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The '''Reagan Era''' or '''Age of Reagan''' is the name historians apply to the last 30 years. Scholars left and right are reaching a consensus on the issue, with conservatives pleased and liberals grudgingly conceding.
The '''Reagan Era''' or '''Age of Reagan''' is the name historians apply to the last 30 years. Scholars left and right are reaching a consensus on the issue, with conservatives pleased and liberals grudgingly conceding.
Five factors were at work. First the failure of liberalism in the 1970s stunned and silenced liberals, who wer already under heavy pressure from the far left. Second, that failure energized a new conservative coaliytion involving the Religious Right, the business community, and Americans alarmed by the decline in Ameria's global position. Third, Reagan appeared at the right time with the right skills to mobilize conservatives, and lead the nation --and Congress--to support for his wide-ranging policies. Fourth, the policies worked, as the nation's great enemy the Soviet Union collapsed and vanished, and the economy at home surged forward. And finally the policies reflected the new national mode and thus became a permanent fixture that was largely accepted by moderate Democrats, especially President Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
[[File:Rightward-bound.jpg|thumb|300px]]
==Domestic policy==
==Domestic policy==
===Rollback of Communism===
===Rollback of Communism===
===Spreading Democracy===
===Spreading Democracy===
==Historiography==
== Legacy ==
By 2009 there was a growing consensus among scholars such that both conservative admirers and liberal critics agree that he has been the most influential president since the death of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] in 1945, leaving his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics. for example "As of this writing, among academic historians, the Reagan revisionists—who view the 1980s as an era of mixed blessings at worst, and of great forward strides in some renditions—hold the field," reports one liberal historian.<ref>Doug Rossinow, "Talking Points Memo," in ''American Quarterly'' 59.4 (2007) p. 1279.</ref>
For more historiographical support see: Ehrman (2007), Troy (2009); Hayward (2009); Wilentz (2008).
==See also==
* [[Cold War]]
* [[Ronald Reagan]]
==Further reading==
==Further reading==
* Moore, Mark P. "Reagan's Quest for Freedom in the 1987 State of the Union Address." ''Western Journal of Communication'' 53 (1989): 52-65.
* Moore, Mark P. "Reagan's Quest for Freedom in the 1987 State of the Union Address." ''Western Journal of Communication'' 53 (1989): 52-65.
* Muir, William Ker. ''The Bully Pulpit: The Presidential Leadership of Ronald Reagan'' (1992), examines his speeches
* Muir, William Ker. ''The Bully Pulpit: The Presidential Leadership of Ronald Reagan'' (1992), examines his speeches
* Phillips-Fein, Kim. ''Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal'' (2010) [http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Hands-Businessmens-Crusade-Against/dp/0393337669/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258961071&sr=1-1 excerpt and text search]
* Schulman, Bruce J. and Julian E. Zelizer. Rightward Bound: Making America Conservative in the 1970s (2008)
* Stuckey, Mary. ''Playing the Game: The Presidential Rhetoric of Ronald Reagan.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24414026 online edition]
* Stuckey, Mary. ''Playing the Game: The Presidential Rhetoric of Ronald Reagan.'' 1990. [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=24414026 online edition]
* Troy, Gill. ''Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s'' (2004). Study of Reagan's image.
* Troy, Gill. ''Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s'' (2004). Study of Reagan's image.
* Michael Weiler and W. Barnett Pearce; ''Reagan and Public Discourse in America'' University of Alabama Press, 1992 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59353372 online edition]
* Weiler, Michael, and W. Barnett Pearce; ''Reagan and Public Discourse in America'' (1992) [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=59353372 online edition]
===Historiography===
* Ponce de Leon, Charles L. "The New Historiography of the 1980s" in ''Reviews in American History,'' Volume 36, Number 2, June 2008, pp. 303-314
* Strub, ; Whitney. "Further into the Right: The Ever-Expanding Historiography of the U.S. New Right," ''Journal of Social History,'' Volume 42, Number 1, Fall 2008, pp. 183-194
* Phillips-Fein, Kim. "Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and Making of History," ''Enterprise & Society,'' Volume 8, Number 4, December 2007, pp. 986-988.
==External Links==
==External Links==