Publication of The Last Jeffersonian

Steven Greffenius has done what few academics would: written a book praising the virtues of Ronald Reagan as a statesman and politician. Through analysis of Reagan's speeches and policies, Greffenius portrays a political leader who integrated American traditions and ideals. The book reaches into Reagan's heart and mind, and emerges with a president who was thoughtful, prophetic, and liberal minded. People who respect democratic principles and the fundamentals of American life-and who sense the erosion of these-should read this book.

"The critics have been quick to dismiss Reagan as a master of myths, slogans, anecdotes, and theatrical gestures. The glory of the Greffenius defense is to display these as intrinsic to the content of Reagan's ideas. He shows how Reagan spoke and acted outside the political boxes of his times by thinking in terms of a latent tradition of Jeffersonian democracy that had survived into postwar America mainly as scattered stories and occasional catchwords. Reagan brought to these a distinctively republican feeling for heroism in the everyday lives of ordinary citizens. He added an extraordinary capacity of invention, attuning values and vistas from earlier times to the landscapes of politics late in the twentieth century. The Greffenius argument is that the resulting ideas, the political rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, deserve to be taken seriously by people who would understand and improve American politics. The case is convincing." From the Foreword by John S. Nelson.