History Web Links: Reagan Revolution

 

Ronald Reagan Prior to Political Career

Overview of Reagan's Film Career (from The Chicago Sun-Times)

website to Reagan's birthplace and boyhood home

Ronald Reagan's October 23, 1947 testimony before the anti-Communist HUAC committee of the House of Representatives

 

 

Period of Reagan's Early Political Career

1960 Sharon Statement of the conservative student group, Young Americans for Freedom

1962 Port Huron Statement introduction (landmark statement of the emerging student movement)

Reagan's famous 1964 speech in support of Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater

1964 Republican Convention Acceptance speech by presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (considered by many to be the grandfather of the Conservative movement of the 1980s and beyond)
     -- 1964 Goldwater campaign commercials (including one featuring Ronald 
          Reagan)

Reagan's 1967 California Governor's Inaugural Address

George Wallace (Segregationist Alabama Governor & National 
     Presidential Candidate George Wallace):
        --George Wallace's famous 1963 confrontational, segregationist speech 
            which heightened racial tensions in the deep South
      --Wallace's June 1963 "Speech at the Schoolhouse Door," temporaily 
            blocking the University of Alabama's door to integration
      --Alabama Dept of Archives and History site profile on George Wallace
      --PBS website on George Wallace
      --Account of George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign
      --Profile on Arthur Bremer (attempted assassin of Wallace in 1972)
      -- An interview with Wallace biographer Dan Carter on Wallace's legacy

Watergate:
     The controversial 1970 Nixon administration "Huston Plan," calling for
          questionable surveillance activities
     Nixon Administration's "Plumbers Unit" Documents (a unit of White House 
          employees who engaged a series of controversial surveillance activites for 
          the Nixon administration)
     Nixon's 1974 Resignation Speech

Reagan's 1976 Republican Convention Speech

President Jimmy Carter’s July 1979 "Crisis of Confidence" Speech

Reagan's 1980 Republican Convention Acceptance Speech

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post-Reagan Administration Conservative Developments

1994 Republican Congressmen's "Contract With America" proposing a conservative reform agenda if they gain a Congressional majority

Conservative Congressional Republican leader Newt Gingrich:
     -- 1989 Vanity Fair article on Newt Gingrich
     -- 1995 Gail Sheehy article on Newt Gingrich
     -- 1978 speech to College Republicans during his third run (and first 
           successful run for Congress (providing a glimpse of how early on Newt 
           envisioned changing the Republican Party, politics and America)
     -- Famous quotes from Newt Gingrich
     -- a chronology of Newt Gingrich's career
     -- an interview with Republican strategist Paul Weyrich on Newt Gingrich 
           (A leading figure of the Religious Right, Weyrich is president of Free 
           Congress Foundation and founded NET, National Empowerment 
           Television. Gingrich met Weyrich in 1975 while attending a Republican 
           campaign school in Wisconsin. Weyrich says he taught Gingrich
           everything he knows.) 
     -- an interview with former Republican Congressman Vin Weber on Gingrich
           (A former Republican Congressman from Minnesota, Weber was part of 
           Gingrich's Conservative Opportunity Society. C.O.S. was a rebellious 
           faction of House Republicans, the "Young Turks" committed to the 
           conservative cause.