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This book examines how Ronald Reagan's electrifying 1964 televised speech, "A Time For Choosing," ignited the conservative movement within the GOP. Ronald Reagan's televised speech, or what many conservatives today simply call "The Speech," was a call for action, telling Americans that now was "A Time for Choosing." "The Speech" catapulted Reagan into national politics, the California governorship, and ultimately the presidency. The themes of the speech, including anti-Communism, strong national defense, and the need to protect the average American from taxes and bureaucracy, ignited the conservative movement in the GOP, resulting over time in the sidelining of the more liberal, establishment wing of the Republican Party. The contributors in this edited volume show how Ronald Reagan's "coming out" speech on the national stage helped set the political agenda for the next three decades.
List of contents
Introduction: "A Time for Choosing:" The Speech's Influence from 1964 to 2014.- The Intellectual Roots of Reagan's Foreign Policy.- Ronald Reagan's Continuing Legacy in European Policy Debates.- "The Speech:" Reagan, the Russians, and the Bomb.- Preserving America's Written Constitution: Reagan's Defense of Ordered Liberty.- American Exceptionalism and the Reagan Doctrine: The Belief that Won the Cold War.- The Speech and Domestic Policy: Reagan's Liberal Anti-Socialism.- Ideas that Travel: Coolidge, Reagan, and Conservative Economic Policy.- Ronald Reagan's "A Time for Choosing:" A Christian Realist Reading.
About the author
Eric D. Patterson is Dean and Professor at the Robertson School of Government at Regent University, USA, and Research Fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, USA.
Jeffry H. Morrison is Professor of Government at Regent University, USA, and Director of Academics at the federal government's James Madison Foundation in Virginia, USA.
Summary
This book examines how Ronald Reagan’s electrifying 1964 televised speech, “A Time For Choosing,” ignited the conservative movement within the GOP. Ronald Reagan’s televised speech, or what many conservatives today simply call “The Speech,” was a call for action, telling Americans that now was “A Time for Choosing.” “The Speech” catapulted Reagan into national politics, the California governorship, and ultimately the presidency. The themes of the speech, including anti-Communism, strong national defense, and the need to protect the average American from taxes and bureaucracy, ignited the conservative movement in the GOP, resulting over time in the sidelining of the more liberal, establishment wing of the Republican Party. The contributors in this edited volume show how Ronald Reagan’s “coming out” speech on the national stage helped set the political agenda for the next three decades.
