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Summary: His Grasp of Foreign and Domestic are Superb.
Review: Ronald Regans grasp of Foreign and Domestic issues are superb, not what has been portrayed by the media, and the democratic party elite. It is amazing how right he was in many areas. As with many things, time proves the accuracy of his forward visions. Ronald Reagan is obviously a man who cared about his country, and put it first. This is a breath of fresh air, when looking at all the revisionist history about the man. "Just an actor, not very smart, and he can't make his own decisions." Are terms used many times by the media and democratic elite. This book settles that fallacy once and for all.
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Summary: Reagan: The One-man Think Tank
Review: Ronald Wilson Reagan: we hardly knew thee. I say that, because this book shatters every Reagan stereotype known about his mental capacity. In the years '74-'79, Reagan hosted a daily radio commentary. He spoke of broad subjects: from dealing with the USSR and Communism, to tax relief, to the Panama Canal. I say "He" because Reagan wrote each of these, on a yellow legal pad. Wether you liked Reagan personally or not, the fact remains: he was a one-man think tank. Here you see the early formulation of presidential policy. Policy that was followed through on. This is a must read for history buffs, Reagan fans, and patriots alike.
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Summary: Groundbreaking
Review: The ivory tower of academia has long shunned Reagan as a nostalgic simpleton. Lou Cannon's authoritative Reagan biography upgraded Reagan's standing slightly, depicting a man with singular emotional intelligence but otherwise writing Reagan off as intellectually incurious.Reagan in His Own Hand shatters all these myths, and it should force historians and Reagan scholars all over to rethink their conclusions about Reagan the man. Far from the rather dim portrait that has prevailed on the Left (and in some corners of the Right), Reagan was in fact very intelligent and had a unique grasp of facts and statistics, knowing exactly when and where to deploy them to deliver the most effective argument. This collection of hundreds of Reagan's radio addresses shows that the Great Communicator spoke not only in vague and soothing generalities. Specificity was part of his eloquence too: "Our productivity is phenomenal. ... We are 6% of the worlds population on only 7% of the worlds land we produce almost half the worlds corn, 2/3 of the soy beans, 1/3 or more of the worlds paper, electrical power, college graduates and almost 1/3 of the farm machinery. Just to round it off we make more than 2/3 of the computers & 80% of all the worlds passenger aircraft." The man's optimism, even in a time of national "malaise", was irresistible. One essay in the beginning of the book illuminates why Reagan enjoyed such a strong connection with America and Americans. Reagan describes looking out of a high-rise hotel window and seeing the hundreds of headlights and taillights circulating on the streets below: "I wonder about the people in those cars, who they are, what they do, what they are thinking about as they head for the warmth of home & family. Come to think of it I've met them--oh--maybe not those particular individuals but I still feel I know them. Some of our social planners refer to them as 'the masses'... They are not 'the masses,' or as the elitists would have it, 'the common man.' They are very uncommon. Individuals each with his own hopes & dreams, plans & problems and the kind of quiet courage that makes this whole country run better than just about any other place on earth."
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Summary: The Hero
Review: The Publishers Weekly review of this book starts with the words: "Ronald Reagan is a puzzle." To those on the left, that may be the case. For those Americans who believe in the greatness of this country, who value integrity, who recognize greatness; Ronald Reagan is no more puzzling than a polish Rubik's Cube. To us, Ronald Reagan is a hero, nothing more nothing less. Ronald Reagan was man of simplicity, a man of simple faith, a man of his word. Consider the words of another editorial review listed here on Amazon. "These writings show that Reagan had carefully considered nearly every issue he would face as president. When he fired the striking air-traffic controllers, many thought that he was simply seizing an unexpected opportunity to strike a blow at organized labor. In fact, as he wrote in the '70s, he was opposed to public-sector unions using strikes. There has been much debate as to whether he deserves credit for the end of the cold war; here, in a 1980 campaign speech draft, he lays out a detailed vision of the grand strategy that he would pursue in order to encourage the Soviet system to collapse of its own weight, completely consistent with the policies of his presidency." Reagan's private ideals were "completely consistent with the policies of his presidency." Imagine that, a leader who keeps his word. A leader who doesn't sacrifice his integrity to gain or keep power. Obviously such a man would be a puzzle to those with no concept of integrity. Nothing is as confusing to the dishonest man as honesty. Ronald Reagan was our Churchill. He was a hero, a concept completely foreign to some in this country, second nature to others.
