Less than two weeks after the death of Ronald Reagan on June 5, The Club hosted Cold War expert and Reagan scholar Kiron Skinner to assess the former president's life and legacy. Here Skinner, the co-editor of several volumes of Reagan letters and writings, describes Reagan's formative years in California politics, the unconventional hypotheses that shaped his Cold War perspective and the traits of the man as revealed through decades of prolific correspondence.

Skinner's biography includes: Assistant Professor of History and Political Science, Carnegie Mellon University; Co-editor, Reagan: A Life in Letters; W. Glenn Campbell Research Fellow, Hoover Institution.