Selling Ronald Reagan: The Emergence of a President

321 Pages·2015·1.4 MB·English

by  Gerard DeGroot

Gerard DeGroot was born in California and is Professor
of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He has
published fourteen books and dozens of articles on various
aspects of twentieth-century history. His book on nuclear
weaponry (The Bomb: A Life) was published to considerable
acclaim and won the Westminster Medal for Military Literature.
The Sixties Unplugged, an iconoclastic history of the decade,
won the Ray and Pat Browne Prize in 2008 for the best book
on American cultural history. DeGroot is also a freelance
journalist, contributing frequent op-ed columns and reviews to
national newspapers in Britain and the USA.
‘A scintillating analysis of how American politics in the 1960s
and the changing nature of the state of California came
together to transform a third-rate Hollywood actor into a first-
rate politician. DeGroot’s sharp and witty analysis of the state
of American politics in the 1960s entertains as it enlightens.
A brilliant achievement.’
Marilyn B. Young, Professor of History, NYU
and author of The Vietnam Wars
‘Whether Democrats or Republicans, American politicians
habitually compare themselves to Ronald Reagan. Gerard
DeGroot’s bold and fast-paced book explores how that past-it
Hollywood actor converted himself into a silver-tongued
politician and president. In telling this entertaining and
important story, DeGroot explains why Ronald Reagan’s
transformational career matters today, perhaps more than ever.’
Nick Witham, University College London,
author of The Cultural Left and the Reagan Era:
US Protest and Central American Revolution
Selling Ronald
Reagan
The Emergence of a
President
Gerard DeGroot
Published in 2015 by
I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd
London • New York
www.ibtauris.com
Copyright © 2015 Gerard DeGroot
The right of Gerard DeGroot to be identified as the author of
this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book,
or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
References to websites were correct at the time of writing.
ISBN: 978 1 78076 828 1
eISBN: 978 0 85772 930 9
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset by JCS Publishing Services Ltd, www.jcs-publishing.co.uk
Printed and bound in Sweden by ScandBook AB
To Charlie Roe:
a lovely man, and a believer in government
H
and to Marilyn Roe:
of course

Contents
Introduction 1
1 The Speech 7
2 Hardening of the Categories 24
3 ‘You Guys Are Absolutely Crazy’ 55
4 Old Tactics, New Faces 85
5 Those Boys from BASICO 107
6 The Great Pretender 137
7 Drowning in Milk 164
8 ‘What Are You Going to Do About Berkeley?’ 179
9 ‘Who Shot Lincoln?’ 208
10 ‘Hey, This Guy Could Be President Someday’ 248
Notes 269
Bibliography 293
Index 301