Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America

(Paperback)

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Never before seen documents, many of them in Ronald Reagan's own handwriting, prove definitively that Reagan himself was the intellectual architect of the prosperity of the 1980s and of the strategy that won the Cold War. During the eight years that Ronald Reagan served as president of the United States, a period of sustained economic prosperity and increased American power on the world stage, many of his advisers claimed authorship of the ideas that comprised 'the Reagan revolution.' The press, in turn, lent credence to the idea that President Reagan was merely a skilled communicator of those ideas, the consummate actor, not the director or producer. Few people realised that Reagan had left a paper trail of original writings that make clear he was the intellectual powerhouse behind his administration's landmark policies. Hidden in archives for more than twenty years, Reagan's pre-presidential writings reveal an active mind wrestling with the problems of a sluggish economy, social pathologies, welfare, reform and the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. Selected and annotated by three leading scholars, two of whom were among Reagan's principal domestic-policy advisers, these writings unlock the puzzle of the man so many historians have tried to comprehend, with so little success. A publishing landmark, REAGAN, IN HIS OWN HAND will redefine the way we think about American history of the past quarter-century, and about the fortieth American president.

Reviews

Steve H. Hanke Forbes Awe-inspiring in their breadth...these essays laid out the philosophical framework for Reagan's presidency.
William Safire The New York Times Magazine These handwritten documents prove that the original revolutionary was Ronald Reagan. We are struck by the workings of one man's mind expressed through a pen in his hand.
Lou Cannon The Washington Post Reagan, In His Own Hand makes mincemeat of the idea that Reagan was a dunce. Many of these speeches are those of a visionary who saw around the bend in the road of history.
Michael Beschloss The New York Times Ronald Reagan's private papers may show us that the Great Communicator was a better writer and thinker than even his fans understood.

Author Bio

Kiron Skinner is an assistant professor of history and political science at Carnegie Mellon University. Her articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal. Annelise Anderson was an advisor to Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign and associate director of the Budget Office, 1981-1983. Martin Anderson served as a special assistant under Richard Nixon and as chief domestic and economic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan.