1980s America
1980s politics
A01=Alex Wagner
American court system
American history
American politics
Author_Alex Wagner
Category=JPF
Category=JPFK
Category=JPFT
Category=JPQ
Category=NHK
conservative takeover
courts
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
far right
forthcoming
history
pod save america
Politics
research
Ronald Reagan
supreme court
Product details
- ISBN 9781250901637
- Weight: 454g
- Dimensions: 155 x 236mm
- Publication Date: 26 Oct 2026
- Publisher: Flatiron Books
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Alex Wagner—cable news anchor, acclaimed journalist, TV personality—tells the wild origin story of the conservative takeover of the American judiciary, and how it all started with the Reagan Revolution of 1980. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 was a sharp right turn for American governance. After decades on the fringes, the conservative right had their eyes set on tax cuts, an aggressive foreign policy, and law and order. But there was one area of the federal government that was less talked about at the time, but no less crucial: the courts. In her first narrative book of political history, Alex Wagner shows how a few devoted Reaganites kept their focus when no one else would, and how we’re all still living with the effects. Ed Meese, a native Californian, former DA, and aide to Reagan from his days as governor, saw that goal very clearly. Get as many judges on the bench as possible and make sure they’re as conservative as he was: on abortion rights, on taxes, on criminal justice. To help him achieve this goal, he enlisted a few fellow true-believers: Paul Weyrich, the firebrand organizer; Joe Coors, the beer magnate whose fortune funded many of Weyrich’s efforts; and Robert Bork, the towering legal intellect of the right, and an important mentor to a few young law students starting a new organization called The Federalist Society. Told with Alex Wagner’s trademark sardonic wit and deadpan delivery, The Steal is a wild romp through a slice of American history that proves that the long game pays off when championed by the right group of people, no matter how unlikely.
