The New Revolutionary: Ronald Reagan and His Presidency

This set of 4 lectures examines the 1980s through the lens of America’s president during this critical decade. Reagan would transform the Cold War, domestic politics, and do so with an infectious ebullient confidence and style that left a lasting mark. Indeed, historians often refer to this era as the time of the “Reagan Revolution” – but in retrospect, much of this revolution played out very differently than its original authors anticipated. Rather than making the country more conservative, it inaugurated a longer-term transformation of conservatism itself into something both more populist, more angry and less democratic.