Teaches a class about the president Ronald Reagan and the end of the cold war. This class was taught online due to the coronavirus pandemic at the university of austin in texas provided the video. Okay lets go to our first slide if we could. Here we have Ronald Reagan. We talked in our last lecture about the disruptions of the 1960s, the changes in the 1970s. The social changes in the 1970s towards suburb besides a shun following the 1960s we talked about nixon and carter and the desire so Many Americans had for quiet, for silence, to escape, to escape the disruptions. To discuss escape the conflict, ronald raking coming into office in the 19 eighties, elected 1980 represented what Time Magazine is saying here. A fresh set for so many people. A sunny positive disposition. Ronald reagans hero was Franklin Roosevelt. Ronald reagan was of a Different Party but his hero was roosevelt because he grew up listening to him on the radio. I will talk more about that in a couple minutes. So in roosevelt, a figure who helped help to restore hope to americans and the sense of better days ahead, someone who restored a sense of can do spirit in americans. That is what reagan was all about. He came of age, not just in that shadow of the Great Depression and the cold war, but also the vietnam, war the disruptions of the 1970s and 1960s. And for reagan there had to be a better way. There had to be a more positive perspective. It was not enough to put up or shut up. It was not enough to accept things as the were. There had to be a better way. He brought a new infusion of idealism that in fact Many Americans were looking for after a decade, decade and a half following the vietnam war. Following the disruptions of the 1960s. A decade, decade and a half when people were escaping rather than really seeking major fundamental change. He believed that now change could be initiated, change in ways that were props different from the ways that were pursued before. He argued as a conservative that in fact many changes had gone too far, and it was time to reverse some of these changes. He also argued that new changes were necessary in line with american idealism, less selfcritical. More patriotic. More attached to certain core ideas of americanism. He appealed reagan did, to a post vietnam war desire to find a new source of self confidence. The vietnam war shook the confidence of americans and the power it brought, shaped americans in the sense of the righteousness in the cold war. If the vietnam war meet americas question what they were about as did the Civil Rights Movement, as did the many disruptions of the 1960s and if the sun route by station of the 1970s was an escape, Ronald Reagan was looking for a way to research what america was about. He was going to step in and help americans redefine who they were and he wanted to do that by going back to traditions. Basic values that he felt had been lost. Look at this image of him. The sunny optimism, the sense of looking forward to a bright horizon. He appealed, he appealed to those citizens who had moved to the suburbs. His core group were these very suburbanites we talked about in the last lecture. These were liberals who had been mud in the cities. These were liberals who were upset about all of the changes happening around them. These were liberals who did not want their kids sent to schools with their kids they didnt want their kids going to school. With the move to the suburbs. They still considered themselves moderates, they still consider themselves racially progressive and believers and basic american ideas but they were looking for another figure to protect their way of life at the same time. I want to be idealistic and conservative which is to say they want to talk protection for their way of life, while embracing the best of american ideals. So they were not isolationist, but they were not cold warriors. They were not opposed to civil rights, but they were not civil rights activists either. They were looking for someone to instill a sense of values while protecting their wave, life to mix the old with the new and protect their self interests in that context. They were in a sense racial moderates, they were in a sense policy moderates. They believed in opportunity, but then what particular opportunity for themselves. They want to lower taxes, they wanted more choice in where they send their kids to school. They wanted to make it easier to send their kids to the suburbs, and easier for their kids to have the idyllic lives they wanted for them. They did not deny that to people who were differ from themselves. They believed in that for everyone. In a sense, they were traditional republicans. But they also believe that there should be protection for their particular way of doing it, and they believe that race issues had gone too far. Ronald reagan, one of his first Major Campaign addresses, its the story behind this. One of his first Major Campaign addresses it was a trip he made to mississippi in 1980, the site of one of the worst civil rights massacres where for civil rights workers were killed during the Civil Rights Movement. He went to an shoah, mississippi, to a county fair were no politician, no National Politician had gone before and he yelled and articulated to this crowd about the importance of states rights. He argued for local control. He never defended racial segregation or we shall hatred. He personally was opposed to those activities, but then embrace the argument of states rights. People should choose where they live, have personal freedom, personal choice in their suburban lives and the rural lives, wherever they choose to live. This was a movement in the mainstream of american thinking. If we saw after the civil war conflict over the question