19 books7 followersIn his four decades in journalism, Mr. Johnson was widely esteemed for his coverage of domestic affairs in general and of the capital in particular.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
May 20, 2012
Haynes Johnson does a thorough job of documenting and trying to make sense of a decade that was in many respects the ultimate reaction against the Sixties, the pay-back decade, as it were, when conservatism made its successful push to retake the political and moral stage. His sketches of the major players, from Arthur Laffer (whose infamous "Laffer Curve" did so much to persuade so many of the efficacy of supply side economics) to Reagan himself, reveal a pattern of thinking and rearrangement of values that made what has happened since almost inevitable. For anyone wondering "What happened to us?" this is an excellent place to start. The destructiveness of the Reagan Administration toward government was a consistent pattern for the man since his early bids for governor of California, as was his evident lack of appreciation for what it was he sought to tear down. The damage has cost us and we may never be able to put it all right because so many people still seem to think he was correct. Johnson explains that, as well. His detailing of the Iran-contra Affair is heartbreaking in showing how the truth, as well as justice, was upstaged by magnificent spin control and the craft of well-managed drama. Compelling.
April 5, 2008
Wow. This book took me a while to get through, but it was worth it. This book covers a lot of territory (the prominence of television, the S&L scandal, the Iran-Contra hearings, Reagan's campaign, etc.) so the author doesn't go into great detail on every topic. However, he gives enough background on America in the 70s and 80s so that the reader is able to understand how and why Reagan was elected in the first place and how such an unchecked president still remained (remains) so popular. A really fascinating book that goes inside the Reagan administration and also probes the attitudes and behaviors of Americans at large. The 80s forever changed our country and the formation our identity. This is a very important book to read, in light of that.
May 13, 2013
Sleepwalking Through History presents itself as a first-draft history of America in the 1980s. In fact, it’s something subtly but significantly different. Haynes Johnson is a political reporter, and Sleepwalking is a political book. The material that’s not overtly about politics gets tied to political themes (the high-technology boom), glossed over (MTV), or ignored altogether. It might have been better subtitled: The Reagan Administration and what it did to America.
It is, in Johnson’s eyes, very definitely “to” rather than “for.” He has considerable respect for Reagan as a politician, but far less for Reagan as a chief executive. He catalogs, in detail, the detrimental effects of Reagan’s massive tax cuts, ballooning defense budgets, and foreign policy adventurism. He untangles the tangled web of the Iran-Contra scandal that darkened Reagan’s second term. He dissects, mercilessly, the carefully constructed public image Reagan’s handlers used to sell their disastrous policies to a public worn down by the complex, seemingly intractable problems of the 1970s. Sleepwalking is not, for all that, a “political” book in the modern sense. It is not a full-throated partisan assault on the principles and policies of the Other Guys, but long-form journalism framed as retrospective analysis. Johnson has a point of view, but he also has abundant quotations from clearly identified sources – many of them former Reagan aides. He has, to borrow the language of the classroom, shown his work.
If a detailed, nuanced, critical analysis of the Reagan administration – written when the dust of the eighties had barely settled, and even the first Al Quaeda attack on the World Trade Center lay in the future – is what you’re looking for . . . you’ve found it. If you’re interested in a fully rounded portrait of America in the “decade of greed,” keep looking.
It is, in Johnson’s eyes, very definitely “to” rather than “for.” He has considerable respect for Reagan as a politician, but far less for Reagan as a chief executive. He catalogs, in detail, the detrimental effects of Reagan’s massive tax cuts, ballooning defense budgets, and foreign policy adventurism. He untangles the tangled web of the Iran-Contra scandal that darkened Reagan’s second term. He dissects, mercilessly, the carefully constructed public image Reagan’s handlers used to sell their disastrous policies to a public worn down by the complex, seemingly intractable problems of the 1970s. Sleepwalking is not, for all that, a “political” book in the modern sense. It is not a full-throated partisan assault on the principles and policies of the Other Guys, but long-form journalism framed as retrospective analysis. Johnson has a point of view, but he also has abundant quotations from clearly identified sources – many of them former Reagan aides. He has, to borrow the language of the classroom, shown his work.
If a detailed, nuanced, critical analysis of the Reagan administration – written when the dust of the eighties had barely settled, and even the first Al Quaeda attack on the World Trade Center lay in the future – is what you’re looking for . . . you’ve found it. If you’re interested in a fully rounded portrait of America in the “decade of greed,” keep looking.
