the National Security Council, criticized Reagan as "really lost, out of his depth, uncomfortable" at NSC meetings. Another NSC member, Colin Powell, criticized Reagan's "passive management style [that] placed a tremendous burden on us." Despite the continuing debate surrounding his legacy, many conservative and liberal scholars agree that Reagan has been one of the most influential presidents since Franklin Roosevelt, leaving his imprint on American politics, diplomacy, culture, and economics through his effective communication, dedicated patriotism and pragmatic compromising. Since he left office, historians have reached a consensus, as summarized by British historian M. J. Heale, who finds that scholars now concur that Reagan rehabilitated conservatism, turned the nation to the right, practiced a considerably pragmatic conservatism that balanced ideology and the constraints of politics, revived faith in the presidency and in American exceptionalism, and contributed to victory in the Cold War. Hugh Heclo argues that Reagan himself failed to roll back the welfare state, but that he contributed to a shift in attitudes that led to the defeat of efforts to further expand the welfare state. Heclo further argues that Reagan's presidency made American voters and political leaders more tolerant of deficits and more opposed to taxation. In 2017, a C-SPAN survey of scholars ranked Reagan as the ninth greatest president. A 2018 poll of the American Political Science Association's presidents and Executive Politics section also ranked Reagan as the ninth greatest president. A 2006 poll of historians ranked the Iran-Contra affair as the ninth-worst mistake made by a sitting American president. See also History of the United States (1980–1991) Premiership of Margaret Thatcher Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, California Explanatory notes References Citations Works cited Further reading Brandt, Karl Gerard. Ronald Reagan and the House Democrats: Gridlock, Partisanship, and the Fiscal Crisis (University of Missouri Press, 2009). Brownlee, W. Elliot and Hugh Davis Graham, eds. The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies (2003) Coleman, Bradley Lynn and Kyle Longley, eds. Reagan and the World: Leadership and National Security, 1981–1989 (University Press of Kentucky, 2017), 319 pp. essays by scholars Ehrman, John. The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan. (2005) Graff, Henry F., ed. The presidents: A Reference History (3rd ed. 2002) Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980–1989 (2010), highly favorable Hertsgaard, Mark. (1988) On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency. New York, New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux.