Ronald Reagan Book Summary

Lyn Nofziger, one of Reagan’s closest political advisors, once said “The nation needed a Jimmy Carter, in order to truly appreciate a Ronald Reagan.” According to Robert Collins, Nofziger is correct. We do, indeed, need to grasp the nature and extent of America’s vexing problems in the 1970s in order to understand Ronald Reagan’s presidency and to assess the claim that the 1980s makes on our attention as a distinctive and significant historical era with a unique tenor (Collins 7).
Robert Collins starts off his book by saying that Reagan was an “event-making hero.” Event-making heroes are not merely “in the right place at the right time”; their impact is more profound than that because they are, in a real sense, “irreplaceable.” They are discernibly

On December 25th, 1979 Soviet forces invaded Afghanistan in order to bolster a Marxist government under attack by tribal and religious rebellion. Carter recalled the U.S. ambassador from Moscow, instituted a grain embargo against the USSR, and banned American athletes from participating in the summer Olympics in Moscow. But none of these moves had any visible effect on the Soviet intervention. Onto this dreary scene will step a former movie actor who still saw America and the future in bright Technicolor hues (Collins 25-27).
Throughout the book, Collins presents an in-depth study not only of political and economic history to Reagan’s presidency but also delves into the social and cultural issues of the times. Collins provides a timeline of technological advances, and gives a picture of what daily life was like. While some critics viewed Reagan as inept, often referring to “the desert between Ronald Reagan’s ears” and to his mind as “such barren terrain.” Collins strives to demonstrate that Reagan was a very hard worker and that he thoroughly researched issues that were plaguing his administration (Collins

First, he helped engineer an economic recovery that would, with but one brief stutter, continue for nearly two decades. Nothing he did was more important for the long-term health of the economy than helping defeat inflation. Second, Reagan brought the Cold War to a successful conclusion on Western terms. He shared the stage with Mikhail Gorbachev, but in the end Reagan was victorious. Reagan’s third achievement was his most intangible. In his farewell address, he called it “the recovery of our morale” and counted it among his great triumphs. He reinvigorated the belief that government was capable of running the country and renewed faith in the presidency. His final major achievement was slowing the growth of the federal government. He was not able to roll back the American welfare state, but he was able to slow it down (Collins 236-239). As Reagan said, “It’s morning again in