Reagan's World Revisited (1982)

Republican Fears and Fantasies from the Cold War to the Culture War

1982 Version ~ Click image to enlarge

These two satirical representations of the world from the perspective of Ronald Reagan were created by David Horsey, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist.

The 1987 version includes many of the same elements and updates by replacing Brezhnev with Gorbachev and adding portraits of Margaret Thatcher, Daniel Ortega and Muammar Qaddafi.

1987 Version - Click image to enlarge

The maps use a pictorial style to depict the United States and the Soviet Union as wildly out of scale with the rest of the world, reflecting the Cold War tensions and rivalries between the two superpowers.

Reagan, dressed as a cowboy, stands on a huge California, while his Soviet counterpart, either Brezhnev or Gorbachev, wears a bear skin and stands on a massive U.S.S.R. The two leaders are ready to draw their guns at any moment.

It was a different world - the Communists were in Russia and California was a Republican stronghold. Only slight reference to gay rights and environmental issues. No mention of Critical Race Theory, or Jewish space lasers.

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Both maps are found in the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: 1982 Map | 1987 Map