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Synopsis
The presidency of Ronald Reagan has become a Rorschach Test for politicians and citizens alike. Conservatives see the Reagan era as the high-water mark for their movement, in much the same way that many progressives view FDR's presidency as the pinnacle of liberalism. Liberals maintain that the rosy Reagan legacy is based largely on myth, and that in fact his eight years as president did serious harm to the country. This book gives due attention to the controversy surrounding the Reagan presidency, and will provide a balanced, objective view of the 40th president's foreign and domestic policies.
Library Journal
If we can be sure of one thing about the Reagan presidency, it's that it will always generate debate. Here U.S. government foreign affairs analyst Ehrman (The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan) and Flamm (history, Ohio Wesleyan Univ.; Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s) frame the debate in two extended essays of some 80 pages each, Flamm's on Reagan's foreign policy and Ehrman's on his domestic policy. Both essays are sympathetic to Reagan yet well balanced while also well written. To accompany their essays, the authors have compiled a bibliography and have included 15 brief primary documents, such as excerpts from Reagan's 1981 inaugural address and from his famous 1983 "evil empire" speech. The result, although conceived primarily for use in classrooms, is a good, concise summary of the major issues of the Reagan presidency.