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Summary: Reagan, in his own hand
Review: This biography of President Reagan covers the four years between his divorce from Jane Wyman and his marriage to Nancy Reagan. Many have criticized the Gipper for taking matters into his own hands after the failure of his first marriage, but as the book explains, the years before he remarried were extremely lonely and frustrating for him. Truly, we might have lost one of our greatest leaders to maximal despair had he not gotten a grip and pulled through. One minor criticism: For some reason, in both copies I bought, the pages in the appendix were often very hard to separate and too often required a violent yank resulting in torn corners and the like.
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Summary: Reagan is amazing; the editing job isn't
Review: This collection of some of Reagan's pre-presidential writing is truly amazing - the man was clearly a visionary who, to a great extent, implemented many of his plans to rebuild America in the eight years he was President. The strength of his ideas, his uncanny ability to pick apart the arguments of the Left, and his fantastic senses of humor and timing made his writings great. That having been said, I found the book to be a bit disappointing on the part of the editors. I fail to see any reason at all why words, sentences, and occasionally even paragraphs that Reagan crossed out are included in his writings. At best, these cross-outs are annoying; at worst, they greatly disturb the flow of the book as a whole. I suppose if you were using it to scrutinze Reagan's views on a particular issue, these cross-outs may aid in following his thought process and how he wrestled with an issue, but they make the book as a whole choppy. I also fail to understand why the editors included pages and pages that actually pictured the hand-written radio addresses Reagan used (immediately following those very same writings within the text of the book!). While it would have been interesting to see ONE page of Reagan's actual writing for the sake of seeing his hand-writing, I think it was a gross waste of space and resources to include many pages of it. Again, including these pages only slows down the flow of the book as a whole. Someone interested in savoring each and every word Reagan has written in the original (including cross-outs!) would probably enjoy such inclusions. Overall, Reagan's work is phenomenal. It's the editors' work that is not so much.
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Summary: Interesting Window into the Mind of Reagan
Review: This collection of writings offers an interesting look into the mind of Ronald Reagan before his Presidency. (Most of the writings and speeches were compiled from the 1960's and 1970's.) His policy proposals and formulations are interesting and his common sense grasp of economics and foreign policy is inspiring. This is a must for any admirer of the Gipper. Reagan was a visionary who stuck to his guns and principles- and preached free-markets and limited government when everyone else hailed state interventionism and big government.
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Summary: Interesting Insights
Review: This collection, largely drawn from radio transcripts of Reagan's mid-1970s speeches, gives some interesting insights into Reagan which dispel both the assumptions of the right and the left. Liberals will be surprised to see that, before his presidency at least, Reagan had an active role in a wide range of policy formulations. Conservatives, however, will be humbled to see just how stubbornly wrong-headed Reagan was on a number of issues. Enough here to please (or displease) people of every political stripe.
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Summary: Excellent Books Shows Reagan Knew What He Was Talking About
Review: This excellent book shows Reagan really knew that which he believed and around which he build his presidency. At least for the conservative mind, his ideas are clear and complelling. No, Reagan was not the foolish and doddering old man the main-stream media made (and still makes) his out to be. Today, over two decades after he wrote these radio editorials in his own hand, his clarity of vision is remarkable. As a former self-described liberal from my not-to-distant days in undergrad & grad school days, this book was a great starting point for analyzing the modern conservative mind.
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Summary: The real Reagan
Review: This is a must read for both avid admirers of Ronald Reagan (disclaimer: that's me), and his would-be detractors in the liberal arena. Far from being an "amiable dunce", this collection of radio broadcasts and essays, mostly written in the 1974-1980 period, shows Reagan's keen intellect and focus on his areas of greatest interest, such as the superiority of capitalism over communism, and the cause of freedom throughout the world. His radio broadcasts were short, only about 5 minutes, but they show that he was well-read and informed on any number of topics. Probably the most fascinating aspect was his ability to not only write a compelling, concise story, but to edit his own material. The compilers of this material wisely chose to include the words and phrases that were lined out in favor of the final, broadcast version. This gave me some real insights to Mr. Reagan's line of thought as the essays were composed. The final essay in this book is Reagan's farewell to the American people upon his learning of that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and is one of the most tender and touching messages I have ever read. God bless you, Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
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