Hedrick Smith's Books

> Reagan: The Man, The President

The election of 1980 was a pivotal moment in American political history, the reversal of 50 years of politics and policy dating back to the New Deal. The election returns reflected the rising tide of conservatism across America.

The election of 1980 represented a rousing personal triumph for Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor who had failed in two previous attempts at the presidency.

Reagan's victory, the Republican takeover of the Senate and the GOP's gain of 33 seats in the House of Representatives presented a mandate for sweeping change in government: lower taxes, less government red tape, less government intervention in business.

Congress and the federal establishment, however, are notoriously resistant to change and so, on the eve of Reagan's inauguration, the question remained: How much of Governor Reagan's rhetoric would President Reagan be able to put into effect? Would he be able, as promised, to reverse the powerful legacy of FDR, the president whom he had once admired but now rejected?

As soon as the 1980 election returns came in, Hedrick Smith joined fellow New York Times correspondents Adam Clymer, Leonard Silk, Robert Lindsey and Richard Burt to create Reagan: The Man, The President, the first balanced and open-eyed look at Reagan and what could be expected from his Presidency.

From his beginnings in a small Illinois town through his career in Hollywood to his runs for the Presidency, Reagan projected an image of reassuring amiability to complement his laissez-faire conservatism. In his years as Governor, Reagan had spoken like an ideologue but had shown in practice that he was a flexible, pragmatic leader capable of compromise. Reagan: The Man, The President takes readers inside Reagan's career before he entered the White House and examines his early accomplishments and style in an attempt to understand what his election meant to America and the world.