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Reagan Administration

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A group of men in a bar watching Oliver North testify before Congress.
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How the Iran-Contra Scandal Impacts American Politics Today

The Iran-Contra affair exposed how government officials can ignore democratic norms and practices.
by Alan McPherson via Made By History on May 14, 2025
Two drawn caricatures of Ronald Reagan's face.

I’m a Historian of the ’80s. I Cannot Tell You How Bizarre the New Ronald Reagan Movie Is.

There’s hagiography, then there’s...whatever this is.
by Paul M. Renfro via Slate on September 3, 2024
Ronald Reagan addressing the nation on tax reduction legislation from the Oval Office
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History Explains the Racial Wealth Gap

Ronald Reagan's economic policies exacerbated the racial wealth gap— and they've guided all his successors.
by Calvin Schermerhorn via Made By History on December 4, 2023
Ronald Reagan pointing at a graph explaining his proposed tax policy.

Ronald Reagan and the Myth of the Self-Made Entrepreneur

Why a policy agenda adopted in the name of entrepreneurs hurt entrepreneurs more than it helped them.
by Steven K. Vogel via The Economic Historian on October 5, 2021
Nancy Reagan standing behind a railing.

Nancy Reagan’s Real Role in the AIDS Crisis

The former first lady fought the conservative Reagan administration in an attempt to get her husband to pay more attention to the deadly pandemic.
by Karen Tumulty via The Atlantic on April 12, 2021
the contra military group

Reagan and the Iran-Contra Affair

Reagan's commitment to deregulation, aggressive military spending, and diminished oversight created a cocktail of corruption that was worse than Watergate.
by Jeremi Suri via American Heritage on February 1, 2021

1984: The Year America Didn’t Go To War

Cabinet members slugged it out, but the one with the real war experience convinced Reagan not to avenge the Marine barracks bombing.
by Mark Perry via The American Conservative on July 16, 2019
Reagan giving his "tear down this wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987.

Ronald Reagan and the Cold War: What Mattered Most

By seeking to talk to Soviet leaders and end the Cold War, Reagan helped to win it.
by Melvyn P. Leffler via Texas National Security Review on June 5, 2018
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration headquarters.
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Trump May be Repeating Reagan's Deep Sea Mining Mistake

Undermining international oceans governance could damage American interests.
by Sonya Schoenberger via Made By History on June 17, 2025
Michael Ledeen.

Michael Ledeen Was the Forrest Gump of American Fascism

From Iran-contra to Iraq war WMD lies to Trumpism, this right-wing pundit kept subverting democracy. 
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on May 30, 2025
A playing card King superimposed over Trump's face.

The Dangerous Legal Theory Behind Trump’s Power Grabs

There was no “unitary executive” until some dudes made the idea up to save Nixon.
by Pema Levy via Mother Jones on May 5, 2025
An illustration of a government building holding up an American home with a stylized hand.

The Good Society Department

Once upon a time, there was a federal government department that helped design and distribute tools for living the good life. What happened to that vision?
by John Last via Noema on April 3, 2025
Elon Musk, David Stockman, and a federal building.

The Education of Elon Musk

The Reagan administration offers a cautionary tale about cost-cutting zeal crashing up against the reality of how government works.
by David A. Graham via The Atlantic on March 20, 2025

Queer Activists and the Struggle for AIDS Education

Queer resistance to state-sponsored oppression campaigns, from Reagan to Trump.
by Lucy Kelly via History Workshop on March 6, 2025
Poofs of smoke in the sky.

An “Iron Dome for America”: A History Repeating Itself

How America’s search for total security keeps making the world more dangerous.
by Athena Drakou via The Climate Historian on February 3, 2025
Ronald and Nancy Reagan smiling and waving at victory celebration.

Honey, I Forgot to Duck

Reagan’s capacity to inhabit and generate legend stemmed from his own impulse to substitute pleasing fictions for inconvenient facts.
by Jackson Lears via London Review of Books on January 15, 2025
Jimmy Carter in the 1970s visiting a town in Brazil that commemorates Confederate expats.

Jimmy Carter, 1924-2024

As an individual, Jimmy Carter stood as a rebuke to our venal and heartless political class. As a politician, his private virtues proved to be public vices.
by Tim Barker via Origins of Our Time on January 1, 2025
A row of nuclear missiles aimed at a cloudy sky.

The Forgotten Epidemic

The bishops once used their influence to encourage nuclear disarmament. Can they do so again now?
by Alexander Stern via Commonweal on December 21, 2024
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How the Federal School Lunch Program Became a Spicy Political Debate

A 1940s child nutrition program has been a subject of debate for decades, reflecting shifting political priorities.
via Retro Report on December 5, 2024
Photo contact sheet from Ronald Reagan speech on Nicaragua in 1986.
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Letting the World Scream

The U.S., Nicaragua, and the International Court of Justice in the 1980s.
by Sean T. Byrnes via HNN on November 26, 2024
A still of Dennis Quaid as Ronald Reagan overlaid on the seal of the United States.

The Thin Line Between Biopic and Propaganda

The success of “Reagan” reflects the market demands of a more fragmented moviegoing public—and reality.
by Zach Schonfeld via The Atlantic on November 18, 2024
Ibn Khaldun

The Muslim Thinker Who Inspired Reagan

How Ibn Khaldun influenced the president and a generation of conservative tax policy.
by Mustafa Akyol via The Dispatch on October 10, 2024
Protesters march againts the US-backed government of El Salvador in 1985.

How US Trade Unionists Opposed the Dirty War in El Salvador

Progressive forces in US labor took a stand in solidarity with trade unionists facing murderous repression in El Salvador.
by Jeff Schuhrke via Jacobin on September 26, 2024
Ronald Reagan

What If Ronald Reagan’s Presidency Never Really Ended?

Anti-Trump Republicans revere Ronald Reagan as Trump’s opposite—yet in critical ways Reagan may have been his forerunner.
by Daniel Immerwahr via The New Yorker on September 9, 2024
Supreme Court of the United States.

Deference and Doomposting

Ironically, Chevron deference — which the conservative Supreme Court scrapped last month — began as a conservative legal tool.
by Christopher Deutsch via Contingent on July 14, 2024
Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale at 1984 presidential debate.

When a Debate Flop Raised Concerns About Ronald Reagan's Fitness to Run for Re-Election

During the 1984 campaign, the 73-year-old president meandered his way through his face-off against Walter Mondale, prompting questions about his mental acuity.
by Eli Wizevich via Smithsonian on July 11, 2024
Ronald Reagan campaigns in Houston ahead of the Republican Convention in 1976.
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How Abortion Took Over the Republican Party

Ronald Reagan proved instrumental to Southerners bringing their cultural conservatism to center stage for the Republican Party.
by Jonathan Bartho via Made By History on April 12, 2024
House Speaker Thomas O'Neill Jr. talking to President Ronald Reagan

Which President Had The Most Shutdowns? Reagan, With An Asterisk

There were more government shutdowns under Ronald Reagan than under every president since, combined. But some were as short as a few hours.
by Gillian Brockell via Washington Post on September 23, 2023
Aftermath of Oklahoma City bombing.

American Carnage

A new book about Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing traces the path from Ronald Reagan’s antigovernment ideology to today’s radicalized right.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on July 25, 2023
Ronald Reagan with James Watt

Good Riddance to the Architect of the GOP’s Environmental Culture Wars

James Watt was a fiery evangelical, a cultural laughingstock—and instrumental in shaping modern GOP rhetoric on the environment.
by Liza Featherstone via The New Republic on June 16, 2023
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