ronald describes joseph p kennedy's time as ambassador to great britain in lead-up to world war ii. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> next it's book tv monthly in-depth program with

best-selling author and historian craig shirley, the author of reagan's revolution december 1941 and most recently mary bald washington, the untold of george washington's mother. >> author craig shirley, you have written four biographies of ronald reagan. how did you divide them life the first b up was reagan's revolution and that was in 1976 after gerald ford to which he narrowly lost in 1976 and the next look was about the 1980 campaign and that took four years to complete.

i have another book called last act which >> nobody has ever done a book about post election years and a what he did is a lot of living, 11 years by the time he left presidency and long before we contracted the alzheimer's. and then i finally did another book on reagan. this is about reagan rising and the period in 1976 and 1980 and it was very important time for the conservative movement and american politics. is that you had the panamá canal treaty fight and you had raising as an issue and you had tax cuts raising as an issue and all sorts of issues.

he was advocating a certain view and conservatives were pushing back and advocating a different view of government so it's a very interesting time for the american conservative movement and led mostly by ronald reagan who then definitely panamá canay treaty and propel to 1980 nomination. so now i'm working on two more books, two more books on reagan, reagan is the real true ideology and another one is reagan skill as a negotiator. he's under valued in that regard or underappreciated in so was president of the skill and president with tip o'neil and

later gorbashec and good reagan stories and i'm glad to be in the ranks. >> what do you mean when you talk about the real ideology, the new book coming out? >> that's a good question, peter. never as conservative as conservatives want them to be. much more pragmatic in outlookld in the world than conservatives wanted him to be. here is the great war your that negotiateded treaties including the reduction, the elimination of thousands of nuclear war heads in western europe but when he ran on the missile cap in

1980, part of the campaign was that we were behind the soviets and weig needed to catch up. we need today catch up in order to get to the negotiating table and to -- and to agree to reduce nuclear armies and he was right, of course, and it only took 8 years really before we saw the winning of the cold war and soviethe union. >> craig shirley in your book last act, you talk about the emerging legacy. >> the what legacy? >> the emergent legacy. >> that's interesting because in webster's dictionary, there's not obamaism, there's not bushism, there's not trumpism but there is reaganism. reaganism, he would contend and

a lot of scholars would contend and i contend is a separate distinct and individual ideology, more a hybrid between libertarianism and conservatism and other elements that go into it. it was his own philosophy and he enacted many of it when he was president. not all of it to be sure but he had -- he had different view of the world than most politicians did at the time than or did have nit now and it is -- there's nobody whose shadow is cast more over the republican party than ronald reagan. he is the uber leader or he's eclipsed even, i think, in my opinion abraham lincoln as the icon of the republican party. >> well, some would argue that

ronald reagan knew gingrich who you have written about and donald trump are the outsize figures of the modern republican party, would you agree with that? >> no, i absolutely agree with that. they certainly are. t gringrich and the revolution of 1984, trump in his populist revolution of four years ago. all of them represent different periods in times and philosophies of republicanism which is actually, i hate to phrase big tent, big tent of ideologies and going back to abraham lincoln and down through the ages. >> so when did you first meet ronald reagan? >> i first met ronald reagan in 1978. i was working on a campaign in new hampshire. gordon humphrey.

considered by everybody at the time as a long shot and actually ended up winning over incumbent by 6,000 votes and reagan came up to campaign. it was in new hampshire. it was a important primary state and reagan needed to win new hampshire and he came into new hampshire highway hotel and filmed commercial for humphrey and i was in the lobby and accompanied by two aides and pareagan and i just sat there in the lobby, the two of us in

complete awe of this man, he was completely friendly and cordial and we talked about college sports and what we liked and what we played and we talked about thee weather and utterly charming and utterly kind. i was this 21-year-old kid talking to the national leader of american conservatism at the time and republican nomination and he gave me nothing but kindness and generosity of spirit and those are memories that i carry with me for the rest of my life. >> you talked about you sat in hotel lobby and chatted with him and you also recount in last act the story of post presidency office and the phones weren't hooked up correctly. >> yeah, yeah. that was the story that was given to me by ryan who was president reagan's chief of staff in post-presidency.

