Ronald Reagan: An Intellectual Biography - Hardcover

In this ambitious work David T. Byrne analyzes the ideas that informed Ronald Reagan&;s political philosophy and policies. Rather than appraising Reagan&;s personal and emotional life, Byrne&;s intellectual biography goes one step further; it establishes a rationale for the former president&;s motives, discussing how thinkers such as Plato and Adam Smith influenced him. Byrne points to three historical forces that shaped Reagan&;s political philosophy: Christian values, particularly the concept of a universal kingdom of God; America&;s firm belief in freedom as the greatest political value and its aversion to strong centralized government; and the appeasement era of World War II, which stimulated Reagan&;s aggressive and confrontational foreign policy.

Byrne&;s account of the fortieth president augments previous work on Reagan with a new model for understanding him. Byrne shows how Reagan took conservatism and the Republican Party in a new direction, departing from the traditional conservatism of Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk. His desire to spread a &;Kingdom of Freedom&; both at home and abroad changed America&;s political landscape forever and inspired a new conservatism that persists to this day.