The Primetime Presidency Of Ronald Reagan

Beginning in the 1970s, the public has turned to the media for information and guidance in selecting their presidents. Television has become the primary means of getting to know the issues and candidates. This monograph examines the mediazation of the U.S. presidency, as exemplified by President Reagan's role as the great communicator. Specifically, Denton analyzes the use of television as an instrument of image-making and governing, the role of the media in contemporary politics, the impact of television on presidential politics, and the future of the presidency in the age of television. Scholars of communications studies, political science, and American politics will welcome this critical analysis of the primetime presidency.

An icon of the twentieth century, Ronald Reagan has earned a place among the most popular and successful U.S. presidents. In this compelling firsthand account of Reagan's presidency, Peter J. Wallison, former White House Counsel to President Reagan, asserts that Reagan took office with a fully developed public philosophy and strategy for governing that was unique among modern presidents. "I am not a great man," Reagan once said, "just committed to great ideas." Wallison shows how Reagan's unyielding attachment to certain key ideas -- communicated through his speeches -- created a cohesive administration and revived the spirit of the nation. Reagan limited his personal efforts to those issues he considered central to his presidency, choosing to delegate to his cabinet and staff those matters he viewed as secondary to his agenda. This leadership style was responsible for Reagan's accomplishments, but also for his missteps and the criticism he received from his detractors. During his presidency, Reagan experienced both enormous success -- in the unprecedented growth of the economy, the first arms reduction agreement with the former Soviet Union, and the revival of confidence in America -- and near disaster in the Iran-Contra affair. In Ronald Reagan , Wallison describes what it was like to be on Reagan's White House staff and how Reagan's attachment to principle produced both the best and worst days of his presidency.

First published in 1990. American as well as British students will find much that is interesting and illuminating in this British view of the Reagan presidency. David Mervin writes as an experienced American politics specialist whose study includes first-hand observation in the United States. Putting aside policy substance and concentrating on effectiveness in using the political process, Mervin portrays Reagan's presidential record more favorably than may be common in the British community.

Few presidents have sparked as much interest in recent years as Ronald Reagan, already the subject of a large number of biographies and specialized subjects. This biography, based on recent research into the Reagan archives and synthesis of the large memoir literature, explores the shaping of his values and beliefs during his childhood in the American heartland, his leadership of the American conservative movement, and his successful political career culminating in the first two-term presidency since Dwight Eisenhower. Pemberton finds Reagan's personal career and ability to understand and communicate with the American people admirable, but finds many of the long-term effects of his presidency harmful.

Hailed by the New Yorker as "a superlative study of a president and his presidency," Lou Cannon's President Reagan remains the definitive account of our most significant presidency in the last fifty years. Ronald Wilson Reagan, the first actor to be elected president, turned in the performance of a lifetime. But that performance concealed the complexities of the man, baffling most who came in contact with him. Who was the man behind the makeup? Only Lou Cannon, who covered Reagan through his political career, can tell us. The keenest Reagan-watcher of them all, he has been the only author to reveal the nature of a man both shrewd and oblivious. Based on hundreds of interviews with the president, the First Lady, and hundreds of the administration's major figures, President Reagan takes us behind the scenes of the Oval Office. Cannon leads us through all of Reagan's roles, from the affable cowboy to the self-styled family man; from the politician who denounced big government to the president who created the largest peace-time deficit; from the statesman who reviled the Soviet government to the Great Communicator who helped end the cold war.

Ronald Reagan: 100 Years is the official centennial publication from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Featuring archival photographs of the Reagan family along with insightful text, this book is the ultimate commemorative edition to mark the one hundredth anniversary of President Reagan’s birth. It offers an intimate, insider’s glimpse of the life and legacy of America’s most beloved leader.

Beginning in the 1970s, the public has turned to the media for information and guidance in selecting their presidents. Television has become the primary means of getting to know the issues and candidates. This monograph examines the mediazation of the U.S. presidency, as exemplified by President Reagan's role as the great communicator. Specifically, Denton analyzes the use of television as an instrument of image-making and governing, the role of the media in contemporary politics, the impact of television on presidential politics, and the future of the presidency in the age of television. Scholars of communications studies, political science, and American politics will welcome this critical analysis of the primetime presidency.

Considers Reagan to be "the biggest fraud ever to occupy the White House"--Jacket.

Papers of a conference held at U. of California, Davis in May 1988. Nineteen president-watchers review the Reagan administration's impact in four areas: foreign policy, economic and fiscal policy, institutional changes, and electoral and congressional relations. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A biography of the fortieth president of the United States, including his childhood, education, employment, and political career.