Selling Ronald Reagan

How did Ronald Reagan go from being a washed-up Hollywood actor to the most powerful man in America? Running as a ‘celebrity’ candidate for the governorship of California in 1966, Ronald Reagan’s hard-line republican campaign was faltering amongst the student riots in Berkeley and sixties counter-culture. Reagan’s team, young. Hungry and inventive, including two Stanford psychologists, coached Reagan – teaching him to avoid getting caught up in policy detail and to refocus attention towards his natural ease in front of the camera and media-friendly charisma. In doing so Reagan and his team created the first 'modern' politician. With an emphasis on the importance of the sound-bite, the photo-op and Reagan’s personality, they won the California governorship by a landslide, and went on to do the same in the US presidential elections. This is the untold story of Reagan’s California campaign, which was to change the face of American politics, and sheds new light on one of the titans of modern American history.