Reagan by Max Boot

Yes, there are a lot of books about Reagan out there. I haven't read any of them but there are quite a few to choose from. Why did I choose this one? It was one of the 5 best Non-Fiction books names by the New York Times in 2024, and while I have had little interest in reading more about Reagan--he was governor when I was growing up in California and even as a child growing up in a Republican household, I could tell I didn't agree with his politics and didn't trust him. Then there is the timing. We are seeing the unwinding of American ideals that maybe didn't start with Reagan, but were at least propelled forward in a big way by him as president. The author was a Republican up to around about the Trump era where he broke away, but he was a fan of Reagan--which doesn't mean this lacks criticism, it has plenty of it, but it is an even handed biography, well researched and well written and exploring the facets of who Reagan was--he was so incapable of introspection, so emotionally withdrawn that he remained unknowable to everyone but possibly his second wife Nancy. His political priorities were shaped by things that happened to him in a way that lacked ideology, and he left the running of the government to those loyal to him. A pair of Trump’s eventual fixers lurked on the fringes of Reagan’s first presidential campaign: Roy Cohn and Roger Stone arranged for an endorsement that enabled Reagan to win the usually left-leaning state of New York. But the candidate himself always denied knowledge of such deals, and when Boot catches Reagan twisting the facts – for instance by reminiscing about his military valor during a war that he actually spent in Hollywood – he treats him as a self-deceived fabulist, not a liar. Well, to me they are both liars but one is a better story teller.