In the 1960s transitioning from acting to politics was rare. Ronald
Reagan was not the first to do it, but he was the first to jump
from the screen to the stump and on to credibility as a
presidential contender. Reagan's transformation from struggling
liberal actor to influential conservative spokesman in five
years—and then to the California governorship six years later—is a
remarkable and compelling story. In Becoming Ronald Reagan Robert
Mann explores Reagan's early life and his career during the 1950s
and early 1960s: his growing desire for acclaim in high school and
college, his political awakening as a young Hollywood actor, his
ideological evolution in the 1950s as he traveled the country for
General Electric, the refining of his political skills during this
period, his growing aversion to big government, and his disdain for
the totalitarian leaders in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. All
these experiences and more shaped Reagan's politics and influenced
his career as an elected official. Mann not only demonstrates how
Reagan the actor became Reagan the political leader and how the
liberal became a conservative, he also shows how the skills Reagan
learned and the lessons he absorbed from 1954 to 1964 made him the
inspiring leader so many Americans remember and revere to this day.
Becoming Ronald Reagan is an indelible portrait of a true
American icon and a politician like none other.Purchase the audio
edition.