Today's political scene looks nothing like it did thirty years ago, and that is due mostly to Reagan's monumental reshaping of the Republican party. What few people realize, however, is that Reagan's revolution did not begin when he took office in 1980, but in his failed presidential challenge to Gerald Ford in 1975-1976. This is the remarkable story of that historic campaign-one that, as Reagan put it, turned a party of "pale pastels" into a national party of "bold colors." Featuring interviews with a myriad of politicos, journalists, insiders, and observers, Craig Shirley relays intriguing, never-before-told anecdotes about Reagan, his staff, the campaign, the media, and the national parties and shows how Reagan, instead of following the lead of the ever-weakening Republican party, brought the party to him and almost single-handedly revived it.

How President Reagan successfully rebuilt the Western Alliance, particularly in relations with the United Kingdom, West Germany, and Japan.

"They called it the Reagan revolution," Ronald Reagan noted in his Farewell Address. "Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense." Nearly two decades after that 1989 speech, debate continues to rage over just how revolutionary those Reagan years were. The Reagan Revolution: A Very Short Introduction identifies and tackles some of the controversies and historical mysteries that continue to swirl around Reagan and his legacy, while providing an illuminating look at some of the era's defining personalities, ideas, and accomplishments. Gil Troy, a well-known historian who is a frequent commentator on contemporary politics, sheds much light on the phenomenon known as the Reagan Revolution, situating the reception of Reagan's actions within the contemporary liberal and conservative political scene. While most conservatives refuse to countenance any criticism of their hero, an articulate minority laments that he did not go far enough. And while some liberals continue to mourn just how far he went in changing America, others continue to mock him as a disengaged, do-nothing dunce. Nevertheless, as Troy shows, two and a half decades after Reagan's 1981 inauguration, his legacy continues to shape American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics. Both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush modeled much of their presidential leadership styles on Reagan's example, while many of the debates of the '80s about the budget, tax cutting, defense-spending, and American values still rage. Love him or hate him, Ronald Reagan remains the most influential president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, and one of the most controversial. This marvelous book places the Reagan Revolution in the broader context of postwar politics, highlighting the legacies of these years on subsequent presidents and on American life today. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

2021 Prose Award Finalist A long-overdue and sober examination of President Ronald Reagan’s racist politics that continue to harm communities today and helped shape the modern conservative movement. Ronald Reagan is hailed as a transformative president and an American icon, but within his twentieth-century politics lies a racial legacy that is rarely discussed. Both political parties point to Reagan as the “right” kind of conservative but fail to acknowledge his political attacks on people of color prior to and during his presidency. Reconsidering Reagan corrects that narrative and reveals how his views, policies, and actions were devastating for Black Americans and racial minorities, and that the effects continue to resonate today. Using research from previously untapped resources including the Black press which critically covered Reagan’s entire political career, Daniel S. Lucks traces Reagan’s gradual embrace of conservatism, his opposition to landmark civil rights legislation, his coziness with segregationists, and his skill in tapping into white anxiety about race, riding a wave of “white backlash” all the way to the Presidency. He argues that Reagan has the worst civil rights record of any President since the 1920s—including supporting South African apartheid, packing courts with conservatives, targeting laws prohibiting discrimination in education and housing, and launching the “War on Drugs”—which had cataclysmic consequences on the lives of Black and Brown people. Linking the past to the present, Lucks expertly examines how Reagan set the blueprint for President Trump and proves that he is not an anomaly, but in fact the logical successor to bring back the racially tumultuous America that Reagan conceptualized.

"There are cynics who say that a party platform is something that no one bothers to read and it doesn't very often amount to much. Whether it is different this time than it has ever been before, I believe the Republican Party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors, with no pastel shades." –Ronald Reagan, 1976 Republican National Convention When Ronald Reagan was called to the podium by President Ford during the 1976 Republican National Convention, he had no prepared remarks. But the unrehearsed speech he gave that night is still regarded as one of the most moving speeches of his political career. The reason he was able to give such a powerful speech on a moment's notice was that he was proclaiming the core principles of his heart and soul, which he had been teaching and preaching for years. The New Reagan Revolution reveals new insights into the life, thoughts, and actions of the man who changed the world during the 1980s. The challenges and threats we face today are eerily similar to the conditions in the world before the beginning of the Reagan era. The good news is that we already know what works. Ronald Reagan has given us the blueprint. This book is not merely a diagnosis of our nation's ills, but a prescription to heal our nation, rooted in the words and principles of Ronald Reagan. In these pages, you'll find a plan for returning America to its former greatness, soundness, and prosperity. It's the plan Ronald Reagan developed over years of study, observation, and reflection. It's a plan he announced to the nation, straight from his heart, one summer evening during America's 200th year. It's the plan he put into action during his eight years in office as the most effective president of the 20th century, and it is the plan we can use today to help return America to its former greatness, soundness, and prosperity.

This is a book about the strategy and politics of the Reagan administration--a watershed in U.S. history. It is the record of how the president established and implemented the strategy that would ultimately lead to a victory over the S.U. in the Cold War.