July 14, 2013
I'm finally finished reading this weighty tome. It took me 4 months to wade through it, and I started and finished 12 other books while trying to stay awake through more than 5 pages of this college-level chronicle of the destruction of the US government and economy at the hands of President "do-nothing-see-nothing" Reagan. The country would have been much better off if that assassin's bullet had found its mark. If George Bush 1 had ascended to the presidency sooner, the trail of damage left behind Reagan's 2 terms would have been somewhat mitigated. I'm an Independent voter, in the military at the time, who voted Republican for 3 elections in a row. But, after 12 years of having a Republican president, I'd had enough of that. This book was published in 1991 and, in the previous few years, the country had been through bank failures, bankruptcies, the savings and loan debacle, a housing slump, budget-busting spending, deregulation, leveraged buy outs, "trickle-down" economics, government corruption, & Iran-Contra. All caused by President Reagan's "hands-off, eyes-closed" management style. The one thing he did get involved with was Iran-Contra. He was up to his neck in that mess. Setting up the "out of country" slush fund and contravening the constitution by lying to Congress were done with his enthusiastic OK. He should have gone to jail - with a lot of other people. Long before Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan was coated in Teflon. Reading the last few chapters of this book was like reading the newspaper today. Many of the same problems are present now, but worse. Reagan didn't walk us over the economic precipice, but he sure got us close to the edge. The missing checks-and-balances that disappeared during his tenure are what got us in trouble this time. That, and a lack of ethics and an over abundance of greed. Oh . . . and let's not forget another 8 years under a Republican president that got us into the longest, most costly war in the history of the country. At the end of Georgie Boy's second term, the economy was in a high-speed nose dive. Only the timing of the election prevented him from having to make some very tough bailout decisions. If the election had been 6 months later, he couldn't have avoided doing something to prevent the total collapse of the US financial system. Now, the Republicans vilify President Obama for taking the unpalatable steps that George 2 so deftly side-stepped. What reading this book will show you is that the Republicans are still advocating the same fiscal policies that were so disastrous in the 80s. The "trickle-down" theory of economics was to let the rich make more money so that they could provide more jobs and all segments of society would benefit from the movement of the money downward. The theory actually sounds great, however, the money was magnetically attracted to the pockets of the rich (imagine that) and very little of it made it down to the people struggling to support themselves.
December 22, 2012
Well written history of the 80s. Anyone watching the current beatification of Ronald Reagan should appreciate this injection of reality.
November 12, 2019
This is a depressing book if you care about the state of America. It shows how Ronald Reagan and the forces that supported him turned us toward a long, dark path that has culminated (so far) in the corrupt, racist, ignorant Trump regime.
Reagan was basically a Trump, but a little nicer, a little more humble, a little more willing to listen to expert advice. But his policies, while having a gloss of "morning in America," were as cruel in their way as Trump's. Reagan played on the selfishness inherent in each of us to shift our country from one that tried to help people, to one which said, "Do it on your own." It's a direct line from that attitude to today.
In 450 brisk pages, the author sets up the 1980 election by telling us about Reagan's rise and the tide of conservatism (and racism and ignorance) that carried him to the White House. He runs through the big events of the era, giving both the facts and a little bit of perspective. The author is a an insider, in the sense that he was able to get personal interviews with many of the key players of the era, and this adds an undeniable sense of you-were-there to the book and cuts through the spin that Reagan's supporters were providing, even during his time in office and then with increasing volume in 20 or so years more that he lived. The fact that some people thing Reagan should be on Mt. Rushmore or on the dollar bill, or whatever, just attests to their spin skills. But everyone should read this book in order to remember how slimy Reagan really was.
I was in college when Reagan was elected, and I remember the era well. But this book reminded me of so many details that I'd forgotten -- probably intentionally, since they were so depressing. There's Reagan's stupid comments about "the government being the problem, not the solution." There's his firing of union air traffic controllers. There's his cutting of welfare and aid to dependent children. And his militarism. And his belief that you can lock up every African-American on a minor drug charge. Plus, his support for the right-wing Moral Majority -- a heinous group of people.
This book gives Reagan his due for the successes he had and for the perceptions he created of even greater successes. It was a time when America flexed its global muscle, and when we felt good about our place in the world. We challenged the Soviet Union, and Reagan's stalwart-ness helped push policies that led to its downfall soon after he left office.
But there was so much more bad than good. He was truly the first synthetic president. That is, he was all image, and he was only one of many players in molding what the public saw. He couldn't write a speech. He didn't have a thought in his head except "Communism and taxes are bad." He didn't care about any management details (sound like someone else?). He was just an actor who played a part.
