1980s geopolitics
A01=Benjamin Griffin
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Allen Drury
American conservatism
Arms Race
Author_Benjamin Griffin
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=BGH
Category=DNBH
Category=HBJK
Category=HBTW
Category=HBW
Category=JBCC1
Category=JFCA
Category=JPHL
Category=NHK
Category=NHTW
Category=NHW
Cold War
Cold War culture
Cold War leadership
Cold War narrative
Cold War politics
Cold War rhetoric
COP=United States
cultural politics
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
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eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
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eq_nobargain
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eq_society-politics
Evil Empire speech
fiction influence
geopolitical storytelling
John Le Carre
Language_English
Louis LAmour
narrative strategy
PA=Available
political imagination
political narrative
political storytelling
popular authors
popular culture politics
popular fiction
presidential decision making
presidential leadership
presidential messaging
Price_€20 to €50
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Reagan communication
Reagan ideology
Reagan presidency
Reagan strategy
Reagan worldview
Robert Ludlum
Ronald Reagan
Russia
SDI
softlaunch
Soviet Union rivalry
Star Wars
Star Wars program
Strategic Defense Initiative
Tom Clancy
Product details
- ISBN 9781682477786
- Weight: 489g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 27 Oct 2022
- Publisher: Naval Institute Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Reagan's War Stories examines the relationship between Ronald Reagan, the public and popular culture. From an overview of Reagan's youth and the pulp fiction he consumed, we get a sense of the future president's good/evil outlook. Carrying that over into Reagan's reading and choices as president, Griffin situates narrative at the center of Reagan's political formation and leadership providing a compelling account of both Reagan's life, his presidency, and a lens into non-traditional strategy formulation.
Author Ben Griffin tells three stories about an American president who ushered in the end of the Cold War. A survey of Reagan's youth and the fiction he consumed and created as an announcer and actor, reveals how the future president's worldview developed. A look at the rise of fiction and popular culture rife with pro-Americanism in the 1980s details a uniquely symbiotic relationship between the chief executive and popular culture in framing the Cold War as a struggle with an "Evil Empire" in the Soviet Union. Finally, Griffin outlines how presidential personality and reading preferences shaped President Reagan's pursuit of the "Star Wars" initiative and belief in the transformative combination of freedom and technology.
Griffin demonstrates that novels by Tom Clancy, Louis L'Amour, and science fiction influenced Reagan's view of 1980s geopolitics. His identification with fiction led Ronald Reagan to view European Cold War issues with more empathy but harmed the president's policymaking when the narrowness of his reading led him to apply a white-hat/black-hat framework that did not match the reality of conflict in Latin America.
Reagan treated fictional portrayals seriously, believing they shaped public views and offered valid ways to think through geo-political issues. Seeking to shape the reading habits of the public, his administration sought to highlight authors who shared his worldview like Tom Clancy, Louis L'Amour, and Allen Drury over other popular writers like Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre who portrayed the Cold War in less stark moral terms. The administration's favored popular authors in turn intentionally incorporated Reagan-era policies into their work to advocate for them through fiction, thus reaching a broader audience than via official government releases and speeches.
Showing how Reagan used narrative as both a consumer and a communicator, Griffin notes that Reagan identified with certain stories and they shaped him as a political leader and later and influenced his approach to complex issues. When handled deftly, incorporating fiction created a common language across the administration and provided a way to convey messages to the masses in a memorable fashion.
Author Ben Griffin tells three stories about an American president who ushered in the end of the Cold War. A survey of Reagan's youth and the fiction he consumed and created as an announcer and actor, reveals how the future president's worldview developed. A look at the rise of fiction and popular culture rife with pro-Americanism in the 1980s details a uniquely symbiotic relationship between the chief executive and popular culture in framing the Cold War as a struggle with an "Evil Empire" in the Soviet Union. Finally, Griffin outlines how presidential personality and reading preferences shaped President Reagan's pursuit of the "Star Wars" initiative and belief in the transformative combination of freedom and technology.
Griffin demonstrates that novels by Tom Clancy, Louis L'Amour, and science fiction influenced Reagan's view of 1980s geopolitics. His identification with fiction led Ronald Reagan to view European Cold War issues with more empathy but harmed the president's policymaking when the narrowness of his reading led him to apply a white-hat/black-hat framework that did not match the reality of conflict in Latin America.
Reagan treated fictional portrayals seriously, believing they shaped public views and offered valid ways to think through geo-political issues. Seeking to shape the reading habits of the public, his administration sought to highlight authors who shared his worldview like Tom Clancy, Louis L'Amour, and Allen Drury over other popular writers like Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre who portrayed the Cold War in less stark moral terms. The administration's favored popular authors in turn intentionally incorporated Reagan-era policies into their work to advocate for them through fiction, thus reaching a broader audience than via official government releases and speeches.
Showing how Reagan used narrative as both a consumer and a communicator, Griffin notes that Reagan identified with certain stories and they shaped him as a political leader and later and influenced his approach to complex issues. When handled deftly, incorporating fiction created a common language across the administration and provided a way to convey messages to the masses in a memorable fashion.
Ben Griffin is an Army officer who earned his PhD in history from the University of Texas. He is currently teaching in the Department of History at the United States Military Academy and resides at West Point with his family.
