Supply-side economics was too embryonic a movement to do much to help Ford himself of course. Like Jimmy Carter, his successor, Ford was wedded to Keynesian economic theory. As Hayward amusingly notes, in 1975, the Democratic Congress called for a tax decrease to reduce unemployment, which Republicans vigorously argued against. Within ten years of course, roles would be dramatically reversed, but not before 1980, when the weight of 20 years of conventional economic wisdom finally came crashing down in the form of a crippling recession (which really could be called "the worst economy in fifty years"), gas rationing, "the misery index", double-digit unemployment, interest rates, and stagflation: add to this the Iranian hostage crisis, and the recipe for Jimmy Carter's defeat at the hand's of Reagan was assured.

If we think about them at all (and indeed, the fact that most Americans don't is what allowed the "worst economy" line to work for Bill Clinton when describing a far milder recession in 1992), it's not difficult to recall the late 1970s as truly the bad old days, as set in motion by the events of 1964.

A Quadruple Play

As James Bowman noted not too long ago, the first two-thirds of Hayward's book are stronger than the remaining third, as the book shifts in tone from a history lesson far removed from the conventional wisdom of the 1960s and '70s, to a Theodore White-style diagramming Reagan's first run at the White House in 1976, and his ultimately successful attempt in 1980.

Of course, if you're unfamiliar with that history, then you'll enjoy that retrospective as well.

The Age of Reagan is a unique quadruple play: it's an excellent historical analysis from a decidedly different cant, it does a thorough job of reflecting how world events shaped a man who would come to shape them himself, highlights two presidential campaigns (one failed, the other successful) and it serves as a (perhaps unintended) warning to current and future politicians.

Recommended to thoughtful readers on both sides of the aisle.