Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan's Evangelical Vision

by Diane H Winston

A provocative new history of how the news media facilitated the Reagan Revolution and the rise of the religious Right. After two years in the White House, an aging and increasingly unpopular Ronald Reagan looked like a one-term president, but in 1983 something changed. Reagan spoke of his embattled agenda as a spiritual rather than a political project and cast his vision for limited government and market economics as the natural outworking of religious conviction. The news media broadcast this message with enthusiasm, and white evangelicals rallied to the president’s cause. With their support, Reagan won reelection and continued to dismantle the welfare state, unraveling a political consensus that stood for half a century.In Righting the American Dream, Diane Winston reveals how support for Reagan emerged from a new religious vision of American identity circulating in the popular press. Through four key events—the “evil empire” speech, AIDS outbreak, invasion of Grenada, and rise in American poverty rates—Winston shows that many journalists uncritically adopted Reagan’s religious rhetoric and ultimately mainstreamed otherwise unpopular evangelical ideas about individual responsibility. The result is a provocative new account of how Reagan together with the press turned America to the right and initiated a social revolution that continues today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion

266 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 28, 2023

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really interesting chapters describing the history of the Reagan administration, the news media, and religion in the 1970s and 1980s that I wasn't super familiar with, but also really tends to oversell its arguments. In the end, I was convinced that news media played a big role in helping Reagan achieve his goal of shifting America rightward, but I wasn't convinced that any particular speech Reagan gave or particular news event was as influential as Winston wanted to claim. In the end, Reagan won re-election in 1984 because the economy recovered; had it not, he would have lost, and then this book would have been about how Reagan failed to effectively communicate his evangelical vision.

UPDATE 5/23/24: More or less re-read this to write a review for an academic journal, and I think I was a smidge too hard on it the first time, so I've bumped it up a star.

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of Reagan and his message through the medium of print media. Overall, I found this to be a good history of Reagan's message and those who supported him. I thought Winston's analysis of the media's reporting on Reagan was hit or miss. She provided good evidence in her chapter on Reagan welfare in terms of how print media conformed to Reagan's messaging. The chapter on AIDS seemed weak because more of it was on Christian print media and enough on mainstream media.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Righting the American Dream is a fascinating look at how media normalized Reagan's religious rhetoric. I really enjoyed the history of what the media was like before the Reagan administration, during, and the affects in current day. Righting the American Dream is extremely readable and a must read for anyone interested in this specific history of the media.

[Daniel Silliman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Strongly disliked this book. There's very little evidence for the central claims. The whole thing is hand wavy. I am not someone who dismisses all analysis of the social imaginary, but it requires careful and detailed work to study and this book was not up to the task.

[Kamy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads as an academic text with an effort at broad relatability. Great insights that help to explain Reagan's communication power.