Theoretical and Research Issues in Africana Studies

The year of 1980 marked a pivotal turning point in the American political landscape: the electoral victory of presidential candidate Ronald Reagan; the beginnings of the public hysteria and eventual legislative dismantling of affirmative action and other civil rights initiatives; the dawn of the ruthless reign of neo-conservatism; and, in some ways serving as the glue, the ascent of neo-liberalism as the prevailing ideology and standard logic of viewing and ordering the world. Some thirty-five years later, it is almost difficult to remember a world, and more precisely a moment in United States history, when these things were not so dominant. When thinking about the lasting impact of that moment, David Harvey writes, "Future historians may well look upon the years 1978-1980 as a revolutionary turning-point in the world's social and economic history... revolutionary impulses seemingly spread and reverberated to remake the world around us in a totally different image." In short, this was an instance of profound transformation; it was the dawn of the counterrevolution. By no means immune to the changes in the