Michael Reagan, the adopted and eldest son of former President Ronald Reagan visited Pepperdine today, promoting his book “The New Reagan Revolution,” originally published in 2011, but recently released in paperback. Reagan spoke to a group of faculty and students in the Kresge Reading Room in the Payson Library about many stories about his father’s rise to the Presidency and his time in The White House, providing his fresh perspective and many behind-the-scenes details on events from the Reagan era.
Reagan highlighted many of the principles and values that he saw present in his father’s leadership style, and how those practices might be applied to current day politics.
“I was influenced to write the book “New Reagan Revolution” because I’ve seen so many people try to recreate my father in their image and likeness instead of really who he was and how he was able to accomplish the things that, in fact, he accomplished,” Reagan said.
Topics ranged from President Reagan’s initial failed Presidential candidacy in 1976, his successful run and election in 1980 and his 1987 “Tear Down this wall” speech in Berlin. Many of his simple strategies were emphasized, such as “There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit,” and Reagan’s “80/20” rule on forming alliances, and how he successfully worked with other world leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II to end communism.
While much of the narrative of the night was historical in nature, Reagan always stressed that the same ideas and strategies that Reagan used in the 80’s could be used again.
“What I hope people take away from the book is really on two levels. An educational level: who my father really was, but also what they can do themselves to really be engaged to help change the direction that we’re going,” Reagan said.
The Reagan family has a deep connection to Pepperdine, going back to the University’s founding.
“We watched Pepperdine being built,” Reagan said.
Then-Governor Reagan was very influential in fundraising and getting the plans for the new Malibu Campus approved; a tree planted by him still stands, with a commemorative plaque near the bus stop outside the Smother’s parking lot. Michael Reagan’s daughter, Ashley, attending Pepperdine for graduate school, earning her Master’s in Education in 2005.
