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Summary
Author Notes
Hanyes Bonner Johnson was born in 1931 in New York City. He earned his bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri and his Master's in American History from the University of Wisconsin. Johnson served as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished national reporting in 1966 for his coverage of the civil rights crisis in Selma, Alabama and he is widely regarded as one of the nation's top political commentators.
Haynes Johnson was the author or editor of a number of books including bestsellers "Sleepwalking Through History", "The Bay of Pigs", "The Landing", and "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election".
He died on May 24, 2013; he was 81. (Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Washington Post columnist Johnson here presents a stunning indictment of the Reagan administration that details its impact on social, economic and political life in America. He reviews abuses in the S&L institutions, in HUD, in the National Security Council, on Wall Street, in religious broadcasting and, most impressively, reveals how the administration renounced responsibility for ameliorating social distress. The book makes clear why the rich got richer and the poor poorer in the last decade. Johnson portrays President Reagan as a kind of Dr. Feelgood who fulfilled a public need for reassurance, and ironically evaded judgment during the Iran- contra affair because of his reputation for not being in charge. Summarizing what he sees as Reagan's legacy, the ``ethical wastland of the eighties,'' the author points to growing fractionalization, subversion of the constitutional system, corruption and ineffectiveness of government, and cynicism and inattention of the American people. First serial to Vanity Fair. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Here, Johnson (In the Absence of Power, 1980, etc; Pulitzer-winning Washington Post columnist) portrays Ronald Reagan as an affable, shallow politician of dubious credentials, one created by millionaires and clever media salesmen into a mythical figure who would restore American prestige and old values. Johnson cites the promises of Reagan's conservative ""supply-side trickle-down"" program to deliver more riches for all, reduce government, and rearm America while at the same time cutting both taxes and deficits--just what many Americans, addicted to TV and movie fantasies, wanted to hear. While we slept, Johnson argues, the nightmare grew: a steep rise in both the number of millionaires and destitute, with more squeezes on the middle class; a rapid decline of great industries (cars, steel, ore, etc.) and the rise of the ""Rustbelt""; record-breaking unbalanced budgets and trade deficits that checked economic growth. Another record was the high number of Reagan Administration officials investigated, indicted, or convicted. Johnson sees Reagan's alleged inattention to governance, gutting of regulatory bodies, drastic deregulation policies, contempt for laws, and pure laissez-faire creed as contributing to the sleaze and low ethics of the Eighties. Permissiveness invited plunderers, allowing scandals--savings and loan, Wall Street, HUD, Wedtech--that rivalled those of the corrupt Grant and Harding years; and Johnson deems Iran-contra more serious than Watergate, although Reagan escaped impeachment moves. A narrow and caustic--though persuasive--indictment. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Under Ronald Reagan, it may have been morning again in America, but the country is just now waking up to a dreadful national nightmare. So opines Haynes Johnson in his review of the Reagan administration's accomplishments, which now seem more akin to the aftershocks of a social and political earthquake. The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post has harsh words for the former chief executive, but the author's judgments don't diverge that much from the already published accounts of Reagan's friends, colleagues, associates, and family members. What is highlighted here is the context of the Reagan revolution--why it succeeded in the first place and what its success portends for the future. As much an indictment of the current state of American civilization as a condemnation of Reagan, Johnson's study fingers all the usual suspects--Donald Trump, Jim Bakker, New York's nouveau society--as the book examines the consequences of the recent past that are now being visited on George Bush's government and the nation's entire population. --John Brosnahan
Table of Contents
Prologue | p. 13 |
Chapter 1 The Capital | p. 19 |
Chapter 2 The Loser | p. 24 |
Chapter 3 The Winner | p. 41 |
Chapter 4 The New America | p. 52 |
Chapter 5 The New Conservatism | p. 65 |
Chapter 6 The Great Reaction | p. 76 |
Chapter 7 The Take-Over | p. 83 |
Chapter 8 A New Era | p. 93 |
Chapter 9 The Cabal | p. 97 |
Chapter 10 Rustbelt | p. 116 |
Chapter 11 Sunbelt | p. 125 |
Chapter 12 Capital of Success | p. 132 |
Chapter 13 Electronic Culture | p. 139 |
Chapter 14 Myths and Realities | p. 153 |
Chapter 15 Privatizing | p. 168 |
Chapter 16 God and Mammon | p. 193 |
Chapter 17 The Insiders | p. 215 |
Chapter 18 Deregulation | p. 227 |
Chapter 19 The Ledger | p. 235 |
Chapter 20 Secrets | p. 245 |
Chapter 21 Haven | p. 261 |
Chapter 22 April Again | p. 275 |
Chapter 23 On the Hill | p. 301 |
Chapter 24 The Investigation | p. 333 |
Chapter 25 Olliemania | p. 348 |
Chapter 26 Postmortems | p. 366 |
Chapter 27 Crash | p. 372 |
Chapter 28 Reckoning | p. 387 |
Chapter 29 Capital of Success | p. 411 |
Chapter 30 Sunbelt | p. 419 |
Chapter 31 Rustbelt and Farmbelt | p. 424 |
Chapter 32 Wall Street | p. 431 |
Chapter 33 Washington | p. 438 |
Epilogue | p. 461 |
Players of the Eighties | p. 477 |
Notes and Sources | p. 485 |
Bibliography | p. 493 |
Acknowledgments | p. 503 |
Index | p. 505 |