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The election that changed everything: Craig Shirley’s masterful account of the 1980 presidential campaign reveals how a race judged “too close to call” as late as Election Day became a Reagan landslide—and altered the course of history.
To write Rendezvous with Destiny, Shirley gained unprecedented access to 1980 campaign files and interviewed more than 150 insiders—from Reagan’s closest advisers and family members to Jimmy Carter himself. His gripping account follows Reagan’s unlikely path from his bitter defeat on the floor of the 1976 Republican convention, through his underreported “wilderness years,” through grueling primary fights in which he knocked out several Republican heavyweights, through an often-nasty general election campaign complicated by the presence of a third-party candidate (not to mention the looming shadow of Ted Kennedy), to Reagan’s astounding victory on Election Night in 1980.
Shirley’s years of intensive research have enabled him to relate countless untold stories—including, at long last, the solution to one of the most enduring mysteries in politics: just how Reagan’s campaign got hold of Carter’s debate briefing books.
Craig Shirley
Craig Shirley is a widely known and respected historian having written many books, papers, and opeds including six books on Ronald as well as the authorized biography of Newt Gingrich. He has owned and operated an influential marketing firm in our nation's capital for many years. Shirley has lectured extensively on the life and presidency of Ronald Reagan at the Reagan Library, the FDR library, the Reagan Ranch and taught classes about Reagan at the University of Virginia, and Eureka College-- Reagan's alma mater. He has also written two books on WWII including the New York Times bestseller, December 1941. Shirley has written the only definitive biographer of Mary Ball Washington for which he was awarded the People's Choice Award from the Library of Virginia.
Together with his wife Zorine, they live at Ben Lomond, a three-hundred-year-old Georgian manor house in rural Virginia and their summer home, Trickle Down Point. Mrs. Shirley edits all Craig's writing and is the past president of the Essex County Museum. They both worked for President Reagan. Together they enjoy sailing on their boat Eleanor. Craig is a decorated contract agent for the CIA. The London Times calls Shirley one of the best Reagan biographers.
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