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In this book talk, author Diane Winston explores how after two years in the White House, an aging and increasingly unpopular Ronald Reagan looked like a one-term president, but something changed in 1983. 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.

In a provocative new history of how the news media facilitated the Reagan Revolution and the rise of the religious Right, Winston reveals how support for Reagan emerged from a new religious vision of American identity circulating in the popular press. 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.

Diane Winston spent over a decade as a journalist and is now associate professor of journalism and Knight Chair in Media and Religion at the University of Southern California. She is the author or editor of several books, including Religion in Los Angeles: Religious Activism, Innovation, and Diversity in the Global City. Her newest book, Righting the American Dream: How the Media Mainstreamed Reagan’s Evangelical Vision, is available through University of Chicago Press.

Small bites and beverages will be provided. RSVP is required. Click here to register

Obtain a 30% discount on the book with promocode UCPNEW at the University of Chicago Press website.