Reassessing the Reagan Presidency by Richard S. Conley Review by: Thomas S. Langston Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol.

34, No. 1, Going to War (Mar., 2004), pp. 174-176 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27552575 . Accessed: 14/08/2013 19:03
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174

I PRESIDENTIALSTUDIESQUARTERLY /March 2004

notes that at the height of the Iran in the same post. Wallison by Donald T. Regan Contra affair, rhe Washington Post called Regan "the worst chief of staff ever" (p. 273). Wallison and he absolves Regan from any responsibility for Iran-Contra, disagrees, was that the he uninformed about what villains of the Poindexter, noting book?John Robert defends and especially Oliver McFarlane, and the reader is left with Regan, up to. Wallison a sense of injustice at Regan's of his own virtually no mention North?were House. sordid tale of the Iran-Contra affair is Ronald vigorously ignominious leave taking

and hasty exit. Wallison himself makes once his mentor had departed theWhite But the real villain inWallison's himself. Wallison

Shultz saying of secretary of state George quotes Reagan a "He he with had about and would stick him, consistency Reagan: things. Sometimes In wish that he wouldn't" Wallison's view, Reagan's you'd (p. 237). inability to admit arms that he had traded for hostages, and his stubborn refusal to concede "mistakes of former the hostages' freedom, prolonged the heart" (p. 273) in winning the Iran-Contra affair term. and took much of the momentum from the second Thus, the real value of away of the conservative deification Wallison's book is not his advancement of Reagan, but the catbird seat he provides into the chaos that descended upon the White House fol
lowing to it. For the Iran-Contra Wallison the disclosures, describes author's best and Reagan's passive meandering Reagan Commission, either stubbornness testimony ignored that before contributed the Tower or, impres example, Despite read them Reagan's efforts,

Commission. worse still,

his memoranda the

verbatim

to the Tower

thereby

enhancing

sion of a president being manipulated by his staff (pp. 249-77). Ronald Reagan was a president of his time. Conservatives and the country are right to give him credit for his policy successes and a general restoration of confidence in the presidency.
politics What for makes

They
years for

are also right

to a come. truly But great

in noting
Reagan's

that Reagan
glaring weakness

shaped
was

the rhetoric
his inability

of domestic
to and innovate. Franklin

presidency?as

Washington,

Lincoln,

Roosevelt
makes a

can attest?is
powerful case for

the ability
this argument.

for policy

innovation.

Ironically, Wallison's

book

Kenneth White ?John Catholic University of America

Reassessing versity Variously

Thatcher, plicity. His and

the Reagan Presidency. Press of America, 2003. compared

the village was

Edited

by Richard 268 xvi, pp. Roosevelt,

Reagan was (p. xiv)

S. Conley.

Lanham, MD:

Uni

to
idiot,

Franklin
Ronald

Dwight
a complex and perhaps

Eisenhower,
man of even

Margaret
sim but

shocking realigning,

administration

"reconstructive"

it has also been castigated by two decades of critics as destructive It is to and deceitful. not to the credit of the contributors this volume that they do look beyond the passions that surround the Reagan presidency, but delve into them as part of the subject matter
of their collective reassessment.

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BOOK REVIEWS

I 175

In an introductory the context and Anne Skedler establish essay, Tim Blessing Humanities for the volume, based upon a 2002 conference held at the Interdisciplinary of Reagan of California, Santa Barbara. A second generation Center of the University one both is that takes with and Skedler note, scholarship exception emerging, Blessing
the "lesser Reagan" and "greater Reagan" assessments of the past. Blessing and Skedler

are themselves
as

perhaps overly keen on their subject. They are persuaded by Beth Fischer's recent account {The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War, 1997) of
a man who "knew and understood" (p. 9) all manner of things, because he

Reagan

detailed notes on arcane subjects. Perhaps, but this line of reasoning is open to criticism, which the authors fail to acknowledge. They are on firmer ground when own test poll, and that of Murray 2002 and the results of their presenting analyzing in in in which historians were asked to the White 1989 {Greatness House, 1999), Blessing once wrote
rate Reagan. As Blessing and Skedler conclude, there is still no consensus on Reagan as

president, ideologies The

White House

and most and policy remaining

and

experts

tend to evaluate

his administration to subject:

conservative

in line with the public

movement.

their own the

preferences. essays are grouped

relations,

according
and the

presidency,
The strongest

inter-branch

section,
with the

on White
greatest

House
number

decision making
of contributions.

and relations with

John Sloan, author

Congress,
of an

is also the one

and ana

objective

lytical account pares Reagan's

century sonality, tive by

of Reagan's

economic

decision-making
president.

