Back To Our Future by David Sirota - Out Now!

David Sirota Goes Back To Our Future

“Back To Our Future is wildly entertaining—and scary.” - Rachel Maddow

Wall Street scandals. Fights over taxes. A Lakers-Celtics championship. Charlie Sheen hogging the spotlight. The Karate Kid and Tron topping the box-office charts. These words could describe our current moment—or the vaunted iconography of three decades past.

David Sirota is a senior editor of In These Times, a radio host, bestselling author and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist (read his latest column here). In Back To Our Future, released today, he argues that the popular culture of the ‘80s shaped a generation and continues to influence the political culture of today—and not for the better.

Read an exclusive extract from Back To Our Future, as seen in the April issue of In These Times.

In this wide-ranging and wickedly entertaining book, Sirota takes readers on a rollicking DeLorean ride back in time to reveal how so many of our present-day conflicts are rooted in the pop culture of the 1980s—from the “Greed is good” ethos of Gordon Gekko (and Bernie Madoff) to the “Make my day” foreign policy of Ronald Reagan (and George W. Bush) to the “transcendence” of Cliff Huxtable (and Barack Obama).

Today’s mindless militarism and hypernarcissism, Sirota argues, first became the norm when an ‘80s generation weaned on Rambo one-liners and “Just Do It” exhortations embraced a new religion—with comic books, cartoons, sneaker commercials, videogames and even children’s toys serving as the key instruments of cultural indoctrination.

With the dexterity only a child of the Atari Age could possess, David Sirota twists and turns 1980s pop culture like a Rubik’s Cube, exposing it as a warning for our own troubled present and possible future.

Sirota In Person

In These Times and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum have teamed up to present a special book release event with David Sirota in Chicago on Thursday, March 24. David will read excerpts from Back to Our Future and discuss ‘80s culture with Nathan Rabin, head writer for the A.V. Club, the entertainment section of The Onion.

David Sirota’s weekly column appears in newspapers with a combined daily circulation of more than 1.6 million readers. In addition to In These Times, he has contributed to the New York Times Magazine, The Nation and the Huffington Post. He hosts an award-winning daily talk show on Denver’s Clear Channel affiliate, KKZN-AM760, and appears periodically on CNN, The Colbert Report, PBS and NPR. He lives in Denver with his wife, Emily, and their dog. Visit www.davidsirota.com to learn more.

Buy Back To Our Future in Hardcover from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound or Random House.

Buy the eBook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or elsewhere.