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Steven F. Hayward

The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980 Hardcover – August 23, 2001

by Steven F. Hayward (Author)

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The Age of Reagan brings to life the tumultuous decade and a half that preceded Ronald Reagan's ascent to the White House. Based on scores of interviews and years of research, Steven F. Hayward takes us on an engrossing journey through the most politically divisive years the United States has had to endure since the decade before the Civil War. Overseas, we were embroiled in a war we couldn't win; at home our streets had become battlefields; and in Washington, the old liberal order was collapsing under the weight of a long string of failed policies. "It seemed that an era of American optimism and progress had come to a close," Hayward writes. "The concatenation of Vietnam, Watergate, the recurrent energy crisis, the swooning economy, the increasingly disorderly world scene, and the failed presidencies associated with these events robbed Americans of their native optimism for the future."
Meanwhile, from out of the West arose a new conservative movement led by Ronald Reagan, a one-time Hollywood actor whose speech in 1964 in support of the doomed candidacy of Barry Goldwater not only electrified a national television audience but also created a political star who would change the course of history.
With meticulous detail, Hayward captures an America at war with itself—and an era whose reverberations we feel to this very day. He brings new insight into the profound failure of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the oddly liberal nature of Richard Nixon's administration, the significance of Reagan's years as California's governor, and the sudden-death drama of his near defeat of Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican primary, the listlessness of Jimmy Carter's leadership, and the political earthquake that was Reagan's victorious presidential campaign in 1980.
Provocative, authoritative, and majestic in scope, The Age of Reagan is an unforgettable account of the rebirth and triumph of the American spirit.

Print length

811 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Prima Publishing, Forum
Publication date

August 23, 2001
Dimensions

6.29 x 2.31 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

076151337X
ISBN-13

978-0761513377
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hayward offers his examination, from an unabashedly conservative perspective, of American history from 1964 through the 1980 inauguration of Ronald Reagan as president, in the first part of a two-volume account. Senior fellow at the conservative Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy, he argues that liberalism reached its peak in 1964, and that the hollowness of liberal thought, played out in the flawed presidencies of Nixon, Ford and Carter, creating a political atmosphere that allowed Reagan to preside over a fundamental change in the direction of American government. In Hayward's Manichean universe, opposite the rightness of Reagan's conservatism is the wrongness of all things liberal. Labeled with the "l word," among many others, are the war on poverty, feminism, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, dtente, New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael, the movie Dr. Strangelove and the "chattering class" of intellectuals. Hayward forwards many provocative opinions, among them that the Vietnam War was a success, delaying the fall of Saigon long enough to convince Communists that Southeast Asia could not be easily won; Hayward also believes that Watergate was an ideological dispute over whether the executive branch or Congress would have supremacy. The author assembles a wide variety of facts; unfortunately, he often includes them indiscriminately and tediously, as in his minute-by-minute description of the 1976 presidential primary. In the end, this is an ultraconservative polemic masquerading as history.

Review

"Readers both conservative and liberal can learn much about our times and our leaders from this work."
—Michael Barone, U.S. News & World Report
"A patient and comprehensive account of domestic and foreign policy development is wonderfully useful, and we have Steven Hayward to thank for casting light on Reagan, who arrived at the White House in 1981 with a purposeful gleam in his eye recalling Lenin arriving at the Finland Station."
—William F. Buckley Jr.
"Steven Hayward has given us a fascinating and extremely readable book about a unique era in american politics. His meticulous research and perceptive insights provide an informative and entertaining account of Ronald Reagan's rise from Hollywood to the presidency, as well as an in-depth understanding of the times in which that ascent occurred."
—Edwin Meese III, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, the Heritage Foundation
"Steven Hayward gets two big things right in this book: Ronald Reagan and the age he came to dominate. It is a powerful story, carefully researched and well told."
—Peter Hannaford, author and presidential scholar
"The Age of Reagan is enormously engaging. I found myself arguing and thinking my way through its very readable pages."
—Fred Siegel, professor of history, the Cooper Union, and author of The Future Once Happened Here and Troubled Journey: From Pearl Harbor to Reagan
"A brilliant work of political history and analysis. It is the first truly successful effort to treat the phenomenon of Ronald Reagan within a broader historical framework. Most valuable of all is the effort to place the specific events of that epoch in a meaningful and intellectually provocative theoretical context."
—Marc Landy, professor of politics, Boston College, and coauthor of Presidential Greatness