Oh, and of course, he lied all the time. He was the original fake news guy, as he constantly told stories about his exploits that simply weren't true. But because he played heroes in movies, he actually thought he did heroic things.
As I said, it's a depressing book, but it's important history that everyone under age 40 should be required to read.
Reagan was basically a Trump, but a little nicer, a little more humble, a little more willing to listen to expert advice. But his policies, while having a gloss of "morning in America," were as cruel in their way as Trump's. Reagan played on the selfishness inherent in each of us to shift our country from one that tried to help people, to one which said, "Do it on your own." It's a direct line from that attitude to today.
In 450 brisk pages, the author sets up the 1980 election by telling us about Reagan's rise and the tide of conservatism (and racism and ignorance) that carried him to the White House. He runs through the big events of the era, giving both the facts and a little bit of perspective. The author is a an insider, in the sense that he was able to get personal interviews with many of the key players of the era, and this adds an undeniable sense of you-were-there to the book and cuts through the spin that Reagan's supporters were providing, even during his time in office and then with increasing volume in 20 or so years more that he lived. The fact that some people thing Reagan should be on Mt. Rushmore or on the dollar bill, or whatever, just attests to their spin skills. But everyone should read this book in order to remember how slimy Reagan really was.
I was in college when Reagan was elected, and I remember the era well. But this book reminded me of so many details that I'd forgotten -- probably intentionally, since they were so depressing. There's Reagan's stupid comments about "the government being the problem, not the solution." There's his firing of union air traffic controllers. There's his cutting of welfare and aid to dependent children. And his militarism. And his belief that you can lock up every African-American on a minor drug charge. Plus, his support for the right-wing Moral Majority -- a heinous group of people.
This book gives Reagan his due for the successes he had and for the perceptions he created of even greater successes. It was a time when America flexed its global muscle, and when we felt good about our place in the world. We challenged the Soviet Union, and Reagan's stalwart-ness helped push policies that led to its downfall soon after he left office.
But there was so much more bad than good. He was truly the first synthetic president. That is, he was all image, and he was only one of many players in molding what the public saw. He couldn't write a speech. He didn't have a thought in his head except "Communism and taxes are bad." He didn't care about any management details (sound like someone else?). He was just an actor who played a part.
Oh, and of course, he lied all the time. He was the original fake news guy, as he constantly told stories about his exploits that simply weren't true. But because he played heroes in movies, he actually thought he did heroic things.
As I said, it's a depressing book, but it's important history that everyone under age 40 should be required to read.
October 4, 2020
Sleepwalking Through History provides essential insight into how the United States reached such a dismal state by 2020. Trump, McConnell, the robber barons of Wall Street, a life-crushing for-profit healthcare system, neglect of human-caused climate change, a corrupt and bumbling federal bureaucracy, a sabotaged public education system, a complicit media, the cooperation of hypocritical religious “leaders,” a bloated defense establishment, deregulation and abandonment of industrial safety protocols, Republican double-standards on the subject of deficits, and the myth of trickle-down “voodoo” economics – all of this has been a deliberate strategy among Republicans and uber-capitalists since at least the days of Reagan. In page after page, Haynes Johnson documents the beginning of the end of the American experiment and the straight line that connects the two liars-in-chief, Reagan with Trump. The biggest lesson Republicans learned from Iran-Contra is that the American people would let them get away with anything. (Why do Republicans want a circus act in the Oval Office? Because it distracts us every day from substantive conversations about issues that really matter.)
The book does suffer from two flaws. One is that Johnson did his work too early to have a clear perspective. From the early 1990s, one could believe the country was on a course correction, at least until Newt Gingrich escalated the GOP’s scorched-earth politics. The other is that Johnson completely drops the ball regarding race, failing to recognize his own privilege or the true consequences of systemic discrimination: he claims the civil rights movement turned violent in the 1960s without acknowledging that it was white supremacists who made it violent, and blames part of the nation’s problems on “hyphenated Americans” who chose to not blindly assimilate into the white monolith (he actually praises America’s strength at assimilating diverse cultures). Johnson clearly was not affected by America’s race problem and so did not fully understand it.
In every other way, Sleepwalking Through History is a guidebook to America in 2020. For everyone who believes our current situation, or the retain-power-at-all-costs attitude of the Republican party, is a recent development, Johnson’s book is a must-read.
