Diving into the murky waters of recent history, Phillips-Fein takes an intriguing look at scholarship in American history of the past 40-plus years, and discovers an era starting to develop a distinction of its own beyond the previous post-World War IIclassification.

Kim Phillips-Fein is assistant professor at the Gallatin School of New York University, and the author of Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan (2009).