Age of Reagan, 1964-1980 : The Fall of the Old Liberal Order

by HAYWARD, STEVEN F.

• ISBN13: 9780761513377
• ISBN10: 076151337X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-08-01
• Publisher: Prima Lifestyles

Summary

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 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 itselfand 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.

Author Biography

Steven F. Hayward is a senior fellow of the Pacific Research Institute, a public policy think-tank based in San Francisco, and a contributing editor for <i>Reason</i> magazine. He holds a doctorate in history from the Claremont Graduate School.

Table of Contents

Author's Note	vii
Prologue: Theme of the Book	ix
Part One: The Self-Destruction of Liberalism
Hinge: The Apogee of Liberalism in 1964	3	(46)
Wedge: Breaking Up the American Consensus	49	(18)
Razor: The Great Society and Its Discontents	67	(38)
Centrifuge: The Loss of Control	105	(66)
Anvil: 1968	171	(56)
Part Two: The Failure of Richard Nixon
The Education of Richard Nixon	227	(62)
Exhaustion: The Shaping of the 1970s	289	(42)
Watergate and Its Aftermath	331	(64)
Part Three: The Coming of Ronald Reagan
Detente and Its Discontents	395	(52)
The Dress Rehearsal: Reagan's Challenge	447	(38)
The Education of Jimmy Carter	485	(50)
Malaise	535	(74)
Nomination	609	(68)
Reagan's Moment	677	(42)
Notes	719	(42)
Bibliography	761	(14)
Acknowledgments	775	(2)
Index	777