{The Reagan Effect, 1999), here com policymaking the other 20th habits with those of Franklin Roosevelt,
The paradox style, at both is that, succeeded seems president's though at not vastly the role different of in per a reconstruc hampered quoted

"reconstructive" convictions, For

and management Reagan, style success

president. a management

reconstruction in the

to have own words,

been as

Sloan: 131).

"

wonderfully

reflected

'Each morning
contributors

I get a piece
help us

of paper

that tells me what

who wrote

I do all day long'

the that

"

by

(p.

Several

to better

understand

script

Reagan

uses evidence from archival sources to test every day. Andrew Rudalevige over the drafting and the House centralization about ofWhite contingency hypotheses to Congress initiatives. His evidence of legislative indicates that in the presentation followed Reagan administration,
Reagan,

centralization
and those who

of legislative
controlled

initiatives
the White

was
House

visible,
in his

but hardly
name, "like

overwhelming.

other presidents,
House responded

used a variety
rationally to

of sources of policy
incentives within

advice"
its

(p. 155). The Reagan White

as, for example, in

environment,

working
under

cooperatively

with members

of the Senate and their staffs while the script that Reagan
different answer:

that branch was John K.

culture."

Republican

control.

In answering
White and Bruce J.

the question
Schulman

"who wrote
provide a quite

followed?"

"the American

The
values

value
of

inWhite's
Reagan's family, work,

essay is the way

own mythical neighborhood,

in which
That and

he draws upon
persona, freedom. White These

"the Gipper"
tells values us, "have

theme
emphasized roots

to

illuminate

persona. peace,

in

our collective
ity on the

subconscious"
had made

(p. 48).
a greater

It would
effort

have been beneficial

to substantiate this

if White,
claim, and

an author
to explore

subject,

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176
the man's

I PRESIDENTIALSTUDIESQUARTERLY /March 2004

to which such a claim the is and is not amenable to public opinion analysis. context. Schul What, if

extent

subject

is putting

Reagan

"revolution"

in a cross-national

in the United States in the anything, special about the turn toward conservatism on or States did conservatives 1980s? The answer: only in the United rely feel-good, in the States conservatives doctrine. United did "supply-side," economic Only place such a low priority on fiscal restraint that overall government spending in the decade increased as a share of GDP
American The culture Reagan and

was

(p. 98). They

society. close

did

so, Schulman
with

believes,
the

for reasons

rooted

in

presidency's

relationship

conservative

movement

is

the subject
Schneider. vatives,

of one of the most

Schneider, who is expert and New

unique
at

contributions
the

to this volume,
disagreements shows among that

by Gregory
paleoconser conservatism

L.

dissecting

neoconservatives,

Right

anti-abortionists,

did

not find its modern

operate without an

fulfillment
agreed upon

in Ronald
definition

Reagan's White
of what they are

House.

Because
they

conservatives
are no more

conserving,

capable of finding
upon understanding There are

fulfillment
of who

in this life than are liberals, who

or what volume, they and are liberating. unfortunate some

operate
of

absent an agreed
haste. The most

gaps

in

this

signs

notable

gaps are in foreign and military strategies, and the party system. The essay by the editor, comparing Reagan's Eisenhower, legislative leadership with that of Dwight the importance of Reagan's partisan context, but cannot by is valuable in highlighting itself cover the terrain of so large a subject. The signs of haste include the absence of one (Schulman)
Presidency

of the contributors
Reassessing ship on the Reagan a most

from the listing

is a welcome

of authors

(pp. 258-60).
generation

Nevertheless,
of scholar

addition

to a second

important

presidency.

?Thomas

S. Langs

ton

Tulane University

Constructing Politics.

and Presidential in Postmodern Hyperreality Image-Making and Trevor Parry-Giles. New York: Peter Lang By Shawn J. Parry-Giles Inc., 2002. 245 pp. Publishing, Clinton: Shawn Parry-Giles and Trevor Parry-Giles believe that, in the postmodern world is an exercise in futility. Accord the "real" Bill Clinton
objective upon images how and to answer express for U.S. Bill Clinton the the political was questions, "how of U.S. (p. did the constructed and answer of "what these texts. character politics?" 2). To

of hyperreality,
ingly, images are the they have of Bill

trying to discover
made Clinton of it their reflect such analyze

consequences the authors

culture?" constructed

questions,

in a variety

The
candidate's

first such text is the video The Man from Hope, which
acceptance speech at the Democratic National

was

shown prior
in 1992.

to the
Espe

Convention

is their analysis of the film's use of gender. The Man from Hope, though cially noteworthy to establish Clinton's institutions highly feminine discourse, used "familiar masculine credentials for the presidency" (p. 36). They contend that the feminine style of this text

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