The Reagan range

by James E. Combs

The Presidency of Ronald Reagan is now history, and obviously much has been written about this remarkable political personage. The literature on Reagan ranges from historical accounts and journalistic interpretations to memoirs and kiss-and-tell revelations. Astonishingly, however, little has been done linking Reagan to the American popular culture that spawned and trained him and which he intuitively understood and used so well. This book is an attempt to make sense out of Reagan by linking him to various grassroots dimensions of American popular mythology and mind. The argument is made that Reagan's political success can be understood in part by seeing him as part of the revivified nostalgic myth that so informs and shapes American political life, of which he was the latest successful representative.^ By looking at Reagan as a nostalgic representation, we then gain insight into our desire to link the American past with the present and understand more fully what the mythic past, and i