of who would control the resources and in the 20th century they moved into progressive sets of reform with a new Deal Movement now to more Government Intervention this is now effort under reagan to empower local communities again. To be free for the from the intervention and disruption that was coming around them, to limit the, live the kinds of life they want to live to be left alone and attach that belief to not escape but a sense of great suffrage, dismiss greater sense of american purpose, to be found living in your own local community. A return to a sense of states rights and a return to a sense of local control. This was not married to the same race hatred, but it did have many of those same implications. Many of the same implications. Okay so we have three topics were going to talk about today. Were going to talk about reagan and that new right. Its the beginnings of a new republican party. And will talk about that new cold war. The changes in the cold war, and well talk about the end of the cold war. We will talk more about that in a lecture next week as well. We will talk about the early end of the cold war, and Ronald Reagans role in that as well as Michael Gorbachev and others as well. So lets talk with reagan and then you write and his biography, ignore the next image. Here we have Ronald Reagan in his first job. Really a second job, his first job was as a lifeguard. His second job as a radio announcer in des moines, iowa. The moines, iowa. His career was largely occur in entertainment, not policy, in entertainment. In radio and then move east as well. He was born reagan in dickson, illinois. A small rural town in illinois where farmers came in to buy their supplies, sell their goods, etc. And then at a very young age as i already mentioned he became a great fan of Franklin Roosevelt. He began his life as a teenager who was a new deal democrat. This was largely because of experiences he and his family had. His father jack reagan as you can top from the name was a irish descendant. Jack reagan was a fast talking, backslapping shoe salesman. Well loved. As a shoe salesman in dickson, illinois he went door to door. He went into peoples homes to sell shoes to them. I dont think they were wearing making high tops. We dont know. He was selling shoes, and during the Great Depression his father lost his job. Quite literally. Its hard for us to imagine today. People stop buying shoes. His father lost his job. His father who was already a heavy drinker became even heavier drinker. This is a common story from the new deal we talked about this before. People didnt simply lose the, jobs they lost their sense of purpose, they lost their sense of connection, they lost their sense of control over their lives, its particularly difficult for. Men its different guilt for anyone but its difficult for men at a time who were assumed breadwinners for the families. 25 of americans were unemployed in 1933. Most of them were from single wage earning families. So these were the men who defined who they were by their ability to bring home income to their families, when they couldnt do that they had lost their masculinity. They lost their manhood. His father, like many men dealing with this kind of depression, became a deeper. Drinker developed a very serious drinking problem and began having problems with reagans mother and family. Reagan described later in life the horror of one day opening the door to his house and seeing his father faced planted in front of the house, not having made it back into the home the night before. Ronald reagan believed as a young man that his family was saved by Franklin Roosevelt. The new deal was what saved his family. His father after being unplanned for about nine months got a job working for a new deal agency, working for the Works Progress administration. Basically taking small amounts of money from the federal government to help start projects to put people to. Work his father was the perfect person to do this because as the popular shoe salesman in town he knew everything. He knew how to fight people and put them to work. So the new deal saved his father, it gave his father a job. It gave him income, a sense of purpose. Growing up as a young man Ronald Reagan wanted to be someone give purpose to others, you want to embody that hope and went into entertainment as i said. He was a radio announcer and if we go back to this image here he had moved to day loin des moines, he moved to who, he was a sportscaster. They used to send in this course for baseball games by telegraph. Didnt have video screens. And he would read the scores. And it was his job to enliven, them to tell the story. He became a good storyteller. Telling, people explain to people what was happening in the chicago cubs game, or the yankees game, whatever he was covering. After doing radio for, awhile radio was also Franklin Roosevelt means of communication Ronald Reagan move to hollywood to become a movie star. He never made it to the top of hollywood, he never became isle of those were all his friends. He was a great move east. Or who would be the equivalent . The great b movie stars. People we recognize that theyre not the brad pits. I think youtubers. You think there is the b, list i would say the there are the d list. Im thinking of the people who are often supporting actors in a lot of movies. Whoever they are, people you recognize in a lot of movies but they usually arent the stars. He never quite made it to the top, and this is crucially important, he became involved with the work of actors to protect their pay. He was very concerned, Ronald Reagan was, that actress like himself especially those who are not at the top were being exploited by the movie studios. And this is the way that things