MARC Record from marc_columbia

LEADER: 04025cam a22003974a 4500
001 6060507
005 20221121232552.0
008 061023t20072007nyua b 001 0beng
010 $a 2006033974
020 $a9780393060225 (hardcover)
020 $a0393060225 (hardcover)
024 3 $a9780393060225
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm74648938
035 $a(NNC)6060507
035 $a6060507
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dBAKER$dC#P$dYDXCP$dNNC$dOrLoB-B
043 $an-us---
050 00 $aE877$b.D54 2007
082 00 $a973.927092$aB$222
100 1 $aDiggins, John P.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50025514
245 10 $aRonald Reagan :$bfate, freedom, and the making of history /$cJohn Patrick Diggins.
250 $a1st ed.
260 $aNew York :$bW.W. Norton & Co.,$c[2007], ©2007.
300 $axxii, 493 pages :$billustrations ;$c25 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [433]-464) and index.
520 1 $a"In this new work, distinguished historian John Patrick Diggins demonstrates how Ronald Reagan altered the course of American history more profoundly than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. Whereas FDR encountered a nation in the throes of a devastating economic depression, Reagan perceived the America of the 1980s as Emerson's "country of tomorrow," a land, Reagan later added, "that has never become, but [is] always in the act of becoming." This optimism was the hallmark of a political and moral philosophy forged for a troubled nation, informing the vision and leadership that ended a half-century's suicidal arms race without a single shot fired." "In this work that melds intellectual, social, political, and diplomatic history, Diggins evaluates Reagan from the perspectives of Tocqueville, Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, F. A. Hayek, George Kennan, Reinhold Niebuhr, Max Weber, and the two thinkers most admired by the president, Thomas Paine and Ralph Waldo Emerson. As Diggins explains, Reagan's political philosophy was shaped by the personal experiences of his youth. Having rescued dozens of people as a lifeguard, Reagan concluded that people are ashamed of being saved, as if echoing George Orwell's dictum: "A man receiving charity practically always hates his benefactor."" "Diggins further reveals how such experiences informed the politician in his later life. Beginning in the late 1940s as the president of the Screen Actors Guild - a platform, Diggins observes, for Reagan's future in politics - and then as governor of California, Reagan fought bureaucratic institutions that did less to solve problems than, as he put it, "subsidize them."" "As this biography shows, Reagan courageously departed from long-established ways of thinking and challenged the fatalism of both the Left and the Right. Radicals saw the historical coming of communism as inevitable; conservatives saw its established presence as irreversible. For Reagan, however, history "is not predetermined," for it "is in our hands." As Ronald Reagan draws to a close, we see how this romantic Emersonian defied an assassins bullet, saw self-reliance as obedience to the soul, and esteemed freedom as "one of the deepest and most noble aspirations of the human spirit. "A radical reassessment, Ronald Reagan is a bold new contribution to Reagan's presidential legacy."--BOOK JACKET.
600 10 $aReagan, Ronald.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79059562
600 10 $aReagan, Ronald$xPolitical and social views.
650 0 $aPresidents$zUnited States$vBiography.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85106470
651 0 $aUnited States$xPolitics and government$y1981-1989.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85140475
650 0 $aConservatism$zUnited States$xHistory$y20th century.$0http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2008100500
856 41 $3Table of contents only$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip073/2006033974.html
852 00 $bbar$hE877$i.D54 2007
852 00 $bglx$hE877$i.D54 2007