Tim Raphael. Ronald Reagan: The President Electric. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2009.
Ronald Reagan: The President Electric is the first full-length study of how the systematic employment of mass-mediated performance strategies contributed to Reagan’s rise to power and defined his style of governance. The book documents Reagan’s training in radio, film, television, advertising and public relations as a case study for how these new modes of cultural production have transformed the way we imagine and engage the political. Focusing on Reagan’s career prior to entering politics, this study documents the myriad ways in which contemporary politics is defined by the performance-based media in which Ronald Reagan trained.
