Ronald Reagan

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). He was the leader of American conservatism, moving the nation to the right in terms of reducing federal regulation and lowering taxes. He moved the Supreme Cort and the federal courts to the right with his appointments. In foreign affairs he rejected détente with the Soviet Union, but not with China. His massive defense buildup forced the Soviets to confront their crumbling financial base. By 1986 they came to terms with Reagan, and in 1989 dismantled their Communist Empire. Reagan is thus credited with achieving victory in the Cold War. As a great communicator, and leader of the Republican party, he shifted the party to the right and became the model for his successors well into the 21st century.

Family background

Reagan's father was a working class Irish Catholic, a Democrat. He held a minor position in the WPA during the New Deal. His son recalled numerous alcoholic episodes. Reagan was influenced more by his mother, a devout member of the Disciples of Christ. The family lived in various small twins in northern Illinois until Reagan attended Eureka College, a small Disciples school where he was a "big man on campus" and active in theatre.

Hollywood star

After a radio job in Iowa, Reagan moved to Hollywood in 1937, where he starred in numerous "B" movies for Warner Brothers and became President of the Screen Actors Guild (the labor union for film actors). He was a prominent Democrat who supported the New Deal Coalition in the 1940s, and was a leading opponent of Communism in Hollywood. Reagan moved to the right in the early 1960s; he became a Republican and supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election.

Governor of California: 1966-74

After Goldwater's defeat many conservatives supported Reagan, who defeated against the liberal governor of California in 1966; Reagan was reelected in 1970 after firing the president of the state university and sending in armed force to confront student demonstrators trying to shut the university.

Election of 1980

Defeated for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and 1976, he easily won the nomination in 1980. Incumbent President Jimmy Carter attacked Reagan as a dangerous radical who would unleash nuclear war, but Reagan won a landslide victory in the 1980 election by denouncing what he called Carter's failures: runaway inflation, soaring interest rates, persistent unemployment, a series of humiliations abroad, and a weakened military in the face of growing Soviet power. His long coattails brought in the first Republican Senate in years, but the Democrats still controlled the House.

Bibliography

Biographies

• Benze, Jr. James G. Nancy Reagan: On the White House Stage (2005), University Press of Kansas
• Cannon, Lou. President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime Public Affairs. (2nd ed 2000) 948 pp. full-length biography
• Cannon, Lou. Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power Public Affairs. detailed biography
• Evans, Thomas W. The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years (2006)
• Morris, Edmund. Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan (1999), includes fictional material
• Pemberton, William E. Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1998) short biography by historian
• Reeves, Richard. President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination (2005) detailed analysis by historian
• Sullivan, George.Mr. President (1997). for middle schools

Politics and Domestic issues

• Aldrich, John H., and David W. Rohde. Change and Continuity in the 1984 Elections. (1987)
• Berman, Larry, ed. Looking Back on the Reagan Presidency (1990), essays by academics
• Brinkley, Alan and Davis Dyer. The American Presidency (2004)
• Brownlee, W. Elliot and Hugh Davis Graham, eds. The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies (2003)
• Busch, Andrew E. Reagan's Victory: The Presidential Election of 1980 and the Rise of the Right, (2005) online review by Michael Barone
• Campagna; Anthony S. The Economy in the Reagan Years: The Economic Consequences of the Reagan Administrations Greenwood Press. 1994
• Cannon, Lou. Ronald Reagan: The Presidential Portfolio. Public Affairs. ISBN
• Collins, Chuck, Felice Yeskel, and United for a Fair Economy. "Economic Apartheid in America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity." (2000). on tax policies.
• Cook, Daniel M. and Polsky, Andrew J. "Political Time Reconsidered: Unbuilding and Rebuilding the State under the Reagan Administration." American Politics Research(4): 577-605. ISSN 1532-673X Fulltext in SwetsWise. Argues Reagan slowed enforcement of pollution laws and transformed the national education agenda.
• Dallek, Matthew. The Right Moment: Ronald Reagan's First Victory and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics. (2004). Study of 1966 election as governor.
• Ehrman, John. The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan. (2005)
• Ferguson Thomas, and Joel Rogers, Right Turn: The Decline of the Democrats and the Future of American Politics 1986.
• Germond, Jack W. and Jules Witcover. Blue Smoke & Mirrors: How Reagan Won & Why Carter Lost the Election of 1980. 1981. Detailed journalism.
• Greenstein Fred I. ed. The Reagan Presidency: An Early Assessment 1983, essays by political scientists
• Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan, 1964-1980: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order (2001)
• Johnson, Haynes. Sleepwalking through History: America in the Reagan Years (1991)
• Jones, Charles O. ed. The Reagan Legacy: Promise and Performance (1988) essays by political scientists
• Levy, Peter B. Encyclopedia of the Reagan-Bush Years (1996), short articles
• Patterson, James T. Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush vs. Gore. (2005), standard scholarly synthesis.
• Salamon Lester M., and Michael S. Lund. eds. The Reagan Presidency and the Governing of America 1985. articles by political scientists
• Schmertz, Eric J. et al eds. Ronald Reagan's America 2 Volumes (1997) articles by scholars and officeholders
• Weatherford, M. Stephen and Mcdonnell, Lorraine M. "Ronald Reagan as Legislative Advocate: Passing the Reagan Revolution's Budgets in 1981 and 1982." Congress & the Presidency(1): 1-29. Fulltext in Ebsco; Argues RR ignored the details but played a guiding role in setting major policies and adjudicating significant trade-offs, and in securing Congressional approval.

