America in the 1980s (The Decades of Twentieth-Century America)

What were Americans doing in the 1980s? Grooving to music videos on MTV, the nation's hottest new cable station; protesting nuclear arms; and grieving the horrific explosion and deaths aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

Americans also watched in wonder as the Soviet Union, the nation's former enemy, collapsed while U.S. businesses boomed. And the personal computer revolution was on with the dynamic growth of Apple and Microsoft.

The decade's headliners included President Ronald Reagan, pop star diva Madonna, business guru Lee Iacocca, television's dynamic new talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, AIDS-awareness and graffiti artist Keith Haring, and a national first for women--U.S. Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor. They rose to prominence in an era of boom and bust, technological innovation, and social change. From cordless phones to The Cosby Show, from the end of the cold war to the rise of the Material Girl, read about this fascinating decade from start to finish.