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Reagan: His Life and Legend
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About This Book
Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician—America's fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography. 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. Believing that this inscrutability contributed to Reagan's appeal, Max Boot sought to reveal the real man behind the mythology. 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. Providing revelatory insights into "trickle-down economics," the Cold War's end, the Iran-Contra affair, and so much more, this definitive biography is as compelling a presidential biography as any in recent decades.
Reviews
"Boot pays more attention to Washington intrigues than Reagan ever did, but his book is best when he looks away from backroom plotting."
"Boot's clear-headed biography brims with insightful anecdotes and clears away myth to give a more solid portrait of a remarkable politician."
"It's a thoughtful, absorbing account."
"Boot reaffirms the general conclusion that Reagan was very different from Trump in both policy and style ..."
"Boot is particularly good at depicting 1920s small-town America, and he gives full consideration to how religion shaped Reagan's outlook."
"It makes for an unusually middle-of-the-road and not very revealing portrait."
"A prodigiously researched, satisfying presidential bio."
"Boot provides fascinating vignettes of Reagan's upbringing and entertainment career ..."
"Ambitious … Reagan could very well be the last biography of its kind to draw on so many personal conversations with key primary sources … Perhaps not surprisingly given Boot's experience in foreign policy, he's especially astute at unpacking Reagan's diplomacy."
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