The book does suffer from two flaws. One is that Johnson did his work too early to have a clear perspective. From the early 1990s, one could believe the country was on a course correction, at least until Newt Gingrich escalated the GOP’s scorched-earth politics. The other is that Johnson completely drops the ball regarding race, failing to recognize his own privilege or the true consequences of systemic discrimination: he claims the civil rights movement turned violent in the 1960s without acknowledging that it was white supremacists who made it violent, and blames part of the nation’s problems on “hyphenated Americans” who chose to not blindly assimilate into the white monolith (he actually praises America’s strength at assimilating diverse cultures). Johnson clearly was not affected by America’s race problem and so did not fully understand it.
In every other way, Sleepwalking Through History is a guidebook to America in 2020. For everyone who believes our current situation, or the retain-power-at-all-costs attitude of the Republican party, is a recent development, Johnson’s book is a must-read.
November 4, 2025
What a boring read, but it does explain a lot of how we are where we are now. Got to read up on some of the history I missed because I was so young while he was president.
September 4, 2008
There is something seriously wrong with the conservative psyche that, here it is, how many years later, and the anti-regulatory disasters of the Reagan administration are coming thick and fast--Enron, the S & L scandal, the Great Mortgage Robbery, etc. etc. etc., and still the Conservagelicals--the Evangicons--whatever you want to call them--march on. this book is about the nation drinking Conservative Koolaid, which makes it relevant for today. How much Koolaid can the right wing drink before they lay down and die? Please, oh Please God/dess--don't let it be another four years!
August 5, 2011
Less an indictment of Reagan than that of the US at the time (hence the subtitle), Johnson presents a different look than the nostalgic "we miss Reagan" fans remember. This is the Reagan *I* remember: the teflon coated abuser of power who surrounded himself with more crooks than Nixon. Now to read "Tear Down the Myth" by Will Bunch.
June 11, 2008
During the dark Bush years, it's too easy to look back on the Reagan years with rose-colored glasses. Johnson masterfully captures the dysfunction and divisiveness of the Reagan years.
September 25, 2010
A good primer. You're going to have to go elsewhere to get in depth on any of the subjects but this is pretty good overview.
June 11, 2013
Text book for class, was well done and informative in a time before Google.
June 18, 2018
Another one of those fuzzy pop sociology books that proliferate around Ronald Reagan's presidency. Johnson's book makes no pretense of serving as either a biography of the 40th President nor a chronicle of his administration. Rather, it's a sprawling but selective attempt to capture the mood and feel of his times, as America embraced an empty image of hope and self-made prosperity which encouraged corporate greed, political corruption and cultural narrow-mindedness. Some writers (Garry Wills, usually) can make this work, but Johnson's approach is scattershot and none-too-convincing. There isn't a clear throughline in his analyses, nor does he offer much connective tissue despite bookending segments on the first and last days of Reagan's presidency. There are interesting chapters on Reagan's dogmatic acceptance of supply side economics and Wall Street's exploitation thereof, an instructive (and timely) chapter on blue collar Americans embracing Republican explanations for their decline and later bafflement that Reagan's policies didn't help them, and a detailed account of Iran-Contra, alongside more pat chapters blaming MTV and Hollywood for dulling the American mind. Key issues of the time (Reagan's management of the Cold War, the crack epidemic and AIDS crisis) are almost entirely ignored, making the portrait incomplete. Nor does one get any real sense of Reagan himself, either the man or the president. Perhaps that's the point (that Reagan was more image than substance) but if so, it's an analysis that was lazy and pat in its day and now seems superficial, at best. Some nuggets of wisdom strewn amidst a confused, rambly narrative.
February 25, 2020
Outstanding presentation of the Reagan administration and 1980s on the whole. The decade of 1980s sounds amazingly similar to our current period in so many ways economically and socially. It is astonishing that Reagan didn't get impeached for the Iran/Contra affair, which was actually considerably more egregious than our impeachable Ukraine situation (although the sum of Reagan's offenses, while numerous, doesn't come close to sum and kind of those of our current president). It is even more astounding that Reagan is so often lionized as such a stellar president. This book will certainly disabuse readers of that myth.
Well --- we survived Reagan -- although with lasting damage to society. Let's hope we can begin to repair some of the consequences of "sleeping through history" and get back on the right track after the election of 2020 --- lest we become an outright totalitarian oligarchy on an uninhabitable planet.
Well --- we survived Reagan -- although with lasting damage to society. Let's hope we can begin to repair some of the consequences of "sleeping through history" and get back on the right track after the election of 2020 --- lest we become an outright totalitarian oligarchy on an uninhabitable planet.
April 20, 2018
This book was a perfect compliment to 'Tear down this Myth.' It went in to all the meaty details I wanted in the other book, and included well-written and external insights form the author that do a great job painting a picture of the climate of the 80's.
