Relive the 1980s, from Conservatism to Counterculture

Ah, the ‘80s! It feels like only yesterday that we were perming our hair, firing up the Atari, and wearing out Purple Rain cassettes in our collective Sony Walkman. For better or worse, it’s an era whose ghosts are still very much with us – and not only in the deathless mantras of business-in-the-front, party-in-the-back philosophies.

UK Libraries users can now relive the turbulence and complexity of this wildly boom-and-bust decade through a new electronic resource, 1980s Culture and Society. 

An eclectic online resource with materials compiled from archival collections across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, 1980s Culture and Society showcases the key social, cultural, and political concerns of the decade from an incredible diversity of sources.

The resource’s strength lies in its carefully curated thematic collections, bringing together records that document the rise of political conservatism and mainstream consumer culture alongside materials produced by grassroots organizations, under-represented groups, and countercultural movements. 

Collections of zines and ephemera from subcultures as diverse as the Alaskan punk scene and Australian science fiction fandom brush up against images from fashion catalogs and daily newspapers. Newsletters and meeting minutes from social and political activist groups stand in juxtaposition to records and speeches from the Reagan and Thatcher administrations.

More materials provide unique insights into Black resistance movements, Indigenous land rights, feminism, environmentalism and anti-nuclear activism, the AIDS crisis, disability rights, sexuality and identity, and health and social issues.

And technophiles will be pleased to find a wealth of materials covering the rise of new media and technology, including advertisements and ephemera relating to early video game pioneers; the papers of Carol Shaw, the first widely recognized professional female video game designer; and design concept sketches, game development documentation, and corporate records from Atari that chart games like Asteroids and Centipede from concept to launch.

If you find a DMC DeLorean in there, don’t touch the flux capacitor.

Thematic guides introduce users to the collection’s many subject areas and highlight unique materials, while contextual essays provide greater depth on key research themes. A searching guide and additional editor-created research tools contribute to the user-friendliness of the resource. 

1980s Culture and Society is one of several new electronic resources and archival collections available through UK Libraries from AM Explorer. Others released this year include:

• Africa and the New Imperialism: European Borders on the Africa Continent, 1870-1914 – archival collections documenting European colonization across the African continent in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century through rare printed works, diaries and journals, correspondence, maps, photographs, and film footage.
• British Newsreels, 1911-1930: Culture and Society on Film – a large collection of newsreels produced by the Topical Film Company that provide a glimpse into the early twentieth century, from everyday interests, such as sport and fashion, to key events, such as the First World War, the Suffragette Movement, and the establishment of the Irish Free State.
• Broadcasting America: The Rise of Mass Media and Communications – a resource that tracks the expansion of radio and television technology and the rise of mass media empires through the lens of pioneer David Sarnoff, President of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and other industry papers.
• Conflict in Indochina: Foreign Office Files for Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia: Crisis and Upheaval, 1959-1964 – a collection of Foreign Office Files covering key events across Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos during a period of political upheaval, civil unrest, and escalating conflict. 
• Human Rights: Amnesty International Archives – a resource detailing the growth of the human rights movement during the second half of the twentieth century through the International Secretariat records of Amnesty International.
• Royal Shakespeare Company Archives: From Playwrights to Performance – a record of the performance history of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessor, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, with almost 1,400 prompt books, along with production records, costume designs, music files, and photographs.

Every month, UK Libraries adds new electronic resources to its collection of over 700 databases. To find more new and on-trial databases and electronic resources, visit our A-Z Database page. The “New/Trial Databases” list is on the right-hand side of the page beneath “Featured Databases.”