From the Inside Flap

e of Reagan</i> brings to life the tumultuous decade and a half that preceded Ronald Reagan's ascent to the White House. Based on scores of interviews and years of research, Steven F. Hayward takes us on an engrossing journey through the most politically divisive years the United States has had to endure since the decade before the Civil War. Overseas, we were embroiled in a war we couldn't win; at home our streets had become battlefields; and in Washington, the old liberal order was collapsing under the weight of a long string of failed policies. "It seemed that an era of American optimism and progress had come to a close," Hayward writes. "The concatenation of Vietnam, Watergate, the recurrent energy crisis, the swooning economy, the increasingly disorderly world scene, and the failed presidencies associated with these events robbed Americans of their native optimism for the future."<br>Meanwhile, from out of the West arose a new conservative movement led by Ronald Reagan,

From the Back Cover

"Readers both conservative and liberal can learn much about our times and our leaders from this work."—Michael Barone, U.S. News & World Report
"A patient and comprehensive account of domestic and foreign policy development is wonderfully useful, and we have Steven Hayward to thank for casting light on Reagan, who arrived at the White House in 1981 with a purposeful gleam in his eye recalling Lenin arriving at the Finland Station."—William F. Buckley Jr.
"Steven Hayward has given us a fascinating and extremely readable book about a unique era in american politics. His meticulous research and perceptive insights provide an informative and entertaining account of Ronald Reagan's rise from Hollywood to the presidency, as well as an in-depth understanding of the times in which that ascent occurred."—Edwin Meese III, Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow, the Heritage Foundation
"Steven Hayward gets two big things right in this book: Ronald Reagan and the age he came to dominate. It is a powerful story, carefully researched and well told."—Peter Hannaford, author and presidential scholar
"The Age of Reagan is enormously engaging. I found myself arguing and thinking my way through its very readable pages."—Fred Siegel, professor of history, the Cooper Union, and author of The Future Once Happened Here and Troubled Journey: From Pearl Harbor to Reagan
"A brilliant work of political history and analysis. It is the first truly successful effort to treat the phenomenon of Ronald Reagan within a broader historical framework. Most valuable of all is the effort to place the specific events of that epoch in a meaningful and intellectually provocative theoretical context."—Marc Landy, professor of politics, Boston College, and coauthor of Presidential Greatness

About the Author

Steven F. Hayward is a senior fellow of the Pacific Research Institute, a public policy think-tank based in San Francisco, and a contributing editor for Reason magazine. He holds a doctorate in history from the Claremont Graduate School.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Prima Publishing, Forum; 1st edition (August 23, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 811 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 076151337X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0761513377
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.6 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.29 x 2.31 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,257,654 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,162 in Political Parties (Books)
- #3,247 in Political Conservatism & Liberalism
- #48,322 in World History (Books)

Customer Reviews:
63 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Eric Mayforth

Ronald Reagan's Journey to the Presidency

Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2020

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Ronald Reagan had his eye on the Oval Office well before he was elected president in 1980. The sixteen years prior to his election were some of the most tumultuous in American history, and that era made his election and highly successful presidency possible. In this first of two volumes, author Steven F. Hayward chronicles how liberalism's inability to address the problems America was facing in the Sixties and Seventies led to Reagan's election. "The Age of Reagan" examines the political, social, foreign policy, and economic history of the 1964-80 era and sets it beside Reagan's biography of those years.

Reagan voted for Franklin Roosevelt in his young adulthood but became more conservative in the 1950s, and Hayward notes what led this conversion. Conservatism was viewed as a dour philosophy at mid-century, but in the course of his political career Reagan helped make American conservatism a more optimistic, uplifting philosophy.

The country lost faith in its institutions in the sixteen years following 1964, and Hayward's history of the era of the Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter presidencies is superb and well-researched, with many little-known anecdotes that bring home what life in the country was like then. America had just suffered the trauma of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the next decade-and-a-half saw a social revolution, excessive spending and regulation, inflation, defeat in Vietnam, recessions, an energy crisis, a rough patch in the Cold War, and the Iranian hostage crisis.

