The Reagan era is usually seen as an era of unheralded prosperity, and as a high-watermark of Republican success. President Ronald Reagan's belief in "Reaganomics", his media-friendly sound-bites and "can do" personality have come to define the era. However, this was also a time of domestic protest and unrest. Under Reagan the US was directly involved in the revolutions which were sweeping the Central Americas- El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -and in Nicaragua Reagan armed the Contras who fought the Sandinistas. This book seeks to show how the left within the US reacted and protested against these events. The Nation, Verso Books and the Guardian exploded in popularity, riding high on the back of popular anti-interventionist sentiment in America, while the film-maker Oliver Stone led a group of directors making films with a radical left-wing message. The author shows how the1980s in America were a formative cultural period for the anti-Reaganites as well as the Reaganites, and in doing so charts a new history.

AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Rethinking the Cultural Left in the Reagan EraSection I : Intellectual Culture 1. Walter LaFeber, Gabriel Kolko and the Activist History of American Empire2. Verso Books and Transnational SolidaritySection II : Press Culture3. The Nation and Nicaragua4. The Guardian, the Solidarity Movement and El Salvador Section III 5. Anti-Interventionist Cinema at Hollywood's Margins6. International Feminism, Documentary Filmmaking and Central American Revolutionary Struggle Conclusion ; Rememebering Central America Activism NotesBibliographyIndex