Book
#1 Reckoning with Reagan: America and its President in the 1980’s
By Michael Schaller. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Schaller’s biography on Reagan includes a brief account of the life of the man, and of his administration during the 1980’s. Schaller finds it difficult to define Reagan, even though his conservative ideology is so well known. Reagan was an elusive figure and it is hard to say precisely what he believed.
After a brief account of Reagan early years, the author quickly details Reagan’s conservative thought, the “Goldwater” speech, and his campaign for governor. As governor of California, the author contends that Reagan mixed conservative rhetoric with flexible policies. Many future-oriented people believed that Reagan could be president even though he was passed over in 1968, could not defeat Ford for the nomination in 1976, and was thought to be too old by 1980.
Schaller then focuses on Reagan’s policies, mainly cut taxes, end deficit spending, cut liberal programs, build-up military, decrease regulation, and save the economy (through “supply-side” economics). His conservative social agenda was put on a “side burner” for being too radical. Reagan had a style, which led the public to trust him. Schaller believes that Reagan’s “feel good” ideology, and a public need for a president to succeed led him to succeed when critics faulted him. Many of his original promises were fulfilled even though there were consequences.
Schaller then focuses on the consequences of the domestic Reagan Legacy. Some of his policies led to economic growth that was highly selective, and a regulatory policy that led to environmental disaster, the HUD scandal, WEDTECH scandal, and the Savings and Loan scandal.
Schaller then turns to foreign affairs, and shows us a Reagan of contradictions. There was the Anti-communist Reagan vs. a leader in ending the Cold War. There was the Anti-terrorist Reagan vs. a man who traded arms for hostages. Finally, there was the Trustworthy Reagan vs. a President who went against the Congress and secretly sent aid to the Contras.
Schaller ends the book with a summary of Reagan and his legacy. The author admits that he achieved many symbolic goals, but also mentions his legacy is tarnished by simplifying blame and trivializing politics. Overall, this was a good biography but it was a little short and too general. My major complaint was that there was not a direct reference for each piece of quoted material.
Book
#2 Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan
By William E. Pemberton. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997.
Pemberton’s biography on Reagan includes a comprehensive account of Reagan’s life, and his administration. The author begins the book by considering a man of contradictions. Reagan was a man who spent decades in the public eye, yet he was a mystery to friends and admirers. He was an Anti-Communist who helped end the Cold War. He was also a conservative who campaigned against big government and spending, yet he increased the bureaucracy and the national debt.
Pemberton’s analysis of Reagan’s early years is extensive, leading us to understand his home and early childhood (especially with respect to religion), which established much of Reagan’s philosophy/ideology. The author then turns to Hollywood and expands on where Reagan’s confusion in separating myth from reality stems from.
By discussing the historical context of the conservative movement in the second half of the 20th century, Pemberton is able to describe how this seeming liberal unionist became a conservative Republican President. From the governorship of California to the presidency, the author also shows how Reagan used a hands-off approach, which led to many of his successes and failures at both levels of politics.
Pemberton critically looks at the Reagan years as an administration run by subordinates, whose skill and finesse kept Reagan looking strong through the first term, yet almost tore his legacy apart in the second. Reagan was able to leave the White House as a great man riding high on economic growth, and helping to end the Cold War, even though he was marred by scandal. In the end, Reagan was seen as the man who gave America a bright future and allowed the U.S. to “stand tall” as the surviving global superpower.
Book #3 The Reagan Presidency: An Actor’s Finest Performance
By Wilfred Edel. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1992.
The purpose of this book is to evaluate Reagan’s presidency in terms of his qualifications for the office. To do this, the author assesses the specific duties that Reagan performed while in office, such as acting like a preacher, chairman of the board, economist, and diplomat. His conclusion is that Reagan performed each duty poorly because Reagan lived in a dream world of illusions and misrepresentations.
One theme of the book is that Reagan was ignorant of history, and often confused reality. For example, Reagan used quotations without context, like connecting the ideas of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson with his ideas towards religion. Reagan even misread events of his own lifetime, such as, fond memories of his troubled childhood and the Great Depression. He also accepted fantasy and heroic fiction as truth, such as, miraculously knowing a dying pilot’s last words.
A second theme of the book was that Reagan was too simple-minded and detached to be President. Reagan often took complex issues and simplified them too much, i.e. good vs. evil, democracy vs. communism, and one-page summaries. He also allowed aides to commit gross violations of ethics and law without being punished. Plus instead of being the chief decision-maker the author contends that Reagan was instead the chief promoter of his aides’ policies.
The author considers Reagan the greatest fraud to ever occupy the White House. Reagan criticized his enemies for secrecy, for believing their ideas were superior to the public, and for trending towards godless, immoral living, yet these things also occurred in his administration. In the end, Reagan’s legacy will be mostly negative, filled with scandals and poor economics.
