Ronald Reagan was one of the most influential presidents in American history; yet he is one of the least talked about in present day history books. President Reagan was not an Ivy League rich-kid or raised in a politically motivated family. He was a midwestern boy who played football and worked his way through college. President Reagan had visions for the future of this country. Reagan realized he wanted to lead the country during his time working in California, in the Screen Actor's Guild. He was bothered by the spread of communism in Hollywood. He took over the Presidency in 1980 after four years of the most awful leadership this country has ever had. Just as he swore in his campaign, he lowered taxes, got control of oil prices and suppressed the paper tiger of the East. For the next eight years were some of the best times this country had ever seen. The 1980s is now a time of economic conditions leaders still try to attain today. The standard of living in the United States improved, along with the feeling of national pride. After four repugnant years under Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan took this country to the standard that it was capable of. As promised during his campaign, the first thing Ronald Reagan completed after taking office was ending the price control on gasoline and oil which had been in effect for ten years. The price controls were promoted as a response to the energy crisis instead they accelerated it by interfering with the market forces of supply and demand. Reagan then abolished the Council on Wage and Price Stability against the oppositions will. "Not many people knew it at the time, but with two strokes of his pen, Reagan had ended the energy crises." (D'Souza 89) Reagan predicted the oil p... ... middle of paper ... ...Dinesh Ronald Reagan: How an ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997 Donaldson, Sam Hold On, Mr. President. New York: Random House, 1987 Johnson, Haynes Sleepwalking Through History: America in the Reagan Years. New York: Norton, 1991 Krugman, Paul The Age of Diminished Expectations: U.S. Economic Policy in the 1990s. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990 Samuelson, Paul and Nordhaus, William Economics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985 Schaller, Michael Reckoning with Reagan. America and Its President in the 1980s. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992 Schweizer, Peter Victory. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1994 Spielvogel, Jackson J Western Civilization: Comprehensive Volume 5th Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth Thomson 2003 U.S. Bureau of the Census Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington D.C., 1995
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreReagan touches the people of the United States because he expresses grief and sorrow in his speech. After the disaster, Reagan uses tone effectively to commemorate the deaths of the crew. “They had a special grace” or “your loved ones were loving and brave”(3) are examples of how Reagan sympathizes with the mourning families. This tone not only allows the families to grieve their losses, it also provides them with the opportunity to feel proud about their children’s accomplishments. Furthermore, Reagan uses tone to carry the people’s afflictions after the Challenger crash and change it into confidence. The people of the United States look at this crash as a failure, but Reagan turns it around when he says, “what happened today does nothing to diminish it”(6) and “we will continue to follow them” (5). Reagan’s use of tone allows him to inspire the United States to keep moving forward after the flop. This hope is what makes Reagan’s speech so successful. Tone and rhetorical appeals guide the speech but Reagan’s use of rhetorical devices is what makes the speech so successful.
Viksnins, George J. "Reaganomics After Twenty Years." Georgetown.edu. Georgetown University, n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library. “The Second American Revolution: Reaganomics.” Reagan Foundation. http://www.reaganfoundation.org/economic-policy.aspx (accessed May 2, 2014).
The election of 1980 brought the re-nominated Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter, against the newly nominated Republican candidate, Ronald Reagan. While Carter ran a rather “gloom and doom” campaign, Reagan came into the election upbeat and with high hopes of rebuilding the military. Americans, weary of the liberal government, elected Ronald Reagan. Reagan came into the Presidency wanting to restore United States leadership in world affairs w...
Strober, Deborah Hart, and Gerald S. Strober. Reagan the Man and His Presidency. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Print.
When Ronald Reagan took office on January 20, 1981, he promised to continue former President Jimmy Carter’s policy of blocking the sale of arms to Iran on the grounds that Iran had previously been designated as a supporter of
An Honest President: The life and Presidencies of Grover Cleveland, H. Paul Jeffers , 2000, Book
...s of economic and political initiatives that became known as "the Reagan revolution." His accomplishments of winning the Cold War without firing a shot, recovering the American economy known as Reaganomics and his “Star Wars” predicament, his two terms during presidency did not go unseen. He restored the traditional spirit of can-do optimism to the American people, making him a President that cannot be forgotten.
Ronald Reagan was a very popular person before, during, and after his time of presidency. He went from a mere radio announcer, to the head of the United States of America. Ronald had defeated most of the world’s problems with Communism, improved the economy, and handled terrorist threats like a pro. Ronald quickly took America’s heart with his honorable deeds and doings. He was very famous by the time he became deceased. (Ronald Reagan Facts.)
The power of the conservative movement was attributed to the mix of the frustration with failed economic and foreign policies and it was backed by a desire for a change in American culture that focused on the family. The Carter Administration was viewed as inept to lead because everything was going wrong in the American economy, the U.S. international reputation was being tarnished, and a lay minded person might have stated that Carter’s Administration was “circling the drain” at the time of his reelection. The conservative ascendancy in the late 1970s and early 1980s occurred because the people wanted a change and, as the Reagan campaign put it, they wanted to “make America great again.”
Reaganomics lives on. Former president Ronald Reagan's dramatic economic policies are influencing U.S. and world growth — and government action — more than 20 years after he pushed his radical plan to slash taxes, increase defense spending and cut social programs through a divided Democratic Congress.Reagan steered the country toward free markets and away from government controls. Despite a still-raging battle about the wisdom, and success, of his agenda, many current economic debates, both here and abroad, play on themes sounded in the Reagan era. • President Bush's tax cuts are direct descendents of Reagan's policies, which made tax reduction the central tenet of growth. Critics say the Bush administration's tolerance for high deficits, and debt,
Reagan had must more freedom to create whatever policy he wanted, because the people were also left vulnerable from the last president.
A change in strategy leads to new perspective over certain matters. During FDR’s tenure many new reforms were adopted as part of the New Deal. Some o...
Ronald Reagan was born on February 6, 1911 in Tampico, Illinois (Huckshorn 1). He was born in a small apartment above the Pitney General Store (Life Before 1). John Edward Reagan (his father) was a shoe salesman that was an alcoholic. The first time he saw his son he said, "For such a little bit of a fat Dutchman, he makes a hell of a lot of noise, doesn't he" (Life Before 1). This led to his nickname, "Dutch."
Hargrove, Erwin C. The Power of the Modern Presidency. 1st ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1974. Questia. Web. 25 Mar. 2010.