Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War

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.

Frances Fitzgerald is the acclaimed author of America Revised and Cities on a Hill. Her study of the Vietnam War, Fire in the Lake, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. She lives in New York City.