Reagan: His Life and Legend

· Liveright Publishing
1 review
Ebook
880
Pages

About this ebook

NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Washington Post • 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
Best Books of 2024: The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, The Auburn Citizen

"This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style.... A landmark work." —New York Times, "10 Best Books of 2024"
"Reagan: His Life and Legend aims to be the definitive biography, and it succeeds." —New Yorker
"Magisterial.... Important.... Vivid... Splendid." —Washington Post

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.

 

In this “monumental and impressive” biography, Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents, Boot provides “the best biography of Ronald Reagan to date” (Robert Mann).

The story begins not in star-studded Hollywood but in the cradle of the Midwest, small-town Illinois, where Reagan was born in 1911 to Nelle Clyde Wilson, a devoted Disciples of Christ believer, and Jack Reagan, a struggling, alcoholic salesman. Boot vividly creates a portrait of a handsome young man, indeed a much-vaunted lifeguard, whose early successes mirrored those of Horatio Alger. And contextualizing Reagan’s life against American history, Boot re-creates the world in which Reagan transitioned from local Iowa sportscaster to budding screen actor.

The world of Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1950s would prove significant, not only in Reagan’s coming-of-age in such classics as Knute Rockne and Kings Row but during the twilight of his film career, when he played opposite a chimpanzee in Bedtime for Bonzo, and then his eventual emergence as a television host of General Electric Theater, which established his bona fides as one of the leading conservative voices of the time. Indeed, the leap to California governor in 1966 seemed almost preordained, in which Reagan became a bellwether for a nation in the throes of a generational shift.

Reagan’s 1980 presidential election augured a shift that continues into this century. Boot writes not as a partisan but as a historian seeking to set the story straight. He explains how Reagan was an ideologue but also a supreme pragmatist who signed pro-abortion and gun control bills as governor, cut deals with Democrats in both Sacramento and Washington, and befriended Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War. A master communicator, Reagan revived America’s spirits after the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate. But Boot also shows how Reagan was armored in obliviousness. He traces Reagan’s opposition to civil rights over forty years, reveals how he neglected the exploding AIDS epidemic, and details how America experienced a level of income inequality not seen since the Gilded Age.

With its revelatory insights, Reagan: His Life and Legend is no apologia, depicting a man with a good-versus-evil worldview derived from his moralistic upbringing and Hollywood westerns. Providing fresh examinations of “trickle-down economics,” the Cold War’s end, the Iran-Contra affair, as well as a nuanced portrait of Reagan’s family, this definitive biography is as compelling a presidential biography as any in recent decades.

NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024 INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Washington Post • 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024 Best Books of 2024: The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, The Auburn Citizen "This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authorit...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

1 review
Fabiana NOT drugs NOT sugar NOT lgbtq
September 28, 2026
I REBUKE YOU Eu te repreendo auqadelas lgbtq e pombagira do tráfico de drogas Nossa luta não é contra carne e sangue mas sim contra principados autoridades lgbtq do tráfico que NAO CUMPREM A LEI e cometem a força de rituais criminals abusos roubos de recursos diversos escravidao para realizar controles de roubo, visando exautaçao de todos os lixos do tráfico violence span spancamento vulnerables childs e escravizar corpos e vidas JUSTICE ENFORCEMENT THE LAW Destrua todos esses rituais Certos tipos de demônios só podem ser expulsos pelo JEJUM e pela ORAÇAO; O MAIOR JEJUM PRAY É JUSTICE O COMPRIMENTO DA LEI A CAUSA DO VIUVA DO ORFAO E DO DESAMPARADO todos feitos pelos abortos das auqadelas lgbtq do trafico de drogas que aborta transforma good peoples em praga baratas ao roubar a vida pureza sexualidade LIBERDADE FREEDOM PARA UTILIZAR pragas mais baratas e malditas até a Morte as malditas drogas ENFORCEMENT THE LAW THE RELIGION IS URGENT IMPORTANT FOR UNIVERSE Verbrechen ist KEINE Kultur O maior abortador do universo éo trafico de drogas La principal causa de abortos en el universo es el narcotráfico Der größte Abtreiber des Universums ist der Drogenhandel The biggest cause of abortions in the universe is the drug trade La causa principale di aborti nell'universo è il traffico di droga acreditar nas drogas éa Copia barata da fé que sustenta a escravidao e prostituiçao infantil Believing in drugs is a cheap copy of the belief that sustains slavery and child prostitution Credere nelle droghe è una copia dozzinale della convinzione che sostiene la schiavitù e la prostituzione infantile An Drogen zu glauben, ist eine billige Kopie jenes Glaubens, der Sklaverei und Kinderprostitution aufrechterhält feminicidio é so mais uma Copia barata e falsificadada da fe El feminicidio es simplemente otra copia inferior y falsificada de la fe Femizid ist nur eine weitere billige und gefälschte Kopie des Glaubens Il femminicidio è solo un'altra copia scadente e contraffatta della fede Femicide is just another inferior and counterfeit copy of the faith I raccolti sono più abbondanti della piantagione Die Ernten sind größer als die Pflanzung The harvests are greater than the planting As colheitas são maiores do que o plantio 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
Did you find this helpful?

About the author

Max Boot, historian and foreign-policy analyst, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist for the Washington Post. His New York Times bestseller The Road Not Taken was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Max Boot, historian and foreign-policy analyst, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist for the Washington Post. His New York Times bestseller The Road Not Taken was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.