The essays in this volume, by seven journalists who have spent much of the 1980s reporting on national and international affairs for a wide range of newspapers and magazines, represent an attempt to begin to evaluate the Reagan legacy in terms of its impact on politics, economics, diplomacy, law, culture, and ideology. The contributors were given a free hand to explore their own interests, with the result that there are substantial differences of opinion and interpretation in the varying assessments of what has been a major turning point in American politics: the election and reelection of the first ideologically committed conservative president since the establishment of the post-New Deal configuration of the Republican and Democratic parties. - Introduction.