Book #4 Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader
By Dinesh D’Souza. New York: The Free Press, 1997
The purpose of D’Souza’s book is to show that Reagan is not a simple-minded failure as a President, like critics contend. Instead, the author considers Reagan, a very complex man and the greatest President of the late 20th century. Even though Reagan was a political outsider with an unorthodox style he was able to achieve many of his campaign promises.
One of the main themes in the book is how Reagan stuck to his convictions regardless of their popularity. The author contends that Reagan was working against the trend of the 20th century (a trend of centralizing government), and that most of his ideas were automatically unpopular with the public and intellectuals. But instead of giving up on his beliefs (like most politicians) Reagan never waved in his intentions. He had vision and was able to persuade the populace that his plans for America were the right plans. An example of this can be seen with his campaign against Grenada. Although many would consider the invasion of Grenada, a political gamble, Reagan saw it as a way for the U.S. to confront Communism and give Americans pride in America. If the President had brought the Grenada question to the people before the assault, many would have disapproved. Instead, Reagan acted decisively and helped one country free itself from Communism. The Grenada invasion helped Reagan’s popularity soar.
A second theme of the book is that Reagan was the major player in ending the Cold War. Reagan had the vision to foresee its end (while being laughed at), had the understanding of Communism to plan for its end. Intellectuals fought Reagan on this issue throughout his administration. They considered him a warmonger, who would bring nuclear war. They considered him a dreamer, when he believed that the Soviet Union would fall. They considered him an idiot, when he would not give up on SDI for arms-reduction. In the end, it was Reagan who got the last laugh.
Book #5 President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
By Lou Cannon. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991.
The purpose of this book is to penetrate the mysteries of Ronald Reagan and write about the real Reagan. The author has the ability to do this since he is one of the few journalists that followed Reagan to Washington from California. This is also the author’s third book on Reagan. Cannon writes an extensive 800+ page account of Reagan’s presidency that is considered, by many, to be a moderately negative portrayal of his administration.
One of the main themes in this book is how Reagan psychologically deals with being the “child of an alcoholic”. While the author admits that caution should be used when generalizing, he supports that there are some behavioral connections between a child of an alcoholic, and Reagan. For example, Reagan often describes harsh memories as happy stories, such as his Huck Finn-Tom Sawyer childhood. Another example is how the President never had close friends, even though he had many associates. Finally, Reagan also loved solitary jobs, like being a lifeguard, and solitary sports, like running and horseback riding.
A third major theme in the book involves Reagan’s detachment. Reagan who liked to take direction and follow a script was often uninvolved or detached from policymaking. While the President claims this was part of his management style, others believe that it was a major fault in his leadership. Instead of being the administration’s leader, he became the chief presenter of policy, susceptible to manipulation, but also less accountable in failure. When an issue became too technical, Reagan often used anecdotes to be a part of the discussion.
A third theme in the book is a discussion of Reagan’s intelligence. The author answers this question by putting forward Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences. While Reagan was not intellectual, he was definitely intelligent (Reagan could think concretely not abstractly). Reagan’s type of interpersonal intelligence has just never before been the strongest intelligence of a President.
Book #6 The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War
By Beth A. Fischer. Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1997.
The purpose of this book is to answer why the U.S. so drastically changed its foreign policy 18 months before the Geneva Summit. Arguing against the conventional wisdom that the U.S. played a reactive role in ending the Cold War, the book tries to prove the Reagan Administration’s reasons to drastically change policy. This policy change can be seen in two ideological speeches made in October 1983 (A traditional hard-line anti-communism speech) and January 1984(A speech promoting common interest and dialogue), respectively.
The author considers four possible explanations for this policy change. Each of these explanations was dissected to decide if it properly explained: what caused the shift itself, the timing of the shift, and the degree of the shift. One possible explanation might be that the international environment had changed so much that it was necessary for the U.S. to modify its policy. But a modification is much different than a complete reversal of policy. A second possible explanation is that domestic politics changed the Administration to change their policy. But in 1983, Reagan’s hard-line stance on the Soviet Union was gaining in the approval ratings and this explanation does not support the degree of the shift. A third possible explanation is that the policy changed when two of Reagan’s top aides had resigned and more pragmatic politicians took their places. While this explanation works with Reagan’s usual detachment, the author contends that Reagan would not be passive to the “evil empire”. The author also adds that these two key aides were still second to the triumvirate, which was still hard-line anti-communist.
The final possible explanation for the policy change was that it was leader-driven. The author contends that Reagan was the leader of the policy change. Between October 3, 1983 and January 16, 1984, Reagan connected two events of misunderstanding (KAL 007, and Able Archer ‘83) and one cinematic view of nuclear holocaust (“The Day After” Movie) to believe in the increased likelihood of nuclear war. After realizing how close, the world was to Armageddon, Reagan completely reversed ideology and decided that America’s real threat was nuclear weapons and not the Soviet Union.
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