Rating: 
Summary: To whynot48124's review from Michigan
Review: Before you come online and begin spouting your political agenda [[I see that you've rated two book since Reagan's death...both by Noonan and both quite negative]]]..WHY DON'T YOU READ THE BOOK FIRST??!! There are plenty of forums online for you to print your views. This, IMHO is not the place. Frankly, I don't come to Amazon to get opinions of this nature. This is Amazon.com...an online bookstore and these are supposed to be reviews of books written...not opinions of past presidents.
Rating: 
Summary: A Stirring Tribute to a Great Leader
Review: I agree 100% with the other reviewers who have praised this book. Peggy Noonan's book serves as a concise but relatively thorough biography of Reagan, an informative explanation of the influences that guided his decisions before and during his political career, and a spirited and insightful defense of some of Reagan's controversial actions (controversial, at least, to those who Reagan called "our liberal friends" who "know so many things that are not so"). Plenty of funny, enlightening, and touching anecdotes help to make this a great tribute to one of our Nation's greatest leaders.
Rating: 
Summary: Could be better
Review: I just really didn't find this book very substantive. The few times that I was enlightened came from direct quotations of Ronald Reagan. Noonan's book is more for people who want an easy beach-read rather than people who intend to be truly educated about the life of Reagan.
Rating:
Summary: An Inspiring Book About An Inspiring Man
Review: I really enjoyed this warmly written, personal book by Peggy Noonan. I'm glad I was old enough to remember President Reagan before he went into seclusion. What an extraordinary man, before, during and after his Presidency. I will be looking for more books by Peggy Noonan if they are half as well-written as this one!
Rating: 
Summary: Well written nonsense
Review: If you want to read a love letter to Ronald Reagan, one that ignores reality and floats on clouds of dreamy prose, this is your book. Noonan writes well, but eliminates any act of Reagan's that doesn't uphold her thesis, that his character was always stellar. That means there are plenty of omissions!
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Summary: O Noble Spirit!
Review: Noonan is one of the most captivating political writers of our time. Her columns are always edifying, witty and filled with insight. This semi-biography on the great Ronald Reagan is the same. She draws on her own and others' personal recollections to paint a vivid picture of the Reagan white house whilst also illuminating the earlier history and the post-presidential life of this noble man.
Noonan deals with his youth, the time in Hollywood and the way he first entered politics. There is a lovely description of the Reagan ranch and a suspenseful account of how he won the presidency. Noonan also deals with the love between Reagan and his wife, and their relationships with the children. The account of Reagan's fortitude after the attempted assassination is a highlight of the book.
The text is interspersed with significant parts of Reagan's most important speeches and interesting quotes by various people. The author also excels when she talks about Reagan's marvellous sense of humour and she has interesting angles on foreign affairs, like the president's dealings with the Soviets and the Iran/Contra affair.
Noonan shows how utterly wrong Reagan's critics were and how his vision triumphed over that of the media and the so-called intellectuals (the eggheads for evil who always get it wrong). The chapter dealing with Reagan's voluminous correspondence is poignant and illuminating as it shows his concern for ordinary people from all walks of life.
The chapter Big Triumph looks at the Strategic Defence Initiative (The Space Shield) in the light of 9/11, whilst the next chapter discusses Reagan's influence on George W Bush. The last chapter, The Old Man Of St Cloud Road, looks at Reagan's twilight years and his legacy.
Throughout the book Noonan demonstrates how Reagan's courage, patience, humour and optimism led to his success and his magnificent achievements at home and in the international arena. Her writing is filled with affection and honesty and she really succeeds in making history come alive.
This excellent book concludes with a bibliography and an index. When Character Was King is a must for those who love Ronald Reagan. I would also like to recommend the book by Dinesh D'Souza, the CD-set Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches With Personal Reflections, Dear Americans: Letters From The Desk Of Ronald Reagan, and the autobiography An American Life.
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Summary: Thank God for Reagan.
