Evans respectfully traces Reagan's change from New Deal liberal to economic conservative to his eight-year stint (1954–1962) as spokesman for General Electric, when he hosted GE's Saturday night television show, General Electric Theater
, and toured GE plants nationwide. It was on tour that Reagan delivered early drafts of the 1964 pro-Goldwater "time for choosing" speech that would eventually thrust him onto the national political scene. As the mouthpiece for GE policy, Reagan was immersed in a free market ideology that stressed limited government and low taxes, explains Evans, an attorney who chaired the Reagan administration's national symposium on partnerships in education. The most intriguing chapters explore the tensions between Reagan's leadership of the Screen Actors' Guild—which went on strike in 1960—and his role as the public face of a company determined to prevent its unionized employees from striking. In the last chapter, Evans explicitly connects some of Reagan's presidential decisions—his insistence on restructuring taxes without cutting military spending, for example, and his oversight of the National Labor Relations Board—with his GE education. This fascinating study sheds new light on Reagan's ideological evolution. (Jan.)
