In his introduction to The 1980s: An Internet Conference, moderator Maurice Berger writes, "As Fredric Jameson reminds us in his essay "Periodizing the 1960s," decades are never neat, clearly defined episodes. Their boundaries are porous, their roots long, their implications far-reaching, their stories, a jumble of events that historical orthodoxy all too easily erases, overestimates, or devalues. For the purposes of this conference, then, "The 1980s" serves as an historical hook--a convenient means for focusing on a constellation of events, sensibilities, cultural objects, methodologies, and social movements that took form in the United States in the era roughly between the late-1970s and early-1990s." Contributors include Alexander Alberro, Max Becher, Dan Cameron, Mary Kelly, Wayne Koestenbaum, David A. Ross, Irving Sandler, Carolee Schneemann, Carol Squiers, Oliver Wasow, Linda Yablonsky and others.

Introduction by: Maurice Berger