Review: Not only the length of Ronald Reagan's life but also the length of his political shadow has surpassed all expectations. Along with Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, poll data suggests that he is ranked by the general public as being one of three greatest presidents in our history. With the USS Ronald Reagan being commissioned the other day, there seems to be no more opportune time to discuss a man who, in this writer's opinion, is the greatest hero of the twentieth century.
Peggy Noonan's When Character was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan adds to the plethora of works now available about the 40th president. Dinesh D'Souza's Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader and Michael Deaver's A Different Drummer: My Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan are two other excellent biographies that were also penned quite recently. Noonan's account is as valuable as the others but all of them have something individually unique to offer the reader.
In the case of Peggy Noonan, although she was a speechwriter in the Reagan Administration, her account is a journalistic tapestry and rarely an "I was there" type of memoir (as opposed to Deaver's). Noonan conducts countless interviews with family members like Nancy Reagan and Patty Reagan along with many other friends and associates. I was taken aback when I read Bob Feller quoted several times concerning the strengths of President Reagan. I had no idea that they knew one another. The author left few sources unturned and her account will undoubtedly be treasured by future biographers.
What makes reading about Reagan so immensely rewarding is that his life was lived above and beyond the parameters of our "what did he know and when did he know it" time of cynicism. Noonan makes clear, even in her detailed description of the Iran-contra affair, that this was a leader who breathed optimism and exhaled confidence. Once one finishes Character, the reader will accurately wonder if they'll ever be another man like this born again.
Noonan's story is exactly what it purports to be. It is a description of character, as opposed to a chronological tale and through this writer's talented hand, a frail and sickly man becomes lively again. I think a better title for the book may be Nuances of Ronald Reagan because that's exactly what her narrative delivers. Unlike D'Souza, Noonan does not believe that Reagan was an ordinary man at all. She holds much of what he did to be magnificent and little that he said or accomplished could be described by the word "average."
Of all the traits that he possesses, humility seems to be the one that is all-pervasive. His biggest aspiration as a young man was to become an actor. This profession embodied all of his dreams. When the day came and he was actually offered an acting job in Hollywood (it came with a salary of 200 dollars a week and a seven year contract), he wired back to his agent in California, "Sign before they change their minds." There is one story that is better than all of the others. Who among us can remain unmoved when reading about the president with Frances Green? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the interlude let me recapitulate the events. Frances Green was a poor 83-year-old woman from California who was a lifelong member of the Republican Party and a fervent admirer of Ronald Reagan. One day she received in the mail an invitation to a Republican fundraiser event that included a meeting with President Reagan. The event came with a hefty price tag (Noonan's account does not mention this specific) and, Ms. Green, failing to notice that a contribution was expected, hopped on a train to Washington to attend without even attempting to RSVP. Upon her arrival, she was barred from the White House, but a Ford executive overheard her story and arranged for her to get a tour anyway.
Think about buying or borrowing a copy of this book as it will give you more tingles than the ending of the movie "Signs." When Noonan shares her memory of Reagan's 1981 inauguration as President of the United States, and tells the reader that the sun made its way through an ugly and dark day to cast a halo of light upon the president's head, it takes an atheist indeed to question it-given the light, glory and freedom this man gave to the world.
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Summary: hilarious!
Review: Paggy Noonan's biography of Ronald Reagan ought to have been called "When A Character Was King," for this wise and witty book shows that there was much more to the "Cowboy Charmer" than previously suspeted.
She tells the story with tremendous empathy and uproarious wit. I had not known of Noonan's battles with the bottle -- and the wise counsel Reagan offered after her abortion must have been tremendously helpful.
Noonan does not skip over the less attractive aspects of the Reagan tenure -- his insistence on calling his son Ronnie "Little Nancy Boy," for example, or his preference for black leather briefs. But all in all this is a stirring reminder of the days when a true eccentric -- and yes, a "character" -- ran the White House.
Rating:
Summary: So far, my favorite book on Ronald Reagan.
Review: Peggy Noonan is an exceptional writer; I could read her all day long. I have even enjoyed reading her writing when I had no idea what she was talking about! :) (As in the case of some political sections of "Life, Liberty..." that occured before I was in the know.) This is actually the first book I read on Ronald Reagan, and 5 books later, it's still my favorite. As one reviewer said, "Peggy Noonan writes like an angel." Of course, it doesn't hurt that she was writing about such an amazing man! I truly wish that every American--but especially those who are still under 40 and/or those who don't remember him--would read this book. Our country and our children would greatly benefit from studying this American hero, our 40th president.
