Ronald Reagan’s tenure as president was one of the most consequential of the 20th century. Like his friend and ally Margaret Thatcher, he raised an ideological challenge to both communism and the tax-and-regulation states in the West and changed the climate of opinion toward markets and entrepreneurship. Reagan’s rhetoric was often libertarian, and indeed he said more than once that “the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism.” But libertarians were critical of his hawkishness and social conservatism. Throughout the 1980s Cato scholars wrote a great deal about Reagan and his administration, much of which is not online.

Highlighted Piece:

Remembering Ronald Reagan by David Boaz

Studies

Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record by William Niskanen and Stephen Moore
Reagan’s Nuclear Defense Strategy: Myth and Reality by Fred Kaplan
Reagan’s 1983 Defense Budget: An Analysis and an Alternative by Earl C. Ravenal
The Reagan Budget: The Deficit that Didn’t Have to Be by David Boaz
Tedious Fraud: Reagan’s Farm Policy and the Politics of Agricultural Marketing Orders by Michael McMenamin
Reagan, National Security, and the First Amendment: Plugging Leaks by Shutting Off the Main by Frederick W. Whatley
U.S. Aid to Anti-Communist Rebels: The “Reagan Doctrine” and Its Pitfalls by Ted Galen Carpenter
The Reagan Record on Trade: Rhetoric vs. Reality by Sheldon L. Richman

Opinion and Commentary

Reagan Was No Neocon by Gene Healy
Reagan Embraced Free Trade and Immigration by Daniel Griswold
It’s the Reagan Economy, Stupid by Lawrence Kudlow and Stephen Moore
Reflections on Reagan the Intellectual by Steve H. Hanke
Reagan: America’s Optimistic Advocate of Freedom by Doug Bandow
Reagan’s Budget Legacy by Chris Edwards
President Reagan’s Torture Advice to President Obama by Nat Hentoff
Ronald Reagan’s Cross-Border Legacy by Patrick Basham
Reagan the Intellectual by Steve H. Hanke
Reagan’s Small-Government Vision by Chris Edwards
Lessons from Reagan by Richard W. Rahn Ronald Reagan Was No Libertarian by Gene Healy
Reagan’s Libertarian Spirit by David Boaz

Cato at Liberty Blog Posts

Reagan’s Libertarian Spirit by David Boaz
Comparing Reaganomics and Obamanomics by Daniel J. Mitchell
What Would Reagan Do on Immigration? by Daniel Griswold
Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan by Daniel J. Mitchell
The Reagan Tax Cuts, Budget Forecasting, and Government Revenue by Daniel J. Mitchell
Obama and Reagan’s Speeches about Freedom by David Boaz

Books

The Struggle to Limit Government: A Modern Political History by John Samples
Reaganomics: An Insider’s Account of the Policies and the People by William Niskanen
Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government by Stephen Slivinski
Leviathan on the Right: How Big-Government Conservatism Brought Down the Republican Revolution by Michael Tanner
Reflections of a Political Economist: Selected Articles on Government Policies and Political Processes by William Niskanen
Assessing the Reagan Years, by David Boaz

Cato Policy Report

Reagan’s Heir? by David Boaz
The Rise and Fall of the GOP by Edward H. Crane
Ronald Reagan and Us by David Boaz

Events

Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History

Podcasts

Reagan at 100 featuring William A. Niskanen
The Age of Reagan featuring Stephen F. Hayward
Reagan and the Tyranny of the Status Quo featuring John Samples
Can Obama Channel Reagan? featuring John Samples