Foreign affairs

• Arnson, Cynthia J. Crossroads: Congress, the Reagan Administration, and Central America Pantheon, 1989.
• Busch, Andrew E.; "Ronald Reagan and the Defeat of the Soviet Empire" in Presidential Studies Quarterly. Vol: 27. Issue: 3. 1997. pp 451+.
• Dobson, Alan P. "The Reagan Administration, Economic Warfare, and Starting to Close down the Cold War." Diplomatic History(3): 531-556. Fulltext in SwetsWise, Ingenta and Ebsco. Argues Reagan's public rhetoric against the USSR was harsh and uncompromising, giving rise to the idea that his administration sought to employ a US defense buildup and NATO economic sanctions to bring about the collapse of the USSR. Yet many statements by Reagan and Shultz suggest they desired negotiation with the Soviets from a position of American strength, not the eventual demise of the USSR.
• Draper, Theodore. A Very Thin Line: The Iran-Contra Affair (1991)
• Fitzgerald, Frances. Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War. political history of S.D.I. (2000). ISBN.
• Ford, Christopher A. and Rosenberg, David A. "The Naval Intelligence Underpinnings of Reagan's Maritime Strategy." Journal of Strategic Studies(2): 379-409. Fulltext in Ingenta and Ebsco; Reagan's maritime strategy sought to apply US naval might against Soviet vulnerabilities on its maritime flanks. It was supported by a major buildup of US naval forces and aggressive exercising in seas proximate to the USSR; it explicitly targeted Moscow's strategic missile submarines with the aim of pressuring the Kremlin during crises or the early phases of global war. The maritime strategy represents one of the rare instances in history when intelligence helped lead a nation to completely revise its concept of military operations.
• Haftendorn, Helga and Jakob Schissler, eds. The Reagan Administration: A Reconstruction of American Strength? Berlin: Walter de Guyer, 1988. by European scholars
• Jeffrey W. Knopf, "Did Reagan Win the Cold War?" Strategic Insights, Volume III, Issue 8 (August 2004)
• Kyvig, David. ed. Reagan and the World (1990), scholarly essays on foreign policy
• Pach, Chester. "The Reagan Doctrine: Principle, Pragmatism, and Policy." Presidential Studies Quarterly(1): 75-88. Fulltext in SwetsWise and Ingenta; Reagan declared in 1985 that the U.S. should not "break faith" with anti-Communist resistance groups. However, his policies varied as differences in local conditions and US security interests produced divergent policies toward "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola, and Cambodia.
• Salla; Michael E. and Ralph Summy, eds. Why the Cold War Ended: A Range of Interpretations Greenwood Press. 1995.
• Schmertz, Eric J. et al eds. Ronald Reagan and the World (1997) articles by scholars and officeholders
• Shultz, George P. Turmoil and Triumph My Years As Secretary of State 1993)
• Schweizer, Peter. Reagan's War: The Epic Story of His Forty Year Struggle and Final Triumph Over Communism (2002)
• Wallison, Peter J. Ronald Reagan: The Power of Conviction and the Success of His Presidency. Westview Press, 2003. 282 pp.
• Wills, David C. The First War on Terrorism: Counter-Terrorism Policy during the Reagan Administration. 2004.

