Ronald Reagan Facts & Worksheets

Ronald Reagan facts and information plus worksheet packs and fact file. Includes 5 activities aimed at students 11-14 years old (KS3) & 5 activities aimed at students 14-16 years old (GCSE). Great for home study or to use within the classroom environment.

School History > Modern World > Ronald Reagan Facts & Worksheets

Ronald Reagan Worksheets

Do you want to save dozens of hours in time? Get your evenings and weekends back? Be able to teach about Ronald Reagan to your students?

Our worksheet bundle includes a fact file and printable worksheets and student activities. Perfect for both the classroom and homeschooling!

Subscribe to Download →

Download free samples

sh-study

Resource Examples

Click any of the example images below to view a larger version.

Fact File

Ronald Reagan Resource 1
Ronald Reagan Resource 2

Student Activities

Ronald Reagan Activity & Answer Guide 1
Ronald Reagan Activity & Answer Guide 2
Ronald Reagan Activity & Answer Guide 3
Ronald Reagan Activity & Answer Guide 4
Table of Contents
    Add a header to begin generating the table of contents

    Summary

    • Early Life
    • Early Career
    • Governorship
    • Presidency
    • Death and Legacy

    Key Facts And Information

    Let’s know more about Ronald Reagan!

    Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States (US) from 1981 to 1989. As a Republican Party member, he emerged as a significant figure in the American conservative movement. The duration of his presidency is referred to as the Reagan era. Reagan departed from the presidency in 1989, during which the American economy experienced a notable decrease in inflation, a decline in the unemployment rate, and the longest peacetime economic expansion in US. However, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 due to his tax reductions.

    Ronald Reagan
    Ronald Reagan

    EARLY LIFE OF RONALD REAGAN

    • Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, on 6 February 1911. He was the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan. Nelle was very devoted to the Disciples of Christ, a church that focuses on the Social Gospel. When the pastor wasn’t there, she led prayer meetings and church services in the middle of the week. Reagan said that his mother’s spiritual guidance helped shape his Christian faith.
    • Historian Stephen Vaughn says that Reagan’s values were in line with the church’s religious, economic and social views. Jack Reagan’s main goal was to help his family financially, but his alcoholism made things harder. Reagan’s family moved a lot. They lived in Chicago, Galesburg and Monmouth before moving back to Tampico. They moved to Dixon, Illinois, in 1920 and lived in a house close to the H. C. Pitney Variety Store Building.
    • He played guard for the Eureka Red Devils football team in 1930 and 1931. Reagan saw racial discrimination firsthand in college when two Black teammates were turned away from a hotel that only served white people. 
    • He asked them to stay with his family in Dixon, where they would be welcome because of their unusually progressive views on race. Reagan did not know much about racial discrimination before because he grew up in a mostly white neighbourhood.

    EARLY CAREER

    • Reagan got a Bachelor of Arts in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932. He then started his career as a sports broadcaster, covering four Big Ten football games in Davenport, Iowa. Later, he worked for WHO radio in Des Moines, where he gave play-by-play commentary on the Chicago Cubs based on basic wire reports. Reagan spoke out against racism in public during this time. 
    • He went with the Cubs to spring training in California in 1936 and took a screen test that led to a seven-year deal with Warner Bros. Reagan came to Hollywood in 1937. He made his acting debut in Love Is on the Air and then appeared in about thirty mostly B films before joining the military. He became well-known for playing George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940) and for his role in Kings Row (1942), which is widely considered to be his best work. From 1941 to 1942, Gallup polls put him in the top 100 stars.
    • His acting career was put on hold by the Second World War. In April 1937, Reagan joined the U.S. Army Reserve. He started out as a private in the 322nd Cavalry Regiment and then moved up to second lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps and joined the 323rd Cavalry Regiment. 
    • In 1942, he was called up to active duty and sent to the Army Air Forces as a public relations officer. There, he made more than 400 training films and acted in plays. He worked at Fort Mason, Culver City and Fort MacArthur, among other places, and helped raise money for war bonds before being discharged as a captain on 9 December 1945.
    • After Robert Montgomery stepped down as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in 1947, Reagan was elected to take his place. During his time in office, he dealt with labour-management disputes, the Hollywood blacklist and the Taft-Hartley Act. He often sided with studios against more radical groups. 
    • Reagan gave the FBI names of people he thought were communist sympathisers and spoke to the House Un-American Activities Committee.
    • He quit in 1952 but stayed on the SAG board. Later, he got residual payments for actors’ theatrical films that were shown on TV after 1948. Again, Reagan stepped down in 1960.
    • Reagan married actress Jane Wyman in January 1940. They had two daughters, Maureen and Christine (who died shortly after birth), and adopted a son named Michael. In 1949, the couple split up. In March 1952, he married Nancy Davis.They had two children, Patti and Ron. 
    • Reagan also hosted TV shows like Death Valley Days and General Electric Theatre, where he often acted with Nancy Davis and had big-name guest stars. However, General Electric Theatre was cancelled in 1962 because fewer people were watching it.

