Reagan: The Life
H. W. Brands
May 2015 · Penguin Random House Audio · Narrated by Stephen Hoye
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31 hr 41 min
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From master storyteller and New York Times bestselling Historian H. W. Brands comes the definitive biography of a visionary and transformative president
In his magisterial new biography, H. W. Brands brilliantly establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the twentieth century, a true peer to Franklin Roosevelt. Reagan conveys with sweep and vigor how the confident force of Reagan’s personality and the unwavering nature of his beliefs enabled him to engineer a conservative revolution in American politics and play a crucial role in ending communism in the Soviet Union. Reagan shut down the age of liberalism, Brands shows, and ushered in the age of Reagan, whose defining principles are still powerfully felt today.
Reagan follows young Ronald Reagan as his ambition for ever larger stages compelled him to leave behind small-town Illinois to become first a radio announcer and then that quintessential public figure of modern America, a movie star. When his acting career stalled, his reinvention as the voice of The General Electric Theater on television made him an unlikely spokesman for corporate America. Then began Reagan’s improbable political ascension, starting in the 1960s, when he was first elected governor of California, and culminating in his election in 1980 as president of the United States.
Employing archival sources not available to previous biographers and drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving members of Reagan’s administration, Brands has crafted a richly detailed and fascinating narrative of the presidential years. He offers new insights into Reagan’s remote management style and fractious West Wing staff, his deft handling of public sentiment to transform the tax code, and his deeply misunderstood relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on which nothing less than the fate of the world turned.
Reagan is a storytelling triumph, an irresistible portrait of an underestimated politician whose pragmatic leadership and steadfast vision transformed the nation.
Look for H.W. Brands's other biographies: THE FIRST AMERICAN (Benjamin Franklin), ANDREW JACKSON, THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION (Ulysses S. Grant), and TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS (Franklin Roosevelt).
In his magisterial new biography, H. W. Brands brilliantly establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the twentieth century, a true peer to Franklin Roosevelt. Reagan conveys with sweep and vigor how the confident force of Reagan’s personality and the unwavering nature of his beliefs enabled him to engineer a conservative revolution in American politics and play a crucial role in ending communism in the Soviet Union. Reagan shut down the age of liberalism, Brands shows, and ushered in the age of Reagan, whose defining principles are still powerfully felt today.
Reagan follows young Ronald Reagan as his ambition for ever larger stages compelled him to leave behind small-town Illinois to become first a radio announcer and then that quintessential public figure of modern America, a movie star. When his acting career stalled, his reinvention as the voice of The General Electric Theater on television made him an unlikely spokesman for corporate America. Then began Reagan’s improbable political ascension, starting in the 1960s, when he was first elected governor of California, and culminating in his election in 1980 as president of the United States.
Employing archival sources not available to previous biographers and drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving members of Reagan’s administration, Brands has crafted a richly detailed and fascinating narrative of the presidential years. He offers new insights into Reagan’s remote management style and fractious West Wing staff, his deft handling of public sentiment to transform the tax code, and his deeply misunderstood relationship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, on which nothing less than the fate of the world turned.
Reagan is a storytelling triumph, an irresistible portrait of an underestimated politician whose pragmatic leadership and steadfast vision transformed the nation.
Look for H.W. Brands's other biographies: THE FIRST AMERICAN (Benjamin Franklin), ANDREW JACKSON, THE MAN WHO SAVED THE UNION (Ulysses S. Grant), and TRAITOR TO HIS CLASS (Franklin Roosevelt).
From master storyteller and New York Times bestselling Historian H. W. Brands comes the definitive biography of a visionary and transformative president
In his magisterial new biography, H. W. Brands brilliantly establishes Ronald Reagan as one of the two great presidents of the twentieth centur...
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2 reviews
Fabiana NOT drugs NOT sugar NOT lgbtq
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September 30, 2026
HELP ME URGENT PLEASE 🪖🧊🇺🇲 ICE ERO CBP DHS NYPD 🪖 🧊 🇺🇲 LOVED is the collagen of JUSTICE that preserves the brain of the LAW to nourish the rest of the body URGENT PLEASE HELP ME URGENT PLEASE I still eat meat I learned from the Holy Spirit, who CONSUMES THE FLESH and convicts of righteousness, sin, and judgment. Life inspires the Game🎮: before the thefts, before the torture in the hospital, the ten years of the stolen cell phone, and all the lgbtq drug trafficking schemes; the Police 🚔 were already hunting Pokémon back then, and they continue to hunt. No intelligent person wants to use drugs, so they mix drugs with sugar to drug even children. No drugs, no addictions; respecting the law is the most important religion in the universe. Socialism, communism, and injustices for example, issues of psychopathy and lgbtq mutilation are criminal pandemics that "abort" people unchecked. My family is the one that does the will of the Lord Father: we keep the Law. ALTERING WHAT I HAVE BEEN WRITING ALL THIS TIME ONLY PROVES THE CRIMES🧊🪖 ICE 🧊🪖 DHS 🧊🪖 CBP 🧊🪖 ERO Medical care for the body, free from theft. RESPECT FOR THE LAW THE MOST IMPORTANT RELIGION IN THE UNIVERSE. All the treacherous serpents who robbed me during these ten years of injustice will reap the same fruit and meet the same end as that Judas 🐍. Faster than the speed of light like the One faster than the speed of light who imprisoned the devil before sunrise. URGENT PLEASE HELP ME RETORNIT a falar aquelas palavras Tem gente que quando se fere só sai poeira porque até o sangue que existia dentro delas explodiu dentro das veias A construção mais importante que existe ainda é o respect porque ele é a estrutura de todas as outras estruturas que existem for universe 🪖🧊🇺🇲 ICE ERO CBP DHS NYPD 🪖 🧊 🇺🇲 I REBUKE YOU Eu te repreendo auqadelas lgbtq do tráfico nem com os 10 anos de roubo e a torturas no hospital sus tenta vel O véu que o SUS Tenta tirar de Pureza originalidade com tortura para o tráfico não está acima da sustentabilidade da carne do combustível e todos os recursos originais que sustenta as habilidades de Um ser superior a elas Aliás foi feito por gente superior não pelo tráfico de drogas que quer retirar tudo e utilizar para produzir lixo e fazer das pessoas cópia barata da pereba de satanas com torturas abusos roubos da pureza de span spancamento vulnerables childs criminals abortanto life's para sus tentar a verdadeiras pragas baratas os crimes feminicidio escravidao eslavery dos vicious eu prefero ENFORCEMENT THE LAW
Fabiana NOT DRUGS NOT SUGAR NOT lgbtq
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August 25, 2026
Socialism communism AND INJUSTICES are a crime akin to a pandemic, killing people rampantly across the world 🧊🪖 ICE 🧊🪖 DHS 🧊🪖 CBP 🧊🪖 ERO 🧊🪖
About the author
H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A New York Times bestselling author, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for The First American and Traitor to His Class.
H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A New York Times bestselling author, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for The First American and Traitor to His Class.
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