For students of U.S. history, The Reagan Revolution explores how a Hollywood upstart and eventual conservative leader became one of the most successful and influential presidents in U.S. history—one whose presidency helped to define the end of the Cold War. This book covers Ronald Reagan's long rise to the presidency and the conservative political revolution he brought about in the 1980s. Spurning the moderate values and policies Republicans had previously championed, Reagan's revolution continues to play an outsized role in America's political life. This important reference book gives browsers and readers alike an opportunity to focus on many of the intertwined issues of the 1980s: abortion, gay rights, law and order, the Cold War, tax cuts, de-industrialization, the Religious Right, and the political divisions that made Reagan's legislative victories possible. The book opens with a concise biography covering Reagan's rise from radio personality and actor to governor and president. Subsequent chapters cover politics and policy. Chapters also include an important review of Reagan's legendary public relations operations ("morning in America" and the perfection of the television photo op) and the ways in which 1980s popular culture influenced and was influenced by his presidency. This section portrays Reagan as a product of Hollywood who keenly understood the importance of public opinion and creating a positive image.

This monograph provides an update to anarchist philosophy, advocating for a paradigm shift beyond neoliberalism and liberal democracy. The book’s central thesis has two components. First, it is argued that the maximization of equal liberty requires historical progress beyond the sovereign state system. In contrast to Fukuyama’s (1992) argument that liberal democracy is the end of history, it is argued that liberalism contains two contradictions (socioeconomic inequality and the shortcoming in equal liberty inherent to state power) with the potential to propel history further. This book’s argument – libertarian social democracy – provides a framework to guide that final stage of history. Second, while anarchist philosophy offers a vision beyond the sovereign state, it can be rendered more suitable as an alternative paradigm. Specifically, it is argued that anarchism is hampered by its traditional adherence to prefigurative strategy, according to which the state cannot be used as a means to achieve a free and equal society. By contrast, libertarian social democracy incorporates a role for a democratic transitionary state (described here as gradualist anarchism) thus addressing mainstream “Hobbesian” concerns about bad anarchy (where decentralization yields a net loss in equal liberty). In so doing, the book reveals the full spectrum of anarchist strategy from prefigurative to gradualist.

The triumph of the conservative movement in reshaping American politics is one of the great untold stories of the past fifty years. At the end of World War II, hardly anyone in public life would admit to being a conservative, but as Lee Edwards shows in this magisterial work, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, a small group of committed men and women began to chip away at the liberal colossus, and their descendants would scale the ramparts of power in the 1980s and 1990s. Not even the fall of Newt Gingrich has changed the indisputable fact that the movement has truly rewritten the rules of American political life, and the republic will never be the same. Edwards tells the stories of how conservatives built a movement from the ground up by starting magazines, by building grass-roots organizations, and by seizing control of the Republican party from those who espoused collaboration with the liberals and promised only to manage the welfare state more efficiently and not to dismantle it. But most of all he tells the story of four men, four leaders who put their personal stamp on this movement and helped to turn it into the most important political force in our country today: * Robert Taft, "Mr. Republican," the beacon of conservative principle during the lean Roosevelt and Truman years * Barry Goldwater, "Mr. Conservative," the flinty Westerner who inspired a new generation * Ronald Reagan, "Mr. President," the optimist whose core beliefs were sturdy enough to subdue an evil empire * Newt Gingrich, "Mr. Speaker," the fiery visionary who won a Congress but lost control of it By their example and vision, these men brought intellectual and ideological stability to an often fractions conservative movement and held the high ground against the pragmatists who would compromise conservative principles for transitory political advantage. And through their efforts and those of their supporters, they transformed the American political landscape so thoroughly that a Democratic president would one day proclaim, "The era of big government is over." Political history in the grand style, The Conservative Revolution is the definitive book on a conservative movement that not only has left its mark on our century but is poised to shape the century about to dawn.

Decision making about energy has come to epitomize a larger struggle taking place in U.S. society--a struggle for control over individual destiny, economic resources, and the shaping of society itself. A host of ideologies has been spawned, new federalism and new populism among them. Many activist groups argue that making decisions about resources can be a first step in helping people gain control of their lives. Focusing on the issues surrounding the control of energy and discussing the limitations and advantages of dealing with the energy problem at the local level, the author examines the proposition that granting control over decision making to cities, states, or regions rather than to the federal government can positively affect public confidence, as well as result in more efficient energy planning. Mr. Cose discusses the various interpretations of decentralization; the relationship between decentralization and small-scale technologies; the overlapping and opposing interests of governments, consumers, and corporations; and the extent to which local governments and political structures are prepared to deal with an issue that is traditionally outside of their sphere. The author supports his analysis by looking at specific municipal governments and their attempts, successes, and failures to respond to the energy crisis. He also analyzes the particular problems of community projects. Throughout the book he comments on the effect that Reagan administration policies have had on decision making about energy at all levels of government nationwide.