The section on the Iran-Contra scandal had my blood boiling; it's a piece of history that is unfortunately lost to time for many Americans. This is a must read for understanding the 80's and the Reagon legacy.
The section on the Iran-Contra scandal had my blood boiling; it's a piece of history that is unfortunately lost to time for many Americans. This is a must read for understanding the 80's and the Reagon legacy.
December 28, 2017
Not exactly about Reagan's presidency but a solid overview of everything going on in the country and the world during the 80's. It did a thorough job explaining all the headlines and news coverage I remembered from being a kid that went over my head. Currently rereading. (First read about ten years ago.)
November 6, 2019
Profoundly significant and essential read about American history.
September 8, 2023
Ronald Reagan was the devil
June 10, 2025
One of the very best books I have ever read!
June 23, 2018
A well researched survey of the Reagan Administration, although one that does not dig as deep as it maybe should; the War on Drugs is not discussed at all, and the wider picture of racial relations in the 80's is only hinted at with passing mentions to the damaging effects of the "inner city".
The story begins with Reagan's politically ascendancy and presidential inauguration, and from there the reader is taken on a social, political & economic tour of the country as it was in the 1980's. You see the ups, the downs, and how the ups turned out to be actually long-term downs.
While there is a lack of a racial component, multiple chapters are laid out for some of the most confusing storylines of the decade. If you don't know where to start on Iran-Contra, or the crash of '87, this may be the book for you.
The story begins with Reagan's politically ascendancy and presidential inauguration, and from there the reader is taken on a social, political & economic tour of the country as it was in the 1980's. You see the ups, the downs, and how the ups turned out to be actually long-term downs.
While there is a lack of a racial component, multiple chapters are laid out for some of the most confusing storylines of the decade. If you don't know where to start on Iran-Contra, or the crash of '87, this may be the book for you.
February 26, 2016
Well, all it reminds me of is how we got to the mess we are curently in in 2016. Five times since 1960 the Republican party has been caught doing things that weren't merely the usual bribery and graft of politics but treasonous. Three of those times they were legally caught with their hands in the cookie jar, and for reasons that baffle me, the Democrats would not carrry through to the kill or incarceration of the guilty parties. Why? This book centers mostly on the extreme excesses of wealth and privilege of the period, but also outlines at least two of the episodes where more Republicans should have justly gone to prison. Although, many remember this as an era of an expanding ecnonomy, middle class wages were stagnant or fell during Reagan's presidency, but the rich did get richer which sorta skewed the overall statistics of the period.
December 24, 2016
This book is an excellent overview of the Reagan era and many of the key aspects that were introduced that plague the effectiveness of our government and a delusional right-wing electorate to this day. Thanks to this journalist's extensive coverage of the Reagan presidency, the reader gets first hand reporting mixed with the author's assessment only a few years after the events had concluded. Some overviews of the cultural aspects that existed in the Reagan era are a bit glossed over, but they are merely for context amidst the political happenings. Many people read this in their classwork ten to 20 years ago, but this document still provides an accurate and effective introduction to the history of the Reagan presidency. I highly recommend it.
February 6, 2017
Excellent review of Reagan's political career and the handlers that made him "Americas Anchorman" and master entertainer. This is essential for any political science student wanting to understand how the culture machine influences elections--particularly in the age of untruth and the current occupier of the executive branch.
April 1, 2012
This was the first political book I ever read. I read it in college doing research for a paper in Intermediate Macroeconomics. We had to choose an era of growth or recession in the post WWII era and were required four specific sources from different perspectives of what policy defined it. Haynes Johnson's book was not a flattering portrait of Reagan's presidency but juxtaposed against Robert Bartlett's Seven Fat Years and Allen Blinder's Heard Heads and Soft Hearts I began to really understand economics functionally. Great book about the Reagan Era.
February 26, 2014
The Eighties and the Reagan Administration are tough to survey in just 475 pages, though Johnson takes a crack at it. Too much is devoted to Iran-Contra at the expense of other trends and events, though Johnson was writing from a 1990s perspective and the affair loomed larger then than it does now.
July 6, 2010
A great history of the 1980s and the ramifications of the policies on our current decade. The author portrays a clear but sometimes disturbing picture of the decade and takes a part many of the myths of the era.
January 29, 2008
Highly interesting book. I read it for grad school, but if you dislike Ronald Reagan's presidency at all, put it on your to-read list now!
January 1, 2012
I lost interest in this book about halfway through.
September 8, 2016
Overview of shifts that took place during the 80s. Informative for me, because I was too busy working and raising my children to follow closely what was happening in the world at the time.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews