{"id":4657,"date":"2010-08-26T15:12:27","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T09:12:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-12-28T16:39:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-28T23:39:46","slug":"1980s","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/1980s\/","title":{"rendered":"Best articles of the 1980s"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a subsection of the larger Best Magazine Articles Ever list. The list introduction, top 25, and links to other decades are here<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

* Sydney Schanberg, “The Death and Life of Dith Pran: A Story of Cambodia<\/a>” The New York Times Magazine, Sunday Magazine Special Section, January 20, 1980. [Ed.’s note: This article led to a book and then made into a movie “The Killing Fields.” Dith Pran also deserved his own page under Times Topics<\/a> on the New York Times website.]<\/p>\n

* John McPhee, “Basin and Range (Part I)<\/a>.” The New Yorker, October 20, 1980. Clear and interesting explanations about geology and plate tectonics for the layperson.<\/em><\/p>\n

* George W.S. Trow, “Within the Context of No Context<\/a>.” The New Yorker, November 17, 1980. Brilliant, eccentric, apocalyptic writing about the nature of the cultural devastation television has wrought.<\/em> [Ed.’s not: Republished as a book<\/a> under the same title.]<\/p>\n

* Paul Nelson, “The Crackup and Resurrection of Warren Zevon.” Rolling Stone, March 19, 1981. Tough, fearless and a very memorable look at Zevon’s alcoholism and his attempt at recovery.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Rene Ricard, “The Radiant Child<\/a>.” ArtForum Magazine, December 1981. The first big article to cover the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Bits of it were used as voiceovers in the film Basquiat.<\/em><\/p>\n

**** Edward Jay Epstein, “Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond?<\/a>” Atlantic Magazine, February 1982. Diamonds, De Beers, monopoly & marketing.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Kenny Moore, “You Oughta Be in Pictures<\/a>.” Sports Illustrated, February 1, 1982. <\/p>\n

* Marcelle Clements, “The Dog is Us.” Rolling Stone, September 2, 1982.<\/p>\n

* Tom Wolfe, “The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce: How the Sun Rose on the Silicon Valley<\/a>.” Esquire Magazine, December, 1983. <\/p>\n

* Roger Angell, “In the Fire<\/a>.” The New Yorker, March 12, 1984. <\/p>\n

* George W. S. Trow, Annals of Discourse, “The Harvard Black Rock Forest<\/a>.” The New Yorker, June 11, 1984. <\/p>\n

* William Broyles, Jr., “Why Men Love War.” Esquire, November 1984.<\/p>\n

**** George Plimpton, “The Curious Case Of Sidd Finch<\/a>.” Sports Illustrated, April 1, 1985. I remember being extremely angry (for a few minutes) that the Mets were going to get this guy instead of my A’s. I was an honest kid and man, it just seemed so unfair. When I realized it was a prank, I wasn’t as upset. Because I always thought this guy, in some form, would someday show up and blow away the Twins, the Angels, and the Giants wearing an A’s uniform. I’m still waiting!<\/em><\/p>\n

* Frank Deford, “The Boxer and the Blonde<\/a>.” Sports Illustrated, June 17, 1985. Story of a hard Pittsburgh boxer and the woman who captured his heart.<\/em><\/p>\n

* E.B. White, “One Man’s Meat<\/a>.” Harper’s Magazine, December 1985. I think the series of essays that E.B. White wrote for Harper’s Magazine in the mid-twentieth century stands as some of the best writing to appear in a magazine. I had a copy of the collected One Man’s Meat essays with me in college, and I would always read a couple before starting any class papers. I loved getting White’s effortless, graceful prose in my mind before starting any writing assignment. <\/em><\/p>\n

* James Fenton, “The Snap Revolution<\/a>.” Granta, 1986. What happened in Manila, and in Malacanang Palace, when the Marcoses fell.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Calvin Trillin, “Covering the Cops<\/a>.” The New Yorker, February 17, 1986. Terrific profile of Edna Buchanan<\/em><\/p>\n

* Calvin Trillin, “Black or White<\/a>.” The New Yorker, April 14, 1986.<\/p>\n

***** Richard Ben Cramer, “What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now?<\/a>” Esquire, June 1986.<\/p>\n

** Nicholas Lemann, “The Origins of the Underclass, Part I and II<\/a>.” Atlantic Magazine, June and July 1986. <\/p>\n

* Lester Bangs, “The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.” [Ed.’s note: This article was published in Greil Marcus’ “Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung” by Random House, and later made into a parody film in 1963. The original article cannot be found.]<\/p>\n

* Carlos M. Cipolia, “Basic Laws of Human Stupidity<\/a>.” Whole Earth Review, Spring 1987. A serious meditation on stupidity that will probably resonate today.<\/em><\/p>\n

** John McPhee, “The Control of Nature: Atchafalaya<\/a>.” The New Yorker, February 23, 1987.<\/p>\n

* Jared Diamond,”The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race<\/a>.” Discover, May 1987. <\/p>\n

* Bill Barol, “I Stayed Up With Jerry<\/a>.” Newsweek, September 1987.<\/p>\n

* Dan Katz, “The King of the Ferret Leggers.” Outside Magazine, October 1987. [Ed.’s note: Appears in the travel writing anthology, “Not So Funny When It Happened,” which can be read via Google Books here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

** Richard Rhodes, “Cupcake Land. Requiem for the Midwest in the key of vanilla<\/a>.” Harper’s Magazine, November 1987. <\/p>\n

* Paul Hoffman, “The Man Who Loved Only Numbers<\/a>.” The Atlantic, November 1987. <\/p>\n

* Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History<\/a>?” The National Interest, 1989. proposes “Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” <\/em><\/p>\n

* Joel Agee, “A Fury of Symbols<\/a>.” Harper’s Magazine, January 1989. <\/p>\n

* Richard Rosen, “Bullcrit: The Reading Disorder of the Literary Fast Lane<\/a>.” New York, February 6, 1989.<\/p>\n

* Paul Rudnick and Kurt Andersen, “The Irony Epidemi<\/a>c.” Spy, March 1989. <\/p>\n

* Janet Malcolm, “The Journalist and the Murderer, The Journalist-I<\/a>” and “The Journalist and the Murderer, The Murderer-II<\/a>. The New Yorker, March 13 and March 20, 1989. <\/p>\n

* Steve Silberman, “Who was Cowboy Neal: The Life and Myth of Neal Cassady<\/a>.” The Golden Road #19, Spring 1989. <\/p>\n

* William McKibben, “The End of Nature<\/a>.” The New Yorker, September 11, 1989. Reflections on the greenhouse effect and global warming. It brought home to me the enormity of the threat. I’ve never gotten over it.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Davis Miller, “My Dinner With Ali.” Louisville Courier-Journal, 1989. [Ed.’s note: Republished in Miller’s The Zen of Muhammad Ali<\/a><\/em>, Harrington’s The Beholder’s Eye<\/a><\/em>, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

back to the Top 25<\/a><\/strong><\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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