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Summary: Classic Noonan At Her Best
Review: Peggy Noonan is widely regarded as one of the finest writers, authors, and speechwriters of our time. All of her abundant talents are on stage in her biography of Ronald Reagan entitled "When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan." If you are looking for a chronological, year-by-year account of the major, TV newsworthy events that defined Ronald Reagan, then this book is not for you. If you want to look into the soul of a man, to find out what made him tick, then this is your book.
Noonan explores all of the major influences on Ronald Reagan's life. Of note, she goes into what formed his basis for anti-communism, which would be his personal signature for decades. Noonan covers new angles on the anti-communist front, taking an in-depth look at the social and personal contacts and relationships that were tangled in Hollywood during the 1940's and 1950's. Certainly, some innocent people were ensnared, maybe even after denying any Communist Party (CPUSA) or affiliated group membership. But many more flatly refused to denounce the CPUSA or deny associating with or supporting individuals or groups aligned with the CPUSA.
It was this blatant refusal to distance support for Moscow and the CPUSA and pledge allegiance to the United States that animated Reagan. He could forgive past association, especially during the Great Depression, and he could excuse sympathy during World War II when the USSR was an ally. But once the Cold War began, Reagan had no use for people who were explicitly against the country and loyal to Moscow. Many people were -- despite denial by many political and Hollywood elites. Imagine a Republican not disavowing membership in a pro-Nazi group. Reagan saw up close and personal the insidious nature of the CPUSA and despite his Democratic Party roots, he was first and foremost loyal to America, not CPUSA or Moscow. This is the major reason why he became a Republican.
Other episodes tackled by Noonan include some new twists on the so-called Iran-Contra episode, the "Evil Empire" speech, and how Reagan's powerful personality affected even such disparate figures as Natan Sharansky and Jaromir Jagr. The former was a Soviet dissident imprisoned in the Russian gulag, the latter a young Czech hockey player in the 1980's who is today an NHL star with the NY Rangers. Each was mesmerized and inspired by Ronald Reagan's calls for freedom in their homelands. Contrary to popular belief, Reagan often wrote major parts or all of his speeches, and many of the key and memorable phrases -- so-called controversial phrases like the "Evil Empire" reference -- were either Reagan's idea or kept in the final draft at his personal insistence.
Reagan could be flexible and compromise, as any politician must of necessity be willing to do, but as Noonan detailed with the PATCO strike, he could also be firm. PATCO was the air traffic controllers union, one of the few to endorse Reagan in 1980. It wasn't a militant union, growth in the numbers of air traffic controllers or their salaries wasn't the kind of stuff that was causing government spending to spin out of control, unlike larger government employee unions or entitlement spending. So why draw such a tough line with PATCO -- why not save it for a group that wasn't normally in Reagan's corner? Because Reagan was convinced that a union entrusted with government and safety issues had no right to strike, and even a former union man like Reagan wouldn't make an exception for a group that backed him. This event set the stage for a decade of more moderate wage increases that helped to break he back of double-digit inflation. It also sent a signal to the Soviet Union: Ronald Reagan means what he says, he is not a slightly tougher version of Jimmy Carter.
I had purchased this book a few months after it initially came out but did not read it until a few weeks after the death of Ronald Reagan. It brought back many poignant moments for this reviewer, as I came of age personally during the 2 terms of Reagan's presidency, his election coming only weeks after I started college. If you are a fan of Ronald Reagan and have read other biographies, don't be dissuaded by thinking you've read it all: you will enjoy this narrative. If you haven't read much on Reagan -- and especially if you grew up as a young person in the 1980's (either school-age or college-age) -- this book will bring back many memories of things that you may have forgotten about or never paid much attention to during that age of cable and news proliferation.
Kudos to Miss Noonan. To Ronald Reagan, Rest In Peace, Gipper.
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