Now That's What I Call a History of the 1980s: Pop Culture and Politics in the Decade That Shaped Modern Britain - Paperback

by Lucy Robinson (Author)

Now that's what I call a history of the 1980s tells the story of eighties Britain through its popular culture. Charting era-defining moments from Lady Diana's legs and the miners' strike to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage and Adam and the Ants, Lucy Robinson weaves together an alternative history to the one we think we know. This is not a history of big geopolitical disasters, or a nostalgic romp through discos, shoulder pads and yuppie culture. Instead, the book explores a mashing together of different genres and fan bases in order to make sense of our recent past and give new insights into the decade that defined both globalisation and excess.

Packed with archival and cultural research but written with verve and spark, the book offers as much to general readers as to scholars of this period, presenting a distinctive and definitive contemporary history of 1980s Britain, from pop to politics, to cold war cultures, censorship and sexuality.

Back Jacket

'Lucy Robinson shows us how history helps us to understand culture and how culture helps us to understand history. By understanding history and culture you will start to think and change your life. If you change your life, you change the world.'
Vivienne Westwood

'The eighties was a pop culture minefield that only a nimble narrator can guide you through. Now that's what I call a history of the 1980s does this with a keen cultural eye and captivating turn of phrase.'
John Robb, author of The art of darkness: A history of goth

'The chapter on my success was fabulous. Full marks to the professor.'
Roland Rat

Now that's what I call a history of the 1980s tells the story of eighties Britain through its popular culture. Charting era-defining moments from Lady Diana's legs and the miners' strike to Glastonbury's Pyramid Stage and Adam and the Ants, Lucy Robinson weaves together an alternative history to the one we think we know. This is not a history of big geopolitical disasters, or a nostalgic romp through discos, shoulder pads and yuppie culture. Instead, the book explores a mashing together of different genres and fan bases in order to make sense of our recent past and give new insights into the decade that defined both globalisation and excess.

Packed with archival and cultural research but written with verve and spark, the book offers as much to general readers as to scholars of this period, presenting a distinctive and definitive contemporary history of 1980s Britain, from pop to politics, to cold war cultures, censorship and sexuality.

Author Biography

Lucy Robinson is Professor of Collaborative History at the University of Sussex