they had rented office space open up an office of century city and showed disaster. secret service was not to impressed. the office was being assembled and the reagans were -- the reagan was not supposed to be in the office for several weeks or at least months. he had his own house in bell air to attend to and lots of interviews appear lots of, you know, he was quite busy and he showed up at the office one day

and here i am, what am i supposed to do? occasionally ran around and cargo boxes and set them up in an office. he would be okay for a short time. but the phones had been routed incorrectly so they weren't going to the reception desk but going to that particular office and joe is calling and wanting us to speak with the president and reagan would write it down and write it down and came out a couple of hours later and handed the list to ryan and he said these people want to meet with you and reagan was taken aback and everybody was called back and got a picture taken with ronald reagan except for one

below who after he was on the list and talking to ryan he inwanted to bring the neighbors and said that's enough. >> craig, shirley, what are some of the top-line things in your view that ronald reagan accomplished as governor as california for 8 years and as president for 8 years? >> that's a good question. >> he thought he was going to do a lot more than he actually did and started to address government more diligently and was able to -- enacted a huge tax rebait at the time in 1970, astronomical amount of money at the time.

he had to deal in 1960's and many antiwar protests going on and a lot of -- berkeley and other campuses. one story perhaps is pocket full but reagan was at a -- was at a college campus and the signs said make love, not war and reagan looked to the sign and said -- [inaudible] >> he had that to deal with. he had last government and reform welfare and he did. he was a very successful governor. is that at the time california, just was the sixth largest economy in the world. think of that.

just one state alone would have been the sixth largest economy but he reformed welfare. he -- protection was to a greater degree. most of my meetings and talking to them and listening to their concerns and their complaints and things like that, not that they could do anything like that but meant a lot that he would talk to young people and that's one thing. he did do as governor. used to be a weekly show that students asked governor reagan weekly television show and he wouldn -- high school, college students and answer all of thee questions which was unheard at the time. he loved them. he became quite adept at it and able to handle all of their questions. so he was -- so even the la

times when reagan left the presence in la times had been very, very rough on reagan for years, but they acknowledged that reagan saved the state from bankruptcy because it was running, when he became governor he was running a million dollar a day deficit and was increasing by a million dollarsrs a day and he turned it around in 8 years to a surplus and saved the state from bankruptcy. when he ran in 1980, he was going to defeat communism and turn around the economy, he was going to restore american morale and he did exactly all of those things. he defeated, no. one cold war. he -- inflation -- when he was running in 1980, interest rates

were 18%, inflation was almost as high. the value of the dollar wasn't worth today what it was yesterday. so it was really devastating to people's savings and especially to the citizens. so he turned around the economy and created 18 million jobs and when he left office inflation was, i think, 4.7% when he left. he restored american morale. the proof is in the pudding. his approval rating among all americans was something like 73%. when he left office in january 1989. it was higher than fdr's when fdr passed away in april of

1945. highest in a long, long time. still rewarded today as one of the best presidents with lincoln and franklin roosevelt. >> one of the critiques to have reagan residency is he spent a lot of time of deficits but it grew under the stewardship? >> that's true, peter. he later wrote in memoirs. there were two things that he was disappointed in he couldn't do more. a one was the deficit and the other was abortion. he couldn't do more about it. on the other hand, the deficit is explainable as what we now know as the peace dividend. it was necessary to build up america's defense, had been cut for years since richard nixon time time. gerald ford, jimmy carter, so

you had soldiers, gi's in 1980 who were actually on food stamps. we were flying airplanes that were 50 year's old. meanwhile soviets with new technology with bomber which was super sonic and deadly. reagan, that was his commitment because he knew if he can have a stronger defense, everything else is academic. so this was the deficit that was created but it was -- if freeing millions of people that had been in prison in poland or in other, you know, third-world countries and ultimately the soviet and

