During LBJ’s presidency, a war was waged, as Amity Shlaes demonstrates in “Great Society,” by the federal government against the rest of the nation. This tragic story of government growth sowed seeds of division in America which suggests that, as long as federal power dominates civil society, Americans will live in a “tribalized” nation. Great [...]
Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II defeated their enemies at every turn. But they also sat down and talked, prayed for them and prayed with them. They studied them thoroughly, reaching out lovingly to win them over. They acted in the example of Jesus Christ, defeating mass murderers without bullets. In doing so, they [...]
Paul Kengor’s A Pope and a President is unusual in that it is also a theo-history, taking seriously the religious events of the 20th century. Written with academic rigor and in a brisk, readable style, it is a God’s-eye view of the hidden events of the 20th century and the actions of Ronald Reagan and [...]
Reagan Rising: The Decisive Years, 1976–1980 by Craig Shirley (432 pages, Broadside Books, 2017) The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism by Henry Olsen (368 pages, Broadside Books, 2017) Of all the questions that divide conservatives in 2018, the most basic might be this: Are we living in wilderness years under a [...]
A key to Ronald Reagan’s personality was the devastating experience of being a child of an alcoholic parent. That experience burned into him patterns of behavior common to children of alcoholics—dislike and avoidance of controversy, fear of confrontation and, for many children of alcoholics, an obsession with order… “Chaos” in the Trump White House has [...]
God’s way of working in the world is full of seeming coincidences, plot twists, and unexpected jolts. Ronald Reagan’s election at an advanced age could not have been predicted, neither could have the sudden death of Pope John Paul I, which thrust the young pope from Poland onto the world stage. Most dramatic, however, was [...]
Immediate popular majorities do not bestow greatness on statesmen. Rather, it is the longview of history and experience that will be the arbiters of the place each of our presidents will ultimately find. The office of the presidency has always been controversial. Born of the Founders’ struggle to create a stable republican political order, it [...]
Both George C. Marshall and Ronald Reagan were “conservative internationalists”: peace-through-strength realists who did not lose sight of their democratic principles, and who engaged with other nations to achieve not only American security and prosperity, but also a greater measure of freedom and justice in the world. Within this past year occurred both the thirtieth [...]
Lee Edwards has not just known the greats of post-World War II conservatism, but he has also lived with them, and as one of them… Celebrating his eighty-fifth year on this earth, Lee Edwards is a remarkable cultural treasure, a man’s man, a gentleman’s gentleman, and a conservative’s conservative. Biographer of Ronald Reagan and of [...]
The myth of civil service neutrality, like the myth of an unbiased press, has fostered the growth of an arrogant, self-interested governing class and structure than can and will defend its own interests… In less than three weeks, the Trump administration has suffered a Niagara of leaks from the White House to the press. Backroom [...]
The common denominator of both the Reagan landslide of 1980 and Donald Trump’s victory is that both candidates appealed to American nationalism. But how similar are these outsiders who captured their nominations and won the presidency?… Since World War II, the two men who have most terrified this city by winning the presidency are Ronald Reagan [...]
And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. Ronald Reagan delivered the following [...]
The West will not contain communism; it will transcend communism. For two full minutes on May 17, 1981, the attendees of the graduation ceremonies at the University of Notre Dame offered President Ronald Reagan a standing ovation.[1] He entered the ACC—Notre Dame’s basketball and hockey arena—accompanied by priests, professors, and diplomats. Throughout his time on the [...]
“The Republican Party, which achieved its greatest vigor in this century during the presidential terms of Ronald Reagan, now seems in the sere and yellow leaf.” – Russell Kirk, February 27, 1991, the day before President George Bush declared victory with Operation Desert Storm. Scholars Bradley J. Birzer and Adam Fuller reflect on Russell Kirk’s [...]