Reagan's Path to Victory: The Shaping of Ronald Reagan's Vision: Selected Writings (Free Press, October 2004) is an indispensable collection of the core ideas of the 40th president of the United States, in his own words.
Completing the mission they began in their two previous volumes—the New York Times best sellers Reagan: A Life in Letters and Reagan, In His Own Hand—Hoover fellows Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson here offer the most important of Reagan's unpublished writings. In addition, former secretary of state George P. Shultz has written a foreword for the book.
In Reagan's Path to Victory the material is arranged to reveal how Reagan developed his message for America, as well as his campaign tactics, through the essays he wrote for his nationally syndicated daily radio addresses between January 1975 and October 1979. In their introduction to the collection, the editors give Reagan's radio essays their due as "his personal, handwritten policy platform for governing."
Providing a printed version of what Reagan wrote in his own hand, complete with his inserts and deletions, Reagan's Path to Victory presents a telling selection of radio commentaries in chronological order. For each broadcast year, the editors offer an enlightening essay on how the governor of America's largest state demonstrated that he was capable of becoming its commander in chief. Throughout, brief editorial notes clarify references to current events, major questions, and raging debates of those times—many of which still resonate today, 25 years later.
Rich in political insights, Reagan's Path to Victory is also a personal tribute, featuring facsimile reproductions of four of his most interesting commentaries and an audio CD containing 20 of Reagan's original recordings. This collection of writings reveals why Ronald Reagan inspired and continues to inspire such a devoted following.
Skinner is a Hoover research fellow and an assistant professor of history and political science at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2004, President George W. Bush appointed her to the National Security Education Board, and Secretary Donald Rumsfeld appointed her to the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. Annelise Anderson is a Hoover Institution research fellow. A senior policy adviser to Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, she later worked in his administration as associate director of the Office of Management and Budget. Martin Anderson is the Keith and Jan Hurlbut Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He served as chief domestic and economic policy adviser to President Reagan and is the author of seven books, including Revolution, the first comprehensive history of the Reagan administration.
Reagan's Path to Victory: The Shaping of Ronald Reagan's Vision: Selected Writings
Edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson with a Foreword by George P. Shultz
ISBN: 0-7432-2706-9 $35.00
512 pages October 2004
