Best ronald reagan biography
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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies
During my transition between presidents it has become customary for me to pause a moment, take a deep breath and reflect on what I&#;ve learned on this fascinating adventure.
But with just days until Presidents&#; Day (my target for completing this first broad sweep through the best presidential biographies) there is precious little time to smell the roses&#;
The next two months will be jam-packed, with a dozen biographies of Ronald W. Reagan totaling about 6, pages. That sounds like a lot, but only time will tell how close I&#;m able to get to his inner core.
By most accounts Reagan was remarkably easy to befriend&#;but famously difficult to know. No less than Edmund Morris (a Pulitzer Prize-winning author tasked with writing his authorized biography) found him utterly enigmatic and bewildering.
Reagan did, however, leave behind lots of footprints including a presidential diary and no shortage of friends, family and co
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My Journey Through the Best Presidential Biographies
A good rule-of-thumb suggests that years are required before sufficient time and historical distance have passed to take the true measure of a presidency. By that standard, Ronald Reagan may be the most recent president whose tenure we can objectively assess.
And while I&#;ve enjoyed almost every moment of this 2, day (and counting!) biographical journey, Ronald Reagan is the president whose biographies I&#;ve most looked forward to reading. After all, he&#;s the first president whose time in the White House I distinctly remember.
Over the past 2½ months I read a dozen biographies of Reagan including three traditional biographies, one &#;character study&#;, a two-volume series by Lou Cannon, a two-volume series by Steven Hayward and a four-volume &#;biographical coalition&#; by Craig Shirley.
It was a fascinating undertaking, to say the least&#;
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* &#;Reagan: The Life&#; () by H. W. Brands &#; this is the fifth pres
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Review
"H.W. Brands’ new biography tells the [Reagan] story as well as you could ask for in a single volume. A lucid and witty writer, Mr. Brands lays out the facts in short chapters that bounce along like one of the ‘bare-fisted walloping action’ films that Reagan once starred in. He has a talent for letting his sources speak for themselves Illuminating. Mr. Brands recounts Reagan’s triumphs and the scandals even-handedly."
—The Economist
"Reagan is an engaging study of a man who Brands says defeated Soviet communism and achieved a halfway economic revolution. Drawing on Reagan’s diary, speeches, statements, letters and memoirs, and on interviews with the president’s aides, Brands tells a briskly paced story Reagan’s legacy continues to bränsle the ideas and frame the choices facing his would-be successors, and this astute biography is further evidence that the 40th president continues to cast a long shadow over a still largely conservative political order."
—Washington Post
"Bran