Rendezvous with Destiny

Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America

Craig Shirley

• Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781935191933
• eBook ISBN:
  9781497636385
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Campaigns & Elections
• Index: Politics & International Relations

"A first-rate work of insider his­tory... A monumental accomplishment." — National Review
The election that changed everything: Craig Shirley's masterful account of the 1980 presidential campaign reveals how a race judged "too close to call" as late as Election Day became a Reagan landslide—and altered the course of history. To write Rendezvous with Destiny, Shirley gained unprecedented access to 1980 campaign files and interviewed more than 150 insiders—from Reagan's closest advisers and family members to Jimmy Carter himself. His gripping account follows Reagan's unlikely path from his bitter defeat on the floor of the 1976 Republican convention, through his underreported "wilderness years, " through grueling primary fights in which he knocked out several Republican heavyweights, through an often-nasty general election campaign complicated by the presence of a third-party candidate (not to mention the looming shadow of Ted Kennedy), to Reagan's astounding victory on Election Night in 1980. Shirley's years of intensive research have enabled him to relate countless untold stories—including, at long last, the solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in politics: just how Reagan's campaign got hold of Carter's debate briefing books.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword by George F. Will
• Prologue A NEW BEGINNING
• Chapter 1 EXIT, STAGE RIGHT
• Chapter 2 RETURN OF THE REPUBLICANS
• Chapter 3 LE MALAISE
• Chapter 4 THE FRONT-WALKER
• Chapter 5 THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRYSIDE
• Chapter 6 THE ASTERISK ALSO RISES
• Chapter 7 BUSH BEARS DOWN
• Chapter 8 DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTROM
• Chapter 9 FAST TIMES AT NASHUA HIGH
• Chapter 10 REAGAN ROMPS
• Chapter 11 UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT
• Chapter 12 FORD TEES OFF
• Chapter 13 NOW ANDERSON
• Chapter 14 BUSH'S COUNTEROFFENSIVE
• Chapter 15 REAGAN'S DEMOCRATS
• Chapter 16 THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL
• Chapter 17 WEST OF EDEN
• Chapter 18 WINNING IS GOOD
• Chapter 19 SIX MEN OUT
• Chapter 20 COMING OF AGE
• Chapter 21 THE ROAD TO DETROIT
• Chapter 22 SUMMER IN THE CITY
• Chapter 23 AT CENTER STAGE
• Chapter 24 MOTOWN MADNESS
• Chapter 25 FAMILY, WORK, NEIGHBORHOOD, PEACE, AND FREEDOM
• Chapter 26 HORSE LATITUDES
• Chapter 27 THE DEMOCRATS
• Chapter 28 CORBIN
• Chapter 29 GENERAL QUARTERS
• Chapter 30 SLOUCHING TOWARDS NOVEMBER
• Chapter 31 THE TORRENTS OF AUTUMN
• Chapter 32 MISSION FROM GOD
• Chapter 33 STALLED
• Chapter 34 ON DECK
• Chapter 35 CLEVELAND
• Chapter 36 MELTDOWN
• Chapter 37 ENTRANCE, STAGE LEFT
• Epilogue DESTINY
• Author's Note
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgments
• Index
• Copyright