John Ehrman, whose 'Rise of Neoconservatism' a decade ago is still the essential work on the subject, has returned with the single book one needs to understand the 1980s. His thesis is that Ronald Reagan was a "transformational President" who both reflected and defined his times and thereby indelibly put his stamp on American civil and cultural life in a way that affects us still and will continue to do so for years to come.
'The Eighties' is a balanced, well-researched, engaging, and ultimately persuasive book. Reagan's success, Ehrman argues, was based on two factors; first, Reagan understood and appealled to the natural and moderate conservatism inherent in American politics. Ehrman's case is that Reaganism, despite the shrillness of its critics, turned out to be a moderate conservatism of the center rather than the extremist caricature touted by the left. Second, Reagan was helped immensely by the ineptness of his opponents and their failure to understand America's conservative centrism; to this day, the Democratic party has not managed to come up with a coherent answer to Reagan.
Ehrman is particularly strong describing broad trends without becoming overly dry or academic. His description of the origins of the "culture wars" is very good, as is his discussion of the increasing irrelevance of academia. His introduction contains the clearest and most concise definitions of liberalism and conservatism I have seen. There is a withering assessment of Michael Dukakis as the Democrats' candidate of desperation in the 1988 election against Reagan's Vice President (some guy named Bush, who was elected in a landslide as a proxy for a third Reagan term).
Above all, Ehrman's objectivity prevents 'The Eighties' from becoming a hagiography of Reagan--which is why a few on the far right don't like it. The author faces squarely Reagan's shortcomings, especially his managerial style. But rather than add to the plethora of biographic treatments of the 40th president, Ehrman has wisely focused on how Reagan changed American political life immutably. Whether it's welfare reform, abandonment of confiscatory taxes, or the death of Clinton's health care, we have to give Reagan credit--and, for many of us, he gets our thanks as well.
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