worked at that time, its also the way the sports you as a actor or a as a baseball player were owned by the studio or team you played for. Babe ruth played his entire career after being traded to the red sox. He played his entire career for the yankees because the yankees owned. Him most actors in the 1960s worked for the same studio the studio on that they can work for anyone else. Regan got involved in the creation with you all know now that the parents of the awards, some people watch when they know the actors get the awards and they pretend to cry and thank their grandmothers for making them actress and all this. This is the discreet actress killed. Essentially the first union for actors. The first union for actors. The actress killed was designed to give actors the ability to bargain better. Reagan became the president of the Screen Actors Guild when he spent as much of his career in hollywood negotiating as he did acting. This is really important because he developed a sense of importance of Free Enterprise and the importance of for unions. Throughout our course unions have plenty really important. Roll think of the brotherhood of sleeping car think of the importance of the Civil Rights Movement and the union to the Civil Rights Movement. Unions were crucially important to hollywood and to sports. Its the Major League Baseball union that allows the creation that negotiates the creation of free agency. So Baseball Players are not owned by their team when their contract is up, they can go somewhere else and they can negotiate another team to pay more. You all believe in free agents. None of you want to graduate and sell your entire career to one company. Most of you will work for multiple people and many of you because you are talented youll be at the top of one place lets a google. Then apple will come and offering more money and you want to be able to leave to get more money. Thats up being a free agent is all about. The negotiation for free agency was done by the Screen Actors Guild. Ronald reagans role in that. He became well known as a be great actor but someone who is a eloquent and effective Spokes Person for freedom and entrepreneurship. Protecting those values for actress and others. He was hired then by General Electric, General Electric which makes dishwashers and washing machines and things like that to be a spokesman for them. He went around the country advocating for entrepreneurship in companies. The General Electric of the 1960s was like the google of today. We are bringing you the future. Embrace this, embrace freedom. In 1964 he decided that he was going to support a republican candidate. Not a democratic candidate. He supported marie goldwater for president against linda johnson. Reagans belief was that what Lyndon Johnson was doing in the sport of the Civil Rights Movement, will Lyndon Johnson was doing in support of new Government Programs were quitting too many restrictions on the freedoms of individual like himself. Reagan did not oppose civil rights but he opposed the federal government getting too involved in peoples lives limiting their ability to live as they wish. Send their kids to school where they want to send them, more where they want to work. Lyndon johnson was seen as overregulated the economy, over regulating society. He became innocence the first celebrity, first major celebrity to be elected to the office. Barry goldwater didnt win in 64 but 66. He actually defeated the most recent california governor, jerry brown, his dad, who had been governor before. He this is a comment. I hope you like it. Currently wants me to tell you that she likes year shirt. Thank you currently. You and i do a lot of blue on blue. I yes but i think i surpassed you today. Thats a Higher Quality shirt that i saw. Its wonderful that you mentioned this because this was actually brought to me by might relatives in india. So im wearing my indian internationalism in a really stylish way. Right . Now eddie what about your shirt . I mean its been a while and no one has commented on my shirt. Its very summary. Its jungley, doesnt it remind you of the jungle . At first i thought it was camouflage. You joined the marines. Camouflage on there. Got a speed on style because its important to me. Hes doing the facial hair. Can you grow it . I strange looking guy in the mirror, we are no. But anyway, there is a real pleasure. I like students appreciate that. You dont want to be too serious. So nathan would like to know did reagan become Popular Premier League because of his sense of humor . Good question nathan, i would say that reagan it wasnt just because of a sense of humor he was famous for his ability to tell jokes. Being humorous is able to show that you dont take yourself too seriously. Right . If you take yourself to seriously its really hard to get people to connect with. You we connect with people who we feel are, open reagan was able to do that convey a sense of humor. But it wasnt his only source of popularity. I think a lot of his popularity was his authenticity. People believe even though he was a actor there was a real human side to him. He was humane in his ability to connect with people. What we have to remember is that being the smartest in the room is not always the best way to lead people. You should be smart, but you should also be humane and a human being. People connect with others who they feel they can identify with, and so reagans humor, his storytelling all of these things allow him to do that. And to nathans point he gained a lot of experts talking to a lot of people. One of the things that he learned as a radio broadcaster, as a movie after, as a union leader, as a campaign or someone who spoke for General Electric around the country heat learned how to