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Rate this book. Reagan: His Life and Legend. Max Boot. From best-selling biographer Max Boot comes this revelatory portrait, a decade in the making, of Ronald Reagan, the actor-turned-politician whose telegenic leadership ushered in a transformative conservative era in American politics.
Despite his fame as a Hollywood star and television host, Reagan remained an enigma—a man of profound contradictions—even to those closest to him. Drawing on more than a hundred new interviews and thousands of newly available documents, Reagan tells the epic story of the Depression-era poor boy who transfixed the nation. Yet Boot, a one-time Republican policy advisor, offers no apologia, depicting a man with a Manichean, good-versus-evil worldview derived from his moralistic upbringing.
Loading interface About the author. Max Boot 11 books followers. Max Boot is a historian and biographer, best-selling author, and foreign-policy analyst. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post.
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Write a Review. Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book! Community Reviews. Search review text. Displaying 1 - 30 of reviews. Brendan History Nerds United. I really hate writing about politics. People have very strong feelings, and I'm just a history nerd trying to make it in this crazy world. I knew Reagan by Max Boot would test my abilities to write a comprehensive review without getting dragged into endless online discourse.
In order to make my life easier, I am going to first tackle Reagan purely as a book and then I'll discuss Boot's approach to Ronald Reagan's politics and legacy. I don't think I need to provide much of an introduction to the Gipper, so let's get to it! As far as a book, Reagan is really good! Boot's prose flows easily and the book never drags.
It is a hefty tome over pages of actual narrative , but I never felt the need to skip sections because it didn't add to Reagan's overall story. From a construction perspective, I would say Boot's introduction is a bit too detailed about what he intends to highlight about the former president. It means there is a bit too much of a repetition in themes that Boot references directly and with the same language.
These are very small sections and, as I said, don't bog down the narrative.
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However, you do notice when you see the same phrase. If you don't have a dog in the fight of, "How good of a president was Reagan? Now the part I hate. How does Boot handle his subject from a political perspective? Simply, if you have strong feelings about Reagan either way, then I think you will be upset.
Boot does not call Reagan a terrible human being and world leader.
Ronald reagan biography peggy: Max Boot’s best-selling biography of Ronald Reagan, "Reagan: His Life and Legend," was named one of the Ten Best Books of by the New York Times, and also made best-of-the-year lists from The New Yorker, The Washington Post and The Economist.
He also doesn't deify Reagan. If pressed, I would say that Boot criticizes Reagan more than he compliments him. After long passages, Boot will use phrases like, "To be fair to him" or "To give him credit". These phrases usually indicate you just finished a criticism of someone and are now trying to add context. I felt in a couple of specific instances that Boot did extrapolate a bit too much in his criticisms, but this is far from a hit piece of the subject.
Boot does highlight Reagan's positive attributes while leveling some harsh words on his legacy. The final chapter would delight Reagan fans, though. Boot spends most of this section putting a finer point on Reagan's accomplishments and the positive attributes which made so many people love him. Other reviewers mentioned this, so I should probably as well.
Yes, Donald Trump does come up a few times. It's not often or for very long. Yes, you can tell how Boot feels about him. It doesn't ruin anything else about the book, but it does feel badly placed. You could cut these sections out again, they are very short references and the book would not suffer at all.
In the end, a biography is supposed to help you understand the subject better. I definitely feel more intelligent about the entire life of Reagan even if I disagreed with Boot's conclusions here and there. This is worth a read if you are willing to disagree with the author and still respect the work they put in. This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.
Traci Thomas. It does falter toward the end. Mainly because Boot refuses to contextualize any of Reagan's policies on American culture. Even that he doesn't fully make clear what it all means instead he just recites information. Reagan was apparently hard to get to know, but after spending 32 hours with his book I don't feel like I have a better sense of the man.
It is a good biography because it is an interesting way to look at the history of American but the ending is so abrupt and let me wanting. Christopher A. No issues with the authors writing style. It was fluid and easy to read.
