“In Ronald Reagan's chaotic childhood, the imagination was armor. There is nothing unusual about that; transcending the doubts, hesitations, and fears swirling around you by casting yourself internally as the hero of your own adventure story is a characteristic psychic defense mechanism of the Boy Who Disappears.”

American historian, writer and journalist

Rick Perlstein is an American historian, writer, and journalist known for his accounts of the American conservative movement after the 1960s. He has 117 quotes on the site. He is the author of five bestselling books. His first book, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, won the 2001 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History. Politico has described him as a careful chronicler of modern conservatism.