Today's political scene looks nothing like it did thirty years ago, and that is due mostly to the work of Ronald Wilson Reagan and his monumental revolution inside the Republican Party-a shakeup that started before he secured the presidency by defeating Jimmy Carter in 1980. Unexpectedly, the seeds of revolution were planted in Reagan's failed presidential challenge to Gerald Ford in 1976. Reagan's Revolution is the remarkable, behind-the-scenes story of that historic campaign-one that, as Reagan put it, turned a party of "pale pastels" into a national party of "bold colors." Featuring interviews with myriad politicos, journalists, insiders, and observers, Craig Shirley relays intriguing, never-before-told stories about Reagan and his campaign staff, Gerald Ford and his, their strategies and snafus, the media, and the national parties and shows how Reagan, instead of following the lead of the ever-weakening Republican Party, brought the party to him and almost single-handedly revived it. Book jacket.
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