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My main issues with this were that it eventually felt like Boot had an axe to grind with Reagan and would stop at nothing to point out every hypocrisy in Reagans life. Whether it was a major incident or a private conversation from Reagans childhood, if it conflicted with any other part of his life Boot was sure to bring it up.
In his own words, Ronald Reagan composed his thoughts using his personal diary as a resource. Taking the reader behind the scenes of his extraordinary career, this is an essential volume for anyone interested in the life and leadership of our 40th President.
For the collector, it is available for purchase in both signed and unsigned editions. Black and White photos illustrated. Written by William Novak. They comprise a major resource he personally developed on 4x6 note cards with favorite aphorisms, jokes, asides, and timeless nuggets of political wisdom. Before the days of Google, here's how one of our nation's greatest speakers compiled a trove of useful information revealing a fiercely patriotic, pro-democracy avatar of limited government.
Edited by Douglas Brinkley. The Reagan Diaries - Edited by Douglas Brinkley SKU: BKH During his two terms as the 40th President, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary in which he records, by hand, his innermost thoughts and observations on the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day occurrences of his presidency. This remarkable record - the only daily presidential diary in American history - is available for the first time in abridged and unabridged editions, both signed and unsigned.
These typeset diaries share Reagan's personal insights into the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day-to-day events of his Presidency. The Reagan Diaries, Collectors Leather-bound Edition Edited by Douglas Brinkley SKU: BKH This special collectors edition of The Reagan Diaries is printed on acid-free paper with a stamped, leather-bound book and slipcase, Smyth-sewn binding, printed endpapers, handcrafted hubs on the spine of the book, platinum gilded edges, silk bead headbands, a satin ribbon marker, and thirty-two pages of color photographs.
An extraordinary gift. Complete with charming photographs, and sample love letters throughout. Collect our beautiful 64 page pictorial book which guides you through the Ronald Reagan Presidential Museum in Simi Valley, California. Experience the museum as you page through this amazing guidebook. Exclusive to the Reagan Library.
This book tells Reagan's true-life tale in an engaging and easily accessible manner. The trajectory of his life was remarkable: from Midwestern schoolboy, sports announcer, and Hollywood actor to governor of California and two-term President of the United States. There is no doubt that Ronald Reagan was one of the most complex and fascinating personalities of our time.
Greenstein Fred I. Perlstein, Rick. Reaganland: America's Right Turn, — Rossinow, Doug. The Reagan Era: A History of the s Salamon Lester M. The Reagan Presidency and the Governing of America Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies pp. Weatherford, M. Stephen and Mcdonnell, Lorraine M. Fulltext in Ebsco; Argues RR ignored the details but played a guiding role in setting major policies and adjudicating significant trade-offs, and in securing Congressional approval.
Foreign affairs [ edit ]. Aldous, Richard. Arnson, Cynthia J. Vol: Issue: 3. Yet many statements by Reagan and Shultz suggest they desired negotiation with the Soviets from a position of American strength, not the eventual demise of the USSR. Dujmovic, Nicholas. Draper, Theodore.
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Ford, Christopher A. Fulltext in Ingenta and Ebsco; Reagan's maritime strategy sought to apply US naval might against Soviet vulnerabilities on its maritime flanks. It was supported by a major buildup of US naval forces and aggressive exercising in seas proximate to the USSR; it explicitly targeted Moscow's strategic missile submarines with the aim of pressuring the Kremlin during crises or the early phases of global war.
The maritime strategy represents one of the rare instances in history when intelligence helped lead a nation to completely revise its concept of military operations. Haftendorn, Helga and Jakob Schissler, eds. Berlin: Walter de Guyer, ISBN The Crusader. New York: Regan Books. Jeffrey W. Reagan and the World , scholarly essays on foreign policy Mann, James.
However, his policies varied as differences in local conditions and US security interests produced divergent policies toward "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Angola, and Cambodia. Ratnesar, Romesh. Schmertz, Eric J. Ronald Reagan and the World articles by scholars and officeholders. Shultz, George P.
Neoconservatives in U. Westview Press, Wills, David C.