"Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America Hardcover."
Kiron K. Skinner – editor, Annelise Anderson – editor, Martin Anderson – editor, George P. Shultz – foreword.
This book presents a collection of annotated documents proving that Ronald Reagan served as the main intellectual architect of the 1980s prosperity and of the strategy that won the Cold War.
"Reagan, In His Own Hand" will show that the 40th president knew far more than some people have given him credit for. It collects Reagan's recently discovered writings from the late 1970s, when he delivered more than a thousand radio addresses. He wrote about two-thirds of these himself, in longhand on yellow legal paper. "In writing these daily essays on almost every national policy issue during the 1970s, Reagan was acting as a one-man think-tank," the editors suggest.
This edition reproduces everything faithfully, right down to the spelling mistakes and crossed-out words. And it offers a compelling look at the ideas and principles that animated one of the most important Americans of the 20th century. In one address, Reagan describes his contribution to a time capsule:
I wrote of the problems we face here in 1976―The choice we face between continuing the policies of the last 40 years that have led to bigger & bigger govt, less & less liberty, redistribution of earnings through confiscatory taxation or trying to get back on the original course set for us by the Founding Fathers... On the international scene two great superpowers face each other with nuclear missiles at the ready―poised to bring Armageddon to the world.
Often his rhetoric is admirably forthright, and there are frequent glimpses of his later achievements, such as the foreshadowing of his desire to build the Strategic Defense Initiative. In foreign policy Reagan is the essential Cold Warrior, understanding the world in terms of an "ideological struggle" between criminal Communism and the proponents of freedom. In domestic policy he is the committed capitalist, always suspicious of government regulation and critical of taxation, and not above propagating theories of Communist conspiracy.
The bulk of the book comprises these radio addresses, but a concluding section includes everything from a short story Reagan wrote as a school assignment when he was 14 (it earned him a B+) to his memorable letter in 1994 revealing his Alzheimer's disease. This book will enthral Reagan's devotees, and even his toughest critics will concede he had a way with words. No wonder they called him "The Great Communicator."
The Free Press; First Edition. 2001.
Book in very good visual and technical condition.