Skip to Main Content

Way Out There In the Blue

Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War

About The Book

Using the Star Wars missile defense program as a magnifying glass on his presidency, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Frances FitzGerald gives us a wholly original portrait of Ronald Reagan. Drawing on extensive research, FitzGerald shows how Reagan managed to get billions in funding for a program that was technologically impossible by exploiting the fears of the American public. The Reagan who emerges from FitzGerald's book was a gifted politician with a deep understanding of the national psyche, and an executive almost totally disengaged from the policies of his administration. Both appalling and funny, Way Out There in the Blue is the most penetrating study of Reagan's presidency to date.

About The Author

Photograph by Frances F. Denny

Frances FitzGerald is the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bancroft Prize, and a prize from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is the author of The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America; Fire in the Lake: the Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam; America Revised: History School Books in the Twentieth Century; Cities on a Hill: A Journey through Contemporary American Cultures; Way Out in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War; and Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth. She has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, The New York Review of Books, The Nation, Rolling Stone, and Esquire.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster (March 12, 2001)
  • Length: 592 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743200233

Browse Related Books

Raves and Reviews

Alan Brinkley The New York Times Book Review Clearly, eloquently and engagingly [told]...One of the best inner histories of the Reagan administration yet to appear.

David M. Shribman The Boston Globe One of the most imaginative chronicles of Ronald Reagan's presidency.

James Hershberg Chicago Tribune A devastating picture of the disarray, drift and acrimonious division that frequently characterized the administration...A significant contribution to the simmering argument...over the meaning and conduct of his presidency.

Resources and Downloads

High Resolution Images

More books from this author: Frances FitzGerald