    GOVERNORSHIP

    • As governor, Reagan had to deal with California’s money problems after Pat Brown spent a lot of money on new programmes, which left the state with a budget deficit. Reagan wanted to cut government spending and raise taxes to help the state’s finances. He worked with Jesse M. Unruh to get higher taxes on sales, banks, corporate profits, inheritances, spirits and cigarettes, and he promised to lower property taxes in the future.
    • Critics said he was going against conservative values, but by 1973 the state had a budget surplus, which Reagan wanted to give back to taxpayers.
    • Reagan also talked about public safety and social unrest. He signed the Mulford Act in 1967, which was the strictest gun control law in the state at the time, in response to the Black Panther Party’s watch of police officers.
    • That same year, he signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act, which allowed abortions in cases of rape, incest, or threats to the mother’s health.
    • However, he later said he regretted the law’s mental health provision. Reagan’s focus on law and order was clear in how he dealt with campus protests. In 1969, he declared a state of emergency at the University of California, Berkeley, and sent the National Guard to help for 17 days during fights over People’s Park. He also stepped in during protests at UC Santa Barbara. He defended his hardline approach by saying, ‘Let’s get it over with, even if it means a bloodbath.’ No more giving in.
    • Reagan’s domestic policy also focused on changing welfare. He made it harder to get benefits and put financially needy recipients first because he was worried that current programmes were making people less likely to work and putting a strain on the budget. But later reports said that the state’s welfare experiments from 1971 to 1974 didn’t work very well.
    • Reagan’s eight years in office had both good and bad effects on education and public safety. Basic education funding cuts made public schools worse, and university budget cuts, including Berkeley’s, made faculty–student ratios and research worse.
    • Even though there were laws meant to make sentences for crimes harsher and the criminal justice system better, crime rates, including murder and armed robbery, went up. 
    • Reagan was a big supporter of the death penalty, but court decisions like People v. Anderson in 1972 made it hard for him to do anything about it. He later regretted signing the Family Law Act, which allowed no-fault divorces, after thinking about it.

    PRESIDENCY

    • On 20 January 1981, Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as the 40th president of the United States. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger gave him the oath. Reagan’s first speech as president focused on the country’s economic problems. He famously said, ‘In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.’ Iran timed the release of American hostages to happen right after Reagan was sworn in, which meant that US President Jimmy Carter could not make the announcement. Reagan took a hands-off approach to the economy at the start of his presidency.
    • To combat stagflation, which existed during the terms of Nixon, Ford and Carter, President Reagan employed his economic policies, which were known as Reaganomics. Stagflation is an economic term that denotes constant inflation or high prices of goods and services. This can cause slow economic growth and raise unemployment. Reagan’s economic policies included a decrease in government spending, tax reductions and unrestricted free-market activity.
    • Four Pillars of Reaganomics
      • To reduce income tax and capital gains tax, but still keep the budget deficit under control
      • To reduce the growth of government spending by cutting programmes
      • To reduce government regulations by eliminating price controls and deregulating industries
      • To control the growth of the money supply in order to reduce inflation
    Reagan outlining his plan for tax reductions
    Reagan outlining his plan for tax reductions
    • In order to address gasoline rationing, Reagan issued Executive Order 12287 for the Decontrol of Crude Oil and Refined Petroleum Products. As a result, it eliminated price control on oil and natural gas. Furthermore, the price of oil fell by 50% after the increase in production.
    • President Reagan also initiated several deregulations in a number of industries including the automobile, cable TV, telecommunications and airline industries. On the other hand, use of public lands for mining and oil industries caused environmental controversies. 
    • In 1981, Reagan signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 that introduced a major tax cut. The cut was designed to encourage economic growth.
    • The act lowered the top marginal tax bracket from 70% to 50% over three years, and the lowest bracket from 14% to 11%. Critics of the act claim that the federal budget deficits even worsened. Meanwhile, supporters credit the act for the economic boost of the country during the 1980s. 
    • The Highway Revenue Act of 1982 improved roads and bridges in the United States, which increased the excise tax on gasoline from 4 cents to 9 cents. In 1982, TEFRA, or the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, was passed. This increased tax revenue by eliminating loopholes and enforcing tax collection. Four years later, TRA, or the Tax Reform Act, was passed, simplifying tax codes and reducing tax shelters.
    • As the government cut taxes, they received less money, which increased the budget deficit. To address the budget deficit, Reagan reduced welfare benefits and social programmes. Reductions were also made to housing subsidies, Medicare payments, unemployment compensation and student loans. At the same time, Reagan built up the US military. As a result of tax cuts and reductions, the annual budget deficit increased from $80 billion to $200 billion. In 1988, the productivity rate of Americans increased by 3.8%, the unemployment rate reduced to 5.4% from 7%, and inflation fell from 10.4% to 4.2%.

