Debating the Reagan Presidency

The presidency of Ronald Reagan has become a Rorschach Test for politicians and citizens alike. While many conservatives see the Reagan era of the 1980's as the high-water mark for their movement and a time of national recovery from the difficulties of the 1970's, many liberals maintain that the rosy Reagan legacy is based largely on myth, and that in fact his eight years as president caused serious harm to the country. John Ehrman and Michael W. Flamm give due attention to the lasting controversies surrounding the Regan record and provide a balanced view of the fortieth president's foreign and domestic policies. Students are encouraged to draw their own conclusions by reading key primary documents.

John Ehrman is a foreign affairs analyst for the federal government and an independent scholar specializing in modern American conservatism. His books include The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan. Michael W. Flamm is professor of history at Ohio Wesleyan University. He is author of Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s, and coauthor of Debating the 1960s: Liberal, Conservative, and Radical Perspectives.