Ronald Reagan

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/18/2023
  

  I Helped John Connally Try to Delay the Release of the Iran Hostages

  The New York Times recently reported the claim by Ben Barnes that he and the former Texas governor toured the middle east in 1980 to try to delay the release of hostages to help Ronald Reagan win election. 

• 
• 3/20/2023
  

  H.W. Brands on Ben Barnes's "Revelation" about the Iran Hostage Crisis

  "In effect, Connally and Casey were telling the Iranians not to do something the Iranians had no intention of doing."

• 
• SOURCE: Politico
  8/26/2022
  

  Nicole Hemmer: Trump Didn't Kill off Reaganism—Reagan's Contemporaries Did

  Why, as Republicans touted the legacy of Ronald Reagan, have they moved further from his sunny rhetoric and international engagement toward a harder-edged nationalism? 

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Review
  4/5/2022
  

  "Father Knows Best": Anti-LGBTQ Legislation and the Patriarchy

  by Judith Levine

  The elision of children’s interests and parents’ rights is not just bad grammar, however. It is an expression of conservative “pro-family” ideology, which posits the family as an indivisible unit where everyone’s interests are unanimous.

• 
• SOURCE: The New Republic
  11/26/2021
  

  Reagan's Go-To Magazine Has Gone Full MAGA – What it Means for Conservatism

  "The renaissance of the magazine provides the perfect capsule summary of the conservative movement’s long downward journey from pages to pixels."

• 
• 11/21/2021
  

  Perlstein's "Reaganland" Sheds New Light on a Familiar Story

  by Ron Steinman

  Rick Perlstein's "Reaganland" captures details of the 1980 campaign that weren't obvious even to political journalists covering Reagan's ultimately successful mission to take the conservative movement to the White House. 

• 
• SOURCE: Teen Vogue
  11/18/2021
  

  We're Still Living with the Consequences of Letting Iran-Contra Perpetrators Get Away with It

  by Zeb Larson

  An explainer on the Iran-Contra affair, and why the failure to hold wrongdoers accountable shapes our politics today. 

• 
• 10/24/2021
  

  How the Republicans Became the Anti-Abortion Party, and What it Means for the GOP Today

  by Donne Levy

  Conservative evangelicals rode the abortion issue to a place of power in the Republican coalition. Will their success help or harm the party now that abortion rights are more imperiled than at any time since 1973? 

• 
• SOURCE: The American Prospect
  8/5/2021
  

  Is the PATCO Era Ending?

  by Joseph A. McCartin

  Forty years ago, Ronald Reagan's handling of the air traffic controllers' strike enshrined the era of union-busting. Can labor start to recover now? 

• 
• SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
  5/12/2021
  

  The U.S. Role in the El Mozote Massacre Echoes in Today’s Immigration

  by Nelson Rauda and John Washington

  Renewed efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1981 El Mozote massacre of Salvadoran civilians during the civil war will further demonstrate American involvement in the perpetuation of inequality and violence in Central America and, the authors argue, the hypocrisy of US immigration policy. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/1/2021
  

  Joe Biden, the Reverse Ronald Reagan

  Is the Biden administration's response to the crises affecting America more than a collection of programs and initiatives? Is the Democratic party moving to firmly repudiate Ronald Reagan's quip that "government is the problem"? 

• 
• 4/25/2021
  

  "The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III" by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

  by James Thornton Harris

  Peter Baker and Susan Glasser's biography of the influential Republican political dealmaker at the heart of the Reagan-Bush era offers a compelling account of James A. Baker's career, but shows him to have been more motivated by power than by a vision of its uses. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  

  Nancy Reagan’s Real Role in the AIDS Crisis

  Washington journalist Karen Tumulty writes that Nancy Reagan worked against the demands of social conservatives to ask her husband's administration to pay attention to the AIDS crisis, but her efforts weren't enough. 

• 
• 4/11/2021
  

  Political Precedent for the Trump Cult of Personality

  by Donne Levy

  Their differences in character and personality should not obscure similarities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. Both men's ability to flout the truth and survive serious scandals, plus their dalliances with white racism, make their political careers resemble cults of personality.

• 
• 3/7/2021
  

  When Did America Stop Being Great?

  by Nick Bryant

  Nick Bryant began observing America as a 16 year old at the patriotic spectacle of the 1984 Olympics. His book traces the path from "Morning in America" to "American Carnage," fixing some blame but also seeking a way through. 

• 
• 2/28/2021
  

  George Shultz: The Last Progressive

  by Ron Schatz

  "A steadfast Republican committed to union-management cooperation, peace through treaties, competitive capitalism, and empowerment of African-Americans, George Shultz was the last old-fashioned Progressive."

• 
• SOURCE: Wall Street Journal
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Challenging a Leader’s Legacy

  If the new Showtime documentary wishes to undermine the legacy of Ronald Reagan, one reviewer suggests it ultimately makes the 40th President more sympathetic and appealing. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/11/2020
  

  Was Reagan a Precursor to Trump? A New Documentary Says Yes

  Reagan biographer Lou Cannon and historian Rick Perlstein contend the series misconstrues Reagan's politics by portraying him as a dog-whistling race baiter (Cannon says it's flat wrong, Perlstein says it's more complicated than that). 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  11/12/2020
  

  ‘The Reagans’ Review: Making America Great Again, Round 1

  "The series provides a steady succession of parallels between Reagan and Donald J. Trump, none labeled as such but all difficult to miss."

• 
• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/4/2020
  

  Presidents Don’t Get Privacy. My Father Understood That — Even When He Was Shot

  by Patti Davis

  Ronald Reagan's daughter recalls the chaotic day when he was shot and argues that the public has a right to know about the president's health.