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CHAPTER 31
Conservative Revival, 1977–1990
This chapter examines the presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W. Bush. It opens
by looking at Carter’s early successes and increasing failures in the eyes of the public, as revealed by
Americans’ response to his “crisis of confidence” speech, policy on Iran, and handling of the hostage crisis.
Sections then cover the rise of Reagan and the New Right the successes and failures of Reaganomics, and
his rhetoric of federal retrenchment. At the same time, the chapter looks at Reagan’s activist approach to
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. The Carter Presidency
A. Jimmy Who?
i. Early Success
ii. Carter’s Limitations
iii. A “Crisis of Confidence”
B. Carter’s Foreign Policy
i. Human Rights
II. The Rise of Ronald Reagan
A. The Actor Turned President
B. The Rise of the New Right
i. The Christian Right
III. The Reagan Revolution
A. Reagan’s First Term
i. Reaganomics
ii. Managing the Budget
iii. Reagan’s Anti-Liberalism
IV. An Anti-Soviet Foreign Policy
A. A Massive Defense Buildup
B. “Star Wars”
C. Confronting the Evil Empire
D. Communist Insurgencies in Central America
E. Strife in the Middle East
F. U.S. Invasion of Grenada
V. The Changing Economic and Social Landscape
A. The Computer Revolution
B. Carefree Consumers and the Stock Market Plunge
C. The Poor
D. The AIDS Epidemic
VI. The Presidency of George H. W. Bush
A. Immigration Act of 1990
B. The Federal Debt and Recession
C. The Democracy Movement Abroad
LECTURE IDEAS
1. A lecture on the Jimmy Carter administration will give you an opportunity to show how the country
dealt with a post-Vietnam society. Focus on both his domestic and his foreign-policy initiatives. See
Burton I. Kaufman’s The Presidency of James Earl Carter, Jr. (1993), Gaddis Smith’s Morality, Reason,
2. An overview of the Reagan domestic agenda would be a good starting point for this chapter. Draft a
handout or lecture on particular aspects of Reagan’s domestic initiatives—economic, social, and
cultural—and sum up the resulting changes seen in everyday American life. Useful sources include:
• John Karaagac’s Between Promise and Policy: Ronald Reagan and Conservative Reformism (2000)
• John Sloan’s The Reagan Effect: Economics and Presidential Leadership (1999)
3. A fun and insightful way to examine cultural and political trends of the Reagan-Bush years is to show
and analyze some of the seminal music videos of the era. Some of the obvious choices are Madonna’s
“Material Girl” (1985), Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” (1983) (this video can perhaps be viewed as a
4. Michael Harrington, the writer and social activist who opened the eyes of many Americans to the
problem of poverty in 1962 with The Other America, describes a new class of poor in The New American
5. An overview of American foreign policy in the 1980s will give students a good background in the
(2000)
• Beth Fischer’s The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (1997)
6. A lecture on the first Gulf War can help set the stage for discussion of the second Gulf War later on. A
good source for a lecture on the Gulf War is Lester H. Bruce’s America and the Iraqi Crisis, 1990–1992:
Origins and Aftermath (1993). Also see Colin Gordon’s “Lessons of History? Past and Present in the
7. John Steele Gordon’s “Understanding the S&L Mess” (American Heritage, February/March 1991)
(1993).
8. A presentation on the intellectual development of American conservatism since World War II would
be a very effective way of explaining much of the politics of the Reagan years and for decades
thereafter. See Ronald Story and Bruce Laurie’s The Rise of Conservatism in America, 1945–2000
IN-CLASS ACTIVITIES
1. Divide the class into several groups and have each explain the rise of Ronald Reagan. Reagan often
claimed that government was the problem, but he also used his presidential powers in very unique
ways. What were some of the contradictions in his thoughts about government? Have each group
2. While the 1980s might have seen a conservative resurgence, there were also many other changes
taking place during the decade. Americans were spending more, but the divide between the genders,
the “haves” and “have-nots”, and even various minority groups in America was growing. Have
students outline the experiences of different classes and groups in society. You might even have your
3. Have students identify the factors that led to the end of the cold war. Reagan is often given credit for
helping to outspend the Soviet Union and, thus, to end the cold war. Yet this account, it is often argued,
underplays the changes within the Soviet Union. Mikhail Gorbachev introduced dramatic new polices
that promised to restructure or rebuild the Soviet Union, allowed Eastern Europeans to choose their
own leaders, and included references to a new openness in the process. How should we understand
the end of the cold war, especially from the perspective of American history? Useful references
4. Ask student groups to examine the Iran-Contra affair and assess the impact it had on domestic and
international affairs. Students should identify the major players, their contribution to the crisis, and
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Discuss the Camp David accords. What effect did it have on short-term and long-term relations
between the Arab states and Israel? Were there some unexpected results?
2. Was President Carter’s foreign policy focus on human rights a success? Give specific examples to
3. Analyze the Reagan “Revolution” and discuss the rise of the “moral majority” and the “new right.” What
antecedents can you identify?
4. Assess the economic program that became known as “Reaganomics.” Discuss the long- and short-term
effects of Ronald Reagan’s economic policies. Who were the winners and losers?
5. How was life in America in the 1980s different from that of the 1970s? How would you characterize
the decade? In a word? A sentence? A paragraph?
PRACTICING CITIZENSHIP
The disintegration of the Soviet Union in late 1991 brought an end not only to the cold war but also to a
phase of history that dated back to the end of World War II. Aside from all its traumas, one of the cold
war’s contributions was that it raised to prominence one of the most gifted writers in the history of the
English language, George Orwell. One of Orwell’s continuing themes is how twentieth-century
governments—dictatorships especially—abuse political language, using basic political terminology in a
most inaccurate and deceitful way. Read Orwell’s classic 1946 essay on this matter, “Politics and the
English Language.” Orwell himself was a devoted socialist who had fought for the Republic in the Spanish
