num_pages: 752
description: As late as Election Day headlines across the country blared that the race was too close to call. Even on the verge of his historic triumph in the 1980 presidential election political observers continued to underestimate Ronald Wilson Reagan. In Rendezvous with Destiny  the long-awaited follow-up to his widely praised account of Reagans insurgent 1976 presidential campaign Craig Shirley tells the incredible behind-the-scenes story of Reagans improbable run to the White House in 1980of how the too close to call election became a landslide victory over incumbent Jimmy Carter and independent candidate John Anderson. And this Shirley shows was no ordinary election. It dramatically altered the course of Americanand worldhistory. Reagans victory gave rise to a new generation of conservatism ended liberalisms half-century reign of dominance reversed the second-worst economic crisis in American history and led to the demise of the mighty Soviet Union. To write Rendezvous with Destiny  Shirley gained unprecedented access to 1980 campaign files and interviewed more than 150 insidersfrom Reagans closest advisers and family members to Jimmy Carter himself. The result is the first comprehensive history of the hard-fought 1980 campaign a gripping account that follows Reagans 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 Reagans astounding victory on Election Night in 1980. Shirleys years of intensive research have enabled him to relate countless untold storiesincluding at long last the solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in politics: just how Reagans campaign got hold of Carters debate briefing books. Rendezvous with Destiny reveals how Reagan successfully battled the headwinds of the national media the Republican Party establishment and even his own campaign team to become one of Americas greatest chief executives.
language: English
title: Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the Campaign That Changed America
publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute