Tear Down This Myth; How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future
New York: Free Press, 2009. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. [10], 276, [2] pages. Contains notes, acknowledgments, and index. Publisher's ephemera laid in. Will Bunch, currently a senior writer for the Philadelphia Daily News and the author of a popular political blog called "Attytood," which has a progressive bent and a national readership, has been covering presidential races since Reagan’s re-election in 1984. He has won numerous journalism awards, sharing the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for spot news reporting with the New York Newsday staff. He is author of one previous book, and his writings have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, American Prospect, Mother Jones and elsewhere. The author reveals the truth about the Ronald Reagan legacy, including the facts that his average popularity as president was only average; his 1981 tax cut did not cause the economic recovery of the 1980, which was instead fueled instead by dropping oil prices. Bunch asserts that Reagan's waste-ridden military buildup didn't actually
"win the Cold War," and asserts that Reagan myth makers ignore his real contributions--his willingness to talk to his Soviet adversaries, as well as his genuine desire to eliminate nuclear weapons. In this provocative new book, award-winning political journalist Will Bunch unravels the story of how a right-wing cabal hijacked the mixed legacy of Ronald Reagan, a personally popular but hugely divisive 1980s president, and turned him into a bronze icon to revive their fading ideology. They succeeded to the point where all the GOP candidates for president in 2008 scurried to claim his mantle. Bunch exposes this dangerous effort to reshape America's future by rewriting its past. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Ronald Reagan, U.S. Presidents, Cold War, Berlin Wall, Iran-Contra, Grover Norquist, Terrorism
ISBN: 9781416597629
[Book #78877]
Price: $35.00