Haynes Johnson

Mr. Johnson's book, Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years, talks about the 1980s as the most important years in the United States since World War II. Ronald Reagan was the first president since Eisenhower to serve two consecutive terms, and this Mr. Johnson said, made it possible ... (more)for him to "invent an age" whose consequences Americans will be dealing with for years. Mr. Johnson chronicles the significant events that occurred during the Reagan era, including the Iran hostage situation. He also describes the key figures of the era, such as Ivan Boesky, Oliver North and Jim Baker. According to Mr. Johnson, the way to understand the Reagan decade is by examining how America's economic status fell from that of a dominant world power to a struggling debtor nation.

Mr. Broder talks about the book he wrote with Haynes Johnson, The System: The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point, published by Little, Brown and Company. The book examines in detail how "the system" of congressional partisanship prevented a reform of the U.S. health care system by the Clinton ... (more)administration in 1993-94. Both co-authors are Pulitzer Prize winners.

A conversation with Haynes Johnson about his book