    Rise of the New Right

    • The New Right, often referred to as the ‘Republican ascendancy’ of the late 20th century, consists of conservative activists against a variety of issues like homosexuality, abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment and forms of taxation.
    • The New Right conservatives grew rapidly in the 1960s and 70s and often blamed the nation’s ills on liberalism that they believed contributed significantly to the corruption of the federal government.
    • During the 1980 presidential election, Reagan overwhelmingly defeated (by a landslide) incumbent President Jimmy Carter due to a large amount of support from the New Right that reverberated throughout his eight years in office.
    • Reagan gave his Evil Empire speech during the National Association of Evangelicals in 1983.
    • In 1979, the most prominent organisation of the New Right, Moral Majority, was founded. It targeted the Republican base and mobilised voters to elect politicians that would defend their values. In the 1980 presidential election, the Moral Majority championed Republican nominee Ronald Reagan. They rejected incumbent Jimmy Carter due to his ties to evangelicals’ liberal foes.

    The Cold War Warrior

    • In 1980, US–Soviet relations were damaged after the invasion of Afghanistan. It halted the ongoing détente period and further heightened the military contest between the two superpowers. Carter’s defeat by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 presidential election brought a tougher stance on US–Soviet relations. Reagan called the USSR an ‘Evil Empire’ and focused on winning the Cold War. In 1983, Reagan deployed a defensive system called the SDI, or Strategic Defense Initiative, which re-emphasised America’s military capability of destroying enemy missiles. The programme was cancelled by the subsequent administration due to its financial complexity.
    • On 1 September 1983, tensions between the two powers again intensified when the Soviets shot down a South Korean airliner KAL 007 when it unintentionally entered the Soviet airspace killing 246 passengers, of which 61 were American.
    • The Soviets argued that flight KAL 007 was an American spy mission. In response, Reagan suspended all Soviet passenger air services in the US. Moreover, he condemned the act as a ‘crime against humanity’. In an attempt to destroy communism, the US then released the Reagan Doctrine, which funded all anti-communist fighters in South America, Asia and Africa.  
    • The so-called Second Cold War only ended in 1985 under the rule of Mikhail Gorbachev. His reforms reduced the tensions between the East and the West, which later changed the Soviet Union and reunified the two Germanies. 

    DEATH AND LEGACY OF RONALD REAGAN

    • Ronald Reagan died at home in Los Angeles on 5 June 2004, after getting pneumonia that was made worse by Alzheimer’s disease. Reagan’s public state funeral at the Washington National Cathedral showed how important he was in both American and world affairs. Several important leaders who had worked closely with him or been influenced by his leadership gave eulogies during the service. Historians and scholars kept arguing and looking at Reagan’s legacy after he died.
    • In 2008, British historian Michael J. Heale noted that there was a wide agreement among historians about Reagan’s importance in history. This perspective asserts that Reagan was instrumental in rejuvenating American conservatism, guiding the country towards the political right following an extended period of liberal hegemony. He practiced what Heale called ‘pragmatic conservatism’, which means that he balanced his ideological goals with the limits of what was possible in government. 
    • People also say that Reagan brought back people’s faith in the presidency and gave Americans a new sense of pride and self-respect. Importantly, scholars contend that his leadership played a crucial role in the eventual conclusion of the Cold War, culminating in the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Historians from both the left and the right have come to agree more and more that Reagan was the most important American president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His influence is clear in politics at home and abroad, in popular culture and in economic thought. This is mostly because he was able to clearly explain his conservative vision while also making smart compromises.

    Image Sources

    Frequently Asked Questions About Ronald Reagan

    • Who was Ronald Reagan?
      Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. He was also a former actor and governor of California before entering national politics.
    • What was Ronald Reagan known for?
      Reagan was known for promoting conservative policies, cutting taxes, increasing military spending, and playing a major role in the final years of the Cold War.
    • What was the Iran-Contra affair?
      The Iran-Contra affair was a major political scandal during Reagan’s presidency involving secret arms sales and illegal funding of rebels in Nicaragua.