Nine Responses to Kevin Mattson’s We’re Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America
In the fall of 2021, the students in my State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport course “The American Mind: What Were They Thinking? US Intellectual History Seminar and Digital Editing Practicum” worked as editorial assistants with nine outside scholars on responses to Kevin Mattson’s 2020 book We’re Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America, published by Oxford University Press.
Each day over the next two weeks, the USIH Blog will publish one of the responses to We’re Not Here to Entertain, with a closing comment from Kevin Mattson.
- Monday, 15 August 2022: Bradford Martin on the challenge of writing history about an era one experienced firsthand and Glenn Dowdle’s Storymap tour of the growing punk rock network in the US during the early 1980s.
- Tuesday, 16 August 2022: Lily Geismer on 1980s punk and politics beyond Ronald Reagan.
- Wednesday, 17 August 2022: Katherine Rye Jewell on how 80s punk suggests revisions to Daniel Rodgers’ Age of Fracture thesis about the era.
- Thursday, 18 August 2022: Marlén Ríos-Hernández on rethinking the history of femmes, girls, people of color, and women in punk by moving beyond the framework of “poserism.”
- Friday, 19 August 2022: David Pearson on analyzing the internal imperfections of 1980s—and 1990s—punk.
- Monday, 22 August 2022: Lauren F. Turek on the transnational story of 1980s punk.
- Tuesday, 23 August 2022: Michelle Cruz Gonzales on Chicana women, feminism, and backlash in 1980s and 90s punk.
- Wednesday, 24 August 2022: Kathryn Cramer Brownell on the politics of entertainment for both 1980s punk rockers and conservative politicians.
- Thursday, 25 August 2022: Eric Weisbard on being an ambivalent punk rocker while editing and writing for Spin in the 1980s and 90s.
- Friday, 26 August 2022: Kevin Mattson responds.
Comments, conversation, and vigorous but civil debate are most welcome using the comments function at the bottom of each post.
You can learn more about the book and Kevin Mattson’s writing at its accompanying multimedia website, assembled by Shalon van Tine. And don’t miss the great soundtrack you can tune in to as you read. Lastly, take a tour of SUNY Brockport History graduate student Glenn Dowdle’s Storymap about the growing network of punk rock in the US during the early 1980s.
Thank Yous
There are many thank yous to send out for the work on this roundtable. Most of all, we thank the students in “The American Mind: What Were They Thinking? US Intellectual History Seminar and Digital Editing Practicum” during the Fall of 2021: Autumn Craig, Eryk Cup, Glenn Dowdle, Alan Gowans, KT Hastings, Brooklynn Hill, Trevor Lemke, Tony Matela, Derrick Mosher, Christouffer Rucinski, Linda Tague, Jasmine Taylor, Jacob Torcello, and Tiffany Walters. Your willingness to connect punk rock, intellectual history, research assistance to writers, and digital editing skills development was a joy to witness. Kudos! Enormous thanks to Kevin Mattson, who gamely videoconferenced into our seminar and willingly engaged with the responses to his book. We also thank Shalon van Tine, doctoral student at Ohio University, for assistance and support. Shalon also videoconferenced with our seminar and discussed her experiences working as a doctoral student and research assistant (and watch out for her upcoming project on 1990s US culture!). We appreciate Oxford University Press’s Publicity Department staff for being helping us get copies of the book to writers. The ace librarians at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport’s Drake Memorial Library ably assisted students in consultations for developing research skills. We particularly thank Pam O’Sullivan and Bruce Conrad-Reingold. Finally, thanks go to the Department of History at the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport for supporting the seminar. — Michael J. Kramer, Roundtable Editor
2 Thoughts on this Post
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Hurray for this! I know it was a long-time in the making. Thank you, Michael Kramer, for leading this and bringing it here. …I’m a bit intimidated by the reading in front of me! But here goes—in order. – TL
Note: I *love* the accompanying playlist, but I hate the political ads between each song.