the centrists on the Court, especially Anthony
Kennedy and Sandra Day O’Connor, played a sig-
nificant role. While more focused on the 1990’s,
the book also devotes significant attention to the
1980’s.
___.Making Constitutional Law: Thurgood Mar-
shall and the Supreme Court, 1961-1991. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1997. Thurgood Mar-
shall was one of the most liberal members of the
Supreme Court in the 1980’s, and Tushnet lo-
cates the source of Marshall’s liberalism, describ-
ing his views on a variety of constitutional issues.
The book also provides an overview of the Court
and the justices who served with Marshall.
Van Sickel, Robert W.Not a Particularly Different Voice:
The Jurisprudence of Sandra Day O’Connor. New
York: Peter Lang, 1998. In 1981, O’Connor was
the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court.
This book argues that rather than providing a lib-
eral break with tradition because of her gender,
O’Connor continued to expound the Court’s con-
servative and centrist philosophies. Van Sickel
suggests that O’Connor’s legal views and opin-
ions were not shaped by her gender, but by her
tendency to follow precedent and to avoid consti-
tutional questions, wherever possible.
Yarbrough, Tinsley.Rehnquist Court and the Constitu-
tion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
While the course of the Rehnquist Court was not
always consistent, it had a huge influence upon
America, beginning in the 1980’s. Yarbrough tries
to explain how and why the Court reached its de-
cisions, noting that its opinions generally contin-
ued past precedent. However, the Court broke
new ground on economic issues, striking down
more regulations on business and commerce than
its predecessors.
- Foreign Policy and Events
Andrew, Arthur.The Rise and Fall of a Middle Power:
Canadian Diplomacy from King to Mulroney.To-
ronto: Lorimer, 1993. Andrew, a former Cana-
dian ambassador, argues that Canadian power
has been declining since its peak in the mid-
1960’s. He maintains that Canada could choose
to reassert its power, but as of the early 1990’s the
country had become dependent on and subservi-
ent to the wishes of other nations, including the
United States.
Bell, Coral.The Reagan Paradox: American Foreign Pol-
icy in the 1980’s. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers Uni-
versity Press, 1990. Bell describes the gap between
Ronald Reagan’s spoken goals for international
relations and how he actually conducted foreign
policy.
Farber, David.Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis
and America’s First Encounter with Radical Islam.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2006.
In his chronicle of the Iranian hostage crisis,
Farber examines the rise of radical Islam and the
impact of the crisis upon the United States. The
effect of the crisis, Farber argues, cannot be ex-
plained without describing the general mood of
melancholy that affected America in the 1970’s.
Gaddis, John Lewis.The United States and the End of
the Cold War: Implications, Reconsiderations, Provoca-
tions. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Gaddis examines the reasons for the end of the
Cold War and reconsiders some of the significant
figures in that struggle. He also describes the
post-Cold War world, arguing that the end of the
war did not mean the end of world conflict.
Garthoff, Raymond L.The Great Transition: American-
Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War.Washing-
ton, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 1994. This
book analyzes U.S.-Soviet relations under presi-
dents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.
Garthoff argues that the United States was unnec-
essarily provocative toward the Soviet Union and
downplays the United States’ role in “winning”
the Cold War.
Hahn, Peter L.Crisis and Crossfire: The United States
and the Middle East Since 1945. Washington, D.C.:
Potomac Books, 2005. This work provides a short
introduction to the United States’ policy in the
Middle East during the last sixty years. In addition
to discussing America’s relations with Iraq, the
book also examines the Israeli-Palestinian con-
flict and America’s dependence upon the region’s
oil.
Karsh, Efraim.The Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988. Oxford,
England: Osprey, 2002. This brief history of the
war describes the major battles and the tactics
that Iran employed to repel Iraq. Includes a chro-
nology, time line, and photographs.
Karsh, Efraim, and Inari Rautsi.Saddam Hussein: A
Political Biography. New York: Grove Press, 2003.
This biography of Hussein focuses on how he con-
solidated and maintained political power in Iraq,1158 Bibliography The Eighties in America