President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime

Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Reagan
Review: I have read a 6 books on Reagan and the Reagan presidency for different economics, political science and history classes, and this tome was by far the best. I was absolutely stunned to read that Reagan had described his belief in an invasion of earth by "little green men" to several world leaders, including Gorbachov and Thatcher. Most of the other books were rather boring, but if you are interest in Ronald Reagan, this books is very interesting.

Rating:
Summary: So bad, I had to put it down.
Review: I picked up this book hoping to find, at the very least, a balanced and fair look at the greatest President since FDR. What I found was a story with too much conjecture and rife with ambiguity.

This is not your typical biography, no real chronology to speak of, and many of themes continually overlap from chapter to chapter. Lou Cannon does a good job describing the events of the Reagan Presidency, his staff, and overall events of the day. But he hides his disdain for this President with a thin mask.

Lou Cannon characterizes President Reagan as an man who acted his way through the Presidency, sleeping in meetings, clueless about the issues, out of touch with his staff and the American people, and using a horrible management style (delegation to subordinates, which works for every other institution and business organization on the planet) that ruined the Presidency. Funny, I remember a huge economic boom in the mid-80's, a Soviet Union that fell apart, and a strong America leading the world. I hope Reagan didn't sleep through that!

The theme throughout the book is simple: Reagan was a kindly old actor, over his head, who leaned on his staff members, and told jokes for 8 years to get by.

I truly cannot believe it, and neither should you. After 300 pages of this theme constantly beating me over the head, I put down the book. I will probably pick it up and finish it, because I can't stand leaving a book go un-read, but if you are looking for a fair and balanced description of the Reagan Presidency, this is NOT your book.

-James

Rating:
Summary: Memories of Reagan
Review: I read this book a while ago, but thought I would throw out a review due to the passing of the former president. Ronald Reagan is such an icon in American society that it's difficult to find good objective information about his presidency. To the political right he's a saint and often the left derides him as an evil empire unto himself. Coming from a family in which Reagan was revered I remember wanting to find a book that would give me that good, objective point of view I was looking for. A professor of mine at Western Washington University recommended this book as such, and they couldn't have been more right. 

Lou Cannon is a reporter who began covering Reagan during his tenure as governor of California. He continued to cover Reagan for over twenty-five years with The Washington Post from 1972-1998. Despite his coverage of the man for so many years, and the fact that that the press is now calling him a close friend of Reagan, Cannon has been able to keep enough distance to keep impartiality in his writing. He discusses all the sides of Reagan, from the positive views of the man who accomplished great things as president to the man who found himself in the midst of the Iran/Contra scandal. 

The book may seem long especially when one considers that it deals only with the Regan presidency, and leaves Regan's early years and gubernatorial carrier to Cannon's other books. The book is long because of its exquisite detail. Cannon's sources are impeccable, and he has an extensive bibliography. The book contains comments by key staffers including George Shultz and Ed Meese, as well as conversations with Nancy Reagan. For a while now I've considered this book my Reagan Bible. A good book to have for reference on particular issues, even if you don't think you can handle all 764 pages in one sitting.  

With all the books that have come out recently, and all that are sure to come out now, it's nice to have a definitive volume that brings some balance.  

http://www.ragingliberal.org

Rating:
Summary: Best Book on Reagan
Review: In this week's observances of the death and burial of Ronald Reagan, the near-invisibility of his official biographer Edmund Morris is only underscored by the near-ubiquity of Lou Cannon. With Morris's disappointing "Dutch" already gathering dust, a decade of effort wasted, Cannon's "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime" is more and more becoming recognized as the best biography yet written of America's fortieth president.

This is as it should be. As Gerald Seib notes in today's Wall Street Journal, Cannon was seen even before the Gipper's election in 1980 as "the journalistic world's foremost authority on Reagan." He was "the only reporter Reagan knew well." In "Role of a Lifetime," Cannon employs this knowledge and access without abusing it. In calling the presidency a "role," Cannon doesn't join the ranks of those who (still) demean Reagan as "just an actor." Instead, he provides a sophisticated look at how Reagan viewed the office: not simply the nation's premier technocrat or legislative whip, but as a position with important symbolic and inspirational functions. After the dismal Carter years, America (and the world) needed a president who understood just what Theodore Roosevelt meant by the office as a "bully pulpit."

In recognizing Reagan's insight -- without either belittling or overpraising it -- Cannon has given himself a solid foundation on which to build a narrative rich in research, story, and understanding. People who come out of this week desiring to know more about this remarkable man and his impact on the world could do much worse than to start by reading Lou Cannon's "Role of a Lifetime."

Rating:
Summary: cross between a psychological portrait and a history book
Review: Let me first say what this book is and isn't. The book is a cross between a psychological novel - in that it analyzes all the time Reagan's thoughts and motives behind his actions - and a history book - in that