November 8, 2009

Reagan and the 80s Deserve More Courses

Alex Majoli, Magnum Photos

Today’s college students, who were born just as Ronald Reagan’s presidency was ending, need more opportunities to understand him and an era that so shaped their America.

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Alex Majoli, Magnum Photos

Today’s college students, who were born just as Ronald Reagan’s presidency was ending, need more opportunities to understand him and an era that so shaped their America.

By Gil Troy

Most college students today were born during the 1980s or early 1990s, but they are far likelier to take a history course about the 1960s than about those decades. Market Data Retrieval, a service of Dun & Bradstreet, lists 525 college instructors teaching "the Vietnam era," meaning the 1960s; courses on the 80s do not even merit a separate category. One publisher's higher-education marketing manager estimates that although 100,000 students may be enrolled in courses on the 1960s, barely