russia itself, then there was -- free the millions of people who had been prisoned behind the iron curtain. >> you talk about his true ideology as being more pragmatic than being credit for? >> yes. >> is that going to hurt his legacy among conservatives? >> i don't think so. i think i wills legacy is pretty well cemented among conservatives, is that his library in simi valley in california is still the most visited presidential library in all america. some people go to reagan library which is by the way -- it's hard to get. semi valley is often being passed somewhat and more people go there than go to the kennedy library or the clinton lie barey

or the bush library. so he still remains to this day the -- very popular and very successful president. >> in march of this year you wrote in newsmax that he was a populist and intellectualist and reagan like trump ran in a time where many americans had grievances against the establishment. unlike trump he made every talking point optimistic and every speech uplifting, something trump could never do if his life depended on him. >> yes, that's the essential. that's the difference between trump and reagan. reagan, first of all was reelected and trump wasn't. second of all, reagan had high approval ratings than donald trump. and third of al, most of trump's

philosophy is derived from ronald reagan. the idea of conservative judges or tax cuts, not just stimulate the economic but to expand personal freedom, increase the power of the individual. there was a time in 1981 after he was selected president and after he was sworn in, he was meeting with a group of conservatives and he told them tax cuts are about the economy and creating jobs and really, really about expanding personal freedom. power is finite. you can't put it here or there. it's either -- it's either with the government or citizenry and he wanted to go back to the founders and framers and move it

away. so that was real motivating force and tax cut was expanding the power of the individual. he was very, very committed.in you look at speeches and how many times he uses the words individual or individuality or something other about this was the core of his philosophy was -- was a small respectful government with the restrained police force and intelligent judiciary and otherwise leave people alone. that was his philosophy. it had become his philosophy started in 1940's and evolved over until it became really in 1980 --

[inaudible] >> added to his coalition, reform conservatism. >> in 2017 that your book reagan rising the decisive years, 1971 to 1980 came out. i want to play a video from 1976 in kansas city. >> if i could just take a moment. i had an assignment the other day. someone asked mess to write a letter for a time capsule that will be opened in los angeles a hundred years from now in our tri centennial. sounded like an easy assignment, they suggested i write something about the problems and issue of the day and i set out to do so writingng out the coast in automobile and looking at the blue pacific and santa ines mountains to the other and i couldn't imagine it would be that bull as the summer day and i start to write, let your own minds turn to that task. you're going to write for people

a hundred years from now. will they look back with a appreciation and say thank god for those people in 1976 who headed off the loss of freedom, who kept us now 100 years later free, who kept our world from nuclear destruction. and if we failed, they probably won't get to read the letter at all because it spoke of individual freedom and they won't be allowed to talk. this is our challenge and this is why here in this hall tonight better than we've ever done before, we've got to quit talking to each other and about each other and go out and communicate to the worldld thate may be fewer in numbers than we've ever been but we carry the message there waiting. we must go forth from here. -- united and there's no

substitute for victory. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] >> craig shirley, what did you hear? >> you know, it'ss interesting that that speech is so, so important, reagan's political future. first of all, i wasn't there in 1976. it was destroyed in a tornado some years ago. i was actually working my way through college. she was working for the campaign and told me repeatedly many times talking about it, she said it was the most thrilling give reagan give the speech and --

butt i wrote the book. and he was standing next to a supporter from florida and after reagan gave the speech, she muttered, oh, my god, we've nominated the wrong man. the kansas city convention was -- 1,130 delegates for the nomination and ford won the nomination only by 50, 60 delegates and reagan only lost itos by 80 something so it was very slim and very narrow and there's been accusations of the year of hankie-panky and the new york delegation and it was pretty clean as far as i could tell. but there was accusations much

so that officials were called and administered lie detectors and one police officer said that polygraph test came back kpositive -- negative. first time i ever heard about a politician telling the truth. but that the speech itself is sh important because reagan was not going to run again. reagan -- there were newspapers articles and columns and things like that at the time that i remember newsweek had an article at the sunset about reagan's5 career. he had been around the track twice in 1968 and 1976 and most people assume and he gave the speech and ws