Growing up in the 80s, I thought this book would be a fun way to show my children what things were like then. But it isn't really that type of book - it is geared more towards the classroom. ( )

When I studied history and social studies in middle school, I was continually frustrated at the lack of coverage of more modern history. Our lessons tended to end around the first World War, either through inefficient use of classroom time, or because of mandated lesson plans that had not been updated for far too long.

I was intrigued by this book specifically because I wanted to see how the decade in which I grew up might be presented in a historical context. Unfortunately, that is not what this book contains.

Instead, it is geared completely toward teachers, providing basic lesson plans for how to approach various topics from the 1980s, but critically without any text or historical content. There are lesson plans and worksheets, but virtually nothing else. All of the actual information about the 1980s must be provided by the instructor.

As such, this is a mere skeleton of a book, an outline onto which real learning can be hung. It might be very useful for a teacher, but as someone who was looking to consume information, I was left wanting more. ( )

I'm only going to be echoing what a lot of other reviewers here have said already: there is not enough information in this book to teach from it. You might be able to use the worksheets, but you'd probably be better off making your own. This is like a lot of work geared towards teachers, expensive and slight. ( )

I think this book might be okay as a starting point for a fleshed out lesson plan on the 80's. The worksheets and guided lesson plans are good, but the content is, as another reviewer mentions, lacking in thoroughness. One thing I appreciated was a seemingly neutral stance on political aspects mentioned in the workbook. This would probably be a good resource for middle grades social studies teachers or homeschool parents of pre-teens. ( )

I gave this book three stars. I found it very interesting but not at all what I was expecting. In order to do the lessons, I had to look it all up on the internet. I figured it would have been more discussed within the textbook. I would have liked this when I was in school and I think its a great and fun curriculum for a teacher to teach their students. But maybe if more information was in the textbook instead of having to look up everything on the internet, I would have gave it 5 stars. ( )