Taylor
Book Analysis Two: Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America by Phillip Jenkins
Grant Taylor
History 1152: American Civilization Since 1877
Dr. Delano Lopez
April 20, 2019
The book that I chose to write my analysis on was Decade of Nightmares: The End of the Sixties and the Making of Eighties America by Phillip Jenkins. This book hits on the subject of the massive decline of American power that occurred due to the results of the mid to late seventies that led to the shift in government in the United States. Jenkins is able to depict the mood and shift of the country through the use of historical context throughout the book giving events and reasons why everything happened as it did in his opinion which years later still seems to have an influence on the United States.
This event takes place in The United States this time of the decade of nightmares was following what is known as the, “people’s movement” which occurred during the sixties and seventies. The decade of nightmares as the title suggest was the aftermath of this time between the mid and late nineteen seventies. These nightmares can be described as the steadily increasing fear in the United States at the time due to the events that were occurring. The rates of crime were at a high and it seemed that every neighborhood had its own serial killer roaming through the streets as well as drug dealers. In addition to this, children had a great deal of influence during this fear because there were issues regarding child abusers and child pornography. Satanic cults also became more prevalent and a fear of the American people. The economy at the time also had taken its turn for the worse leaving many to Americans struggle and live stricken by poverty because of this economic state of the country. As if this was not enough already there was fear that was a result of issues happening outside of the United States as well that many were afraid of in regard to their safety. Our battle with the Soviet Union and its massive empire and the battle with Iran over kidnapped Americans, and their stronghold on oil. Overall, with everything going on it seemed to be that the United States had begun to lose its control of power within the country. Our nation was beginning to suffer and something needed to change in order to get the United States back in order.
Following the chaotic incidents in the United States resulting in the feeling of loss of American power is when conservatives control of the government came to try to restore peace and happiness in the United States. This became one of the driving forces to change the attitudes of Americans. They seemed to begin to look back into its older less radical times and this resulted in the election of Ronald Reagan. During Reagan’s presidency he seemed to save the Uni...
