The Reagan Revolution

This book offers an overview and analysis of the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the history of conservatism in the United States from the 1960s to the 2020s.

Focusing on major events of the 1980s, this book addresses the neo-liberal turn in economics and governance; culture war conflict over religion, abortion, Supreme Court vacancies, civil rights, drugs, and AIDS; and the final decade of the Cold War. It pays close attention to Reagan’s domestic and foreign policies, including US-Soviet relations and the Reagan Doctrine, and analyzes the gap between his conservative rhetoric and his often pragmatic, even bipartisan, approach to governing. Each chapter highlights the criticisms of Reagan’s policies from moderates and conservatives alike, offering a distinctive exploration of the 1980s as a period of intraparty conflict among Republicans. The book also places Reagan in a broader context through the tumult of the long 1960s, the domestic and foreign policy crises of the 1970s, and the rise of the ’mythical Reagan’ who shaped Republican and Democratic politics into the present day.

The Reagan Revolution is an accessible resource for undergraduate, postgraduate, and non-specialist readers who have an interest in modern US history and politics.

Prudence Flowers is a Senior Lecturer in US History at Flinders University, Australia. She is a historian of social movement activism, modern conservatism, and US politics. She is the author of The Right-to-Life Movement, the Reagan Administration, and the Politics of Abortion (2019).