Ronald Reagan, the feelgood president

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan presided over prosperity, destroyed communism, and made Americans feel good about themselves. Is his achievement more myth than reality?
About the author
openDemocracy brings you this special feature.
Subscribers can download the ‘Reagan Package’ in PDF format from the link above. This collection includes four contributions from our debate ‘Ronald Reagan, the feelgood president’.

Todd Gitlin on how team Bush is running Reagan’s death as a self-tribute; John Hulsman, who met him when he was 16, on why Reagan was a better Republican than today’s President; Siva Vaidhyanathan on how his generation hated growing up under President Feelgood; Godfrey Hodgson, doyen of US historians, sums up the man who persuaded America it was still morning and government was the problem.

This article is published by openDemocracy, and openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it with attribution for non-commercial purposes following the CC guidelines. For other queries about reuse, click here. Some articles on this site are published under different terms. No images on the site or in articles may be re-used without permission unless specifically licensed under Creative Commons.