America came to see that liberalism not only did not solve the problems the country was facing but created new ones as well, and this era saw Reagan's long road to the White House. Hayward recalls Reagan's political career and critique of liberalism during this time, including his governorship of California, his brief try for the presidency in 1968, and his serious challenge to President Ford for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976. Hayward occasionally makes smart, deft comparisons between this era and others.

Hayward explores the personal characteristics of Reagan that led him to the presidency and why 1981 was the right time for him to become president. The pessimism of the Seventies and the increasing conservatism of the country in the years leading up to 1980 was a true case of the right candidate appearing at the right time. Reagan was seen as an implausible president in many quarters, and there were several places in the book that led one naturally to think of Trump during the last few years, despite the differences between the two—while history does not repeat, it does rhyme. The author recalls Reagan's successful march to the 1980 GOP nomination and his huge win over Jimmy Carter in the fall.

"The Age of Reagan" would be a great read for anyone interested in postwar American history, but it would especially benefit young conservatives who want to learn about the history of their movement and how the stage was set for the election of an iconic conservative and one of America's greatest presidents.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Ambrose Rankin

Interesting Take on US History 1964-80

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2019

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Mr. Hayward outlines US political history from Reagan's "A Time for Choosing" speech in 1964 to his election victory in 1980. Having lived through this time, the events were all familiar to me, but if one likes history and politics enough to revisit this era, this book presents a well written and detailed narrative. It is also worthwhile to read the story from Mr. Hayward's perspective. He is a fan of Reagan and his policies, and makes no attempt to conceal that he is telling the story from that side. Indeed, the premise of the title is that the story of 1964-1980 is the story of the rise and ultimate election of Reagan. That said, Hayward is for the most part fair and objective to his subject matter.

One person found this helpful

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J. L. Penfold

Why is Ronald Reagan a great President?

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2014

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Well written. Places Ronald Reagan in historic perspective as he looks at Jack Kennedy, LBJ, and Richard Nixon, the successes and failures of his Administration. One comes to see the forces and decisions of others that helped prepare the way for Ronald Reagan. Reagan faced similar domestic challenges as Nixon in the 60's and 70's as Governor of CA, the largest state in the Union. But whereas Nixon was paranoid, had an enemies list and shied away from confrontation, Ronald Reagan handled issues with toughness mixed with humor and loved to get in the middle of the issues. Barack Obama is much more like Nixon in the sense of avoiding confrontation and having an enemies list. Both are loners. One difference in Nixon and Obama is that Obama, while not nearly as smart as Nixon, still thinks of himself as the One, even in the midst of the failure of Obamacare and Syria, and we are simply to small to see his brilliance. What grandiose nonsense! Obama is comical, yet dangerous.
Reagan, while a mystery in many ways, had a natural warmth rather than the coldness of Nixon and Obama. Steven Hayward, author of The Age of Reagan, appeals to Teddy White's, The Making of the President series, and other classic works.
One other feature I appreciate, Hayward, follows Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and other future leaders and what they were doing as the drama of the 60's & 70's unfolded. An excellent read. J.L. Penfold

2 people found this helpful

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AndyTop Contributor: Cycling

Comprehensive, interesting to read

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2014

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The title might give the impression that this work (in two volumes) is all about Reagan. In fact it's not. This first volume Is a contemporary history about happenings in the United States (which are recent enough to still stir controversy) as background explanation how Reagan was able to come to power and change the course of American history in the phenomenal way he and his administration did. But Reagan himself stays still in the background here. Most readers will have gone through the 60's 70s themselves. I did, but in another country and therefore from a completely different perspective. For this reason reading this work is highly informative.

I very recommend "The Age of Reagan" (you might want to purchase the two volumes) even if maybe the reader won't agree with every point of view. As my review title suggests, the author did his homework and at the same time managed to make historical facts and characters come to life, so "The Age of Reagan" is not only comprehensive but also interesting to read.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Michael Horsley

Thank you!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

Good price, well packaged, prompt delivery, thank you!

RICARDO PEAKE BRAGA

Excelent description of American political history between 1964-1980

Reviewed in Brazil on December 12, 2019

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Amazing comprehensive content about the rise and fall of liberalism in America in the 60s and 70s.

David

Well-worth reading.

Reviewed in Germany on May 23, 2021

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Not just an excellent exploration of Reagan’s political career pre-presidency but a written with the reader in mind: a thoroughly edifying book.

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