University of Virginia Experts Available to Comment on Reagan Centenary

January 27, 2011 — Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th president of the United States, from 1981 to 1989. A conservative Republican who had been an actor and a governor of California, he presided over tumultuous times in both foreign and domestic spheres.

The 100th anniversary of his birth will be celebrated Feb. 6. The University of Virginia offers several historians and political experts who are available to comment on Reagan's presidency and his impact on the country and the world.

• Sid Milkis
White Burkett Miller Professor at U.Va.'s Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics and assistant director for academic programs at U.Va.'s Miller of Public Affairs
434-924-3037

Milkis' books include "The President and the Parties: The Transformation of the American Party System Since the New Deal," "Political Parties and Constitutional Government: Remaking American Democracy," "Presidential Greatness" (coauthored with Marc Landy), "The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2007" (coauthored with Michael Nelson), and "Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy." 

He is the co-editor, with Jerome Mileur, of three volumes on 20th-century political reform: "Progressivism and the New Democracy," "The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism" and "The Great Society and the High Tide of Liberalism."

Milkis can discuss Reagan's impact on domestic policy and his relationship with conservative politics in the United States. 

• James Ceaser
Professor of politics in U.Va.'s Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics
434-924-7903

Ceaser has written several books on American politics and political thought, including "Presidential Selection," "Liberal Democracy and Political Science," "Reconstructing America" and "Nature and History in American Political Development." He is a frequent media contributor and he often comments on American politics for the Voice of America.

• Brian Balogh
Professor in U.Va.'s Corcoran Department of History and U.Va.'s Miller Center for Public Affairs, where he is director and chair of the National Fellowship Program.
434-243-8971

Balogh's books include "A Government Out of Sight: The Mystery of National Authority in Nineteenth-Century America," and "Chain Reaction: Expert Debate and Public Participation in American Commercial Nuclear Power, 1945-1975." He is editor of "Integrating the Sixties: The Origins, Structure and Legacy of a Turbulent Decade."

He is also a faculty member of Institute for Advanced Studies of Culture, and Committee on the History of Environment and Technology. He is also the "20th-century history guy" on "Backstory," the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities' syndicated public radio program on history.

Balogh is a source for discussion of domestic policy.

• Olivier Zunz
Commonwealth Professor in U.Va.'s Corcoran Department of History
434-924-6390

A specialist in 19th-century U.S. history  and director of graduate admissions in U.S. history, Zunz is author of "Philanthropy in the American Century," "Why the American Century?," "Making America Corporate, 1870-1920" and  "The Changing Face of Inequality: Urbanization, Industrial Development, and Immigrants in Detroit, 1880-1920."

Zunz can speak on the think tanks that advised Reagan early in his administration.