Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches

Overview
"Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches" gathers Ronald Reagan’s public voice across four decades, presenting the arc of a career that moved from actor and union leader to governor of California and, finally, two-term U.S. president. Published in 1989, shortly after he left the White House, the collection serves as an intellectual and rhetorical self-portrait: the causes he championed, the adversaries he defined, and the American story he never tired of retelling. Reagan frames politics as a moral contest between liberty and coercion, prosperity and statism, hope and cynicism, returning to a few core convictions that shape nearly every page.

Scope and Structure
The selections span early engagements in the 1950s, the break-out 1964 address "A Time for Choosing", gubernatorial statements from Sacramento, radio essays and campaign remarks of the 1970s, and the presidential era from 1981 to 1989. Famous set pieces appear alongside policy-heavy talks and commemorative addresses: the 1981 inaugural with "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem", the "Evil Empire" speech to evangelicals, the D-Day tribute at Pointe du Hoc, the Challenger tragedy remarks, the Berlin appeal "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall", and the Moscow State University address on creativity and freedom. Short headnotes supply context, turning the anthology into a guided tour of events and choices that marked the late Cold War.

Central Themes
A consistent defense of limited government and free enterprise runs through the book. Reagan argues that economic vitality springs from individual initiative, lower taxes, sound money, and the taming of bureaucracy. He links prosperity to dignity and opportunity, insisting that policy should unleash, not direct, the energies of families, workers, and entrepreneurs. His language is aspirational, "morning in America", but anchored in practical reforms like tax cuts, deregulation, and spending restraint.

On foreign policy, the collection chronicles his Cold War strategy of moral clarity backed by military strength and diplomatic engagement. He denounces totalitarianism not only as a strategic threat but as an affront to the human spirit, while inviting reformers behind the Iron Curtain to imagine a different future. Speeches on the Strategic Defense Initiative, summits with Soviet leaders, and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty trace a progression from confrontation to negotiation, culminating in a guarded optimism about a world less burdened by nuclear terror.

Reagan’s civic creed blends patriotism with a reverence for the nation’s founding ideals. He invokes the Constitution, the frontier, and the "shining city upon a hill" as living traditions, urging national renewal through faith, family, and civic virtue. On social questions, religious liberty, the sanctity of life, crime and drugs, he presents a framework of ordered freedom, expecting citizens to shoulder responsibility even as government steps back.

Voice and Craft
The collection showcases Reagan’s plainspoken style: anecdotes of everyday Americans, gentle humor, and clear contrasts that turn policy into story. He often elevates specific moments, soldiers on a cliff in Normandy, schoolchildren watching a launch, workers on a factory floor, into symbols of national character. Even when combative, he remains personable, using warmth to disarm and conviction to persuade.

Significance
Read together, these speeches map a coherent worldview that helped reshape late twentieth-century politics and hasten the Cold War’s denouement. They also reveal a method: define first principles, speak to hope rather than grievance, and trust that free people, given room, will rise. The anthology stands as both historical record and rhetorical manual, preserving the cadence, themes, and optimism that made Reagan’s voice a durable force in American public life.