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The Age of Reaganbrings to life the tumultuous decade and a half that preceded Ronald Reagan's ascent to the White House. Based on scores of interviews and years of research, Steven F. Hayward takes us on an engrossing journey through the most politically divisive years the United States has had to endure since the decade before the Civil War. Overseas, we were embroiled in a war we couldn't win; at home our streets had become battlefields; and in Washington, the old liberal order was show more collapsing under the weight of a long string of failed policies. "It seemed that an era of American optimism and progress had come to a close," Hayward writes. "The concatenation of Vietnam, Watergate, the recurrent energy crisis, the swooning economy, the increasingly disorderly world scene, and the failed presidencies associated with these events robbed Americans of their native optimism for the future." Meanwhile, from out of the West arose a new conservative movement led by Ronald Reagan, a one-time Hollywood actor whose speech in 1964 in support of the doomed candidacy of Barry Goldwater not only electrified a national television audience but also created a political star who would change the course of history. With meticulous detail, Hayward captures an America at war with itself—and an era whose reverberations we feel to this very day. He brings new insight into the profound failure of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the oddly liberal nature of Richard Nixon's administration, the significance of Reagan's years as California's governor, and the sudden-death drama of his near defeat of Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primary, the listlessness of Jimmy Carter's leadership, and the political earthquake that was Reagan's victorious presidential campaign in 1980. Provocative, authoritative, and majestic in scope,The Age of Reaganis an unforgettable account of the rebirth and triumph of the American spirit. show lessTags
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Author Information
16+ Works 819 Members
Steven F. Hayward is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He has previously taught at Pepperdine University and Ashland University and was the inaugural visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He holds a Ph.D. in American show more Studies and an M.A. in Government from Claremont Graduate School. Hayward has written for many publications including National Review, Reason, the Weekly Standard, the American Spectator, the Claremont Review of Books, Policy Review, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He is the author of The Real Jimmy Carter; Greatness: Reagan, Churchill, and the Making of Modern Statesmen; and Patriotism Is Not Enough. show less
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980
- People/Characters
- Ronald Reagan
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, General Nonfiction, Politics and Government, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 973.92 — History & geography History of North America United States 1901- Cold War, Vietnam War, Digital Age (1953-2001)
- LCC
- E839.5 .H39 — History of the United States United States Later twentieth century, 1961-2000 Political history
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 162
- Popularity
- 201,451
- Rating
- (4.03)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 2
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 1
