On a typical school night in the 1980s, you might have found a kid slumped over a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica . The 30-odd leather-clad books inspired countless children’s science reports and history essays. Each volume presented a slice of the world’s collective knowledge, alphabetically labeled from Accounting to Zoroastrianism.
Coincidentally, in 1984, United Artists released the hit movie, Red Dawn , in which Russia and Cuba invade the United States. The film was staggeringly jingoistic, even when seen through the polarized lens of the Cold War. My 13-year-old ...