Rhetoric, media and values

• Aden, R. C. "Entrapment and Escape: Inventional Metaphors in Ronald Reagan's Economic Rhetoric." Southern Communication Journal 54 (1989): 384-401
• Dallek, Robert. Ronald Reagan: The Politics of Symbolism. (1999)
• Denton Jr., Robert E. Primetime Presidency of Ronald Reagan: The Era of the Television Presidency (1988)
• FitzWater, Marlin . Call the Briefing! Bush and Reagan, Sam and Helen, a Decade with Presidents and the Press. 1995. Memoir by Reagan's press spokesman.
• Goodnight, G. Thomas. "Ronald Reagan's Re-formulation of the Rhetoric of War: Analysis of the 'Zero Option,' 'Evil Empire,' and 'Star Wars' Addresses." Quarterly Journal of Speech 72 (1986): 390-414.
• Greffenius, Steven. The Last Jeffersonian: Ronald Reagan's Dreams of America. June, July, & August Books. 2002.
• Hertsgaard Mark. On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency 1988. criticizes the press
• Houck, Davis, and Amos Kiewe, eds. Actor, Ideologue, Politician: The Public Speeches of Ronald Reagan (Greenwood Press, 1993)
• Lewis, William F. "Telling America's Story: Narrative Form and the Reagan Presidency", Quarterly Journal of Speech): 280–302
• Jones, John M. "'Until Next Week': The Saturday Radio Addresses of Ronald Reagan" Presidential Studies Quarterly. Volume: 32. Issue: 1. 2002. pp 84+.
• Kengor, Paul. God and Ronald Reagan: A Spiritual Life Regan Books, 2004. ISBN.
• Kiewe, Amos, and Davis W. Houck. A Shining City on a Hill: Ronald Reagan's Economic Rhetoric, 1951-1989. 1991.
• Meyer, John C. "Ronald Reagan and Humor: A Politician's Velvet Weapon", Communication Studies 41 (1990): 76-88.
• Moore, Mark P. "Reagan's Quest for Freedom in the 1987 State of the Union Address." Western Journal of Communication 53 (1989): 52-65.
• Muir, William Ker. The Bully Pulpit: The Presidential Leadership of Ronald Reagan (1992), examines his speeches
• Noonan, Peggy. When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan (2001) memoir by a Reagan speechwriter
• Ritter, Kurt W. Ronald Reagan: The Great Communicator. Greenwood, 1992.
• Shogan, Colleen J. "Coolidge and Reagan: The Rhetorical Influence of Silent Cal on the Great Communicator", Rhetoric & Public Affairs 9.2 online at Project Muse; argues that Coolidge and Reagan shared a common ideological message, which served as the basis for modern conservatism. Even without engaging in explicitly partisan rhetoric, Reagan's principled speech served an important party-building function.
• Stahl, Lesley. "Reporting Live" (1999) memoir by TV news reporter
• Stuckey, Mary. Getting Into the Game: The Pre-Presidential Rhetoric of Ronald Reagan. Praeger, 1989
• Stuckey, Mary. Playing the Game: The Presidential Rhetoric of Ronald Reagan. Praeger, 1990.
• Thomas, Tony. The Films of Ronald Reagan (1980)
• Troy, Gill. Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s (2004). Study of Reagan's image.
• Wills, Garry. Reagan's America: Innocents at Home. (1987)

Primary sources

• Reagan, Nancy. "My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan" (1989)
• Reagan, Ronald. An American Life: The Autobiography (1990)
• Reagan, Ronald. Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America (2001)

By aides

• Anderson, Martin. Revolution: The Reagan Legacy (1990)
• Haig, Alexander. Inner Circles: How America Changed the World (1994)
• Michael Deaver and Mickey Herskowitz. Behind the Scenes. 1987. Memoir by a top aide.
• Shultz, George P. Turmoil and Triumph My Years As Secretary of State 1993)
• Weinberger, Caspar. In the Arena: A Memoir of the 20th Century (1991), by the Defense Secretary