Varieties of American Conservatism
Discover the intellectual roots of modern conservatism.
Our goal with the “Great Figures of the 20th Century” Weekend Seminars series will be to examine the worldviews and leadership styles of four key individuals – Churchill, Reagan, Thatcher, and Ben-Gurion – in order to surface underlying questions about statesmanship. We will ask questions such as: What is statesmanship? How does one recognize it? And if one can, in fact, speak of statesmanship, what are (or should be) its fundamental constituent components?
These seminars are not intended to be mere biographical surveys of great lives well lived. Our goal, ideally, will be to spend some time covering the basic narratives of what transpired during each figure’s career, but then to engage in extended, thoughtful seminar-style discussion of the issues that these events and narratives raise, exploring their unfolding in our past and reflecting on their implications for our future. We will hope not to simply learn about our figures, but from them.
Photos courtesy U.S. Department of Defense | White House Photographic Office
Steve Hayward on the statesmanship of Ronald Reagan
Faculty
Steven F. Hayward
Steven F. Hayward is a senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, and a visiting lecturer at Boalt Hall Law School. Hayward is the author of a two-volume narrative history of Ronald Reagan and his effect on American political life, The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980, and The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989.
Steven F. Hayward
Steven F. Hayward is a senior resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, and a visiting lecturer at Boalt Hall Law School. He is also the Thomas Smith Distinguished Fellow at the John M. Ashbrook Center at Ashland University, where he directs the Ashbrook Center’s new program in political economy.
He was previously the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Visiting Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Public Policy, and was the inaugural visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2013-14. From 2002 to 2012 he was the F.K Weyerhaeuser Fellow in Law and Economics at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington DC, and has been senior fellow at the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco since 1991.
Hayward writes daily on the popular PowerLineBlog.com, and frequently serves as a guest host for Bill Bennett’s national radio show “Morning in America” on the Salem Broadcasting Network. He writes frequently on a wide range of current topics, including environmentalism, law, economics, and public policy for publications including National Review, Reason, The Weekly Standard, The American Spectator, The Public Interest, the Claremont Review of Books, and Policy Review. His newspaper articles have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, and dozens of other daily newspapers. He is the author of Index of Leading Environmental Indicators, published in 14 editions, and its successor, the Almanac of Environmental Trends. Hayward is the author of a two-volume narrative history of Ronald Reagan and his effect on American political life, The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Old Liberal Order, 1964-1980, and The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter-Revolution, 1980-1989. His other books include Mere Environmentalism: A Biblical Perspective on Humans and the Natural World; Churchill on Leadership; and Greatness: Reagan Churchill, and the Making of Modern Statesmen.
Hayward received a Ph.D. in American studies and M.A. in government from Claremont Graduate School and a B.S. in business and administrative studies from Lewis and Clark College.
Download the Full Syllabus
Preview the Syllabus by Week/Session
Saturday
Session 1: The Rise of Ronald Reagan
Readings:
- Ronald Reagan, “A Time for Choosing,” October 28, 1964
- Ronald Reagan, “The Creative Society,” January 1967
- Ronald Reagan, “The New Republican Party,” Speech to CPAC, 1977
Discussion Questions:
- What did Ronald Reagan’s rise reveal about the changing character of the Republican Party and the American electorate at large?
- What are the distinctive aspects of “A Time for Choosing” that make it “vintage Reagan”?
- What was the core of Reagan’s critique of Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society?
- How did Reagan differ from conventional Republicans?
Group Lunch
Session 2: The Reagan Revolution
Readings:
- Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981
- Ronald Reagan, Address to the British Parliament, June 1982
Discussion Questions:
- What were the major characteristics and policies of the Reagan Revolution? How revolutionary was it?
- What were the major parts of Reagan’s economic policy?
- How did monetary policy fit into the Reagan policy mix?
- How did Reagan’s domestic-policy vision relate to his foreign policy?
Session 3: Reagan’s Foreign Policy
Readings:
- National Security Decision Directive 75, January 1983
- Herbert Meyer, “Why is the World So Dangerous?”, November 1983
- Ronald Reagan, “Evil Empire” Speech, March 8, 1983
- Ronald Reagan, “Star Wars” speech, March 23, 1983
Discussion Questions:
- What was the perception of the balance of power between the East and West when Reagan took office in 1981?
- What was Reagan’s strategy for reorienting America’s approach to the Soviet Union? In what ways did it represent a counterintuitive revision of the historic bipartisan consensus of post-war “containment”?
Group Dinner
Sunday
Session 4: The End of the Cold War
Readings:
- Ronald Reagan, Second Inaugural Address, January 21, 1985
- Ronald Reagan, Berlin Wall Speech, June 12, 1987
- Ronald Reagan, Remarks to the World Affairs Council, Springfield, MA, April 21, 1988
- Ronald Reagan, Address at Moscow State University, May 31, 1988
Discussion Questions:
- Why was Reagan’s “strategic defense initiative” proposal so controversial with nearly everyone?
- What was Reagan’s strategy for hastening the collapse of Communism? What weaknesses in the Soviet Union did Reagan and Gorbachev both perceive?
- What long-term lessons should be learned from the end of the Cold War, and Reagan’s strategy for ending it?
Group Lunch and Closing Conversation
Readings:
Discussion Questions:
- What impact has the Reagan Revolution had on American society and politics?
- What parts appear to be permanent or long-lasting features of American politics?
- What forces or contradictions prevented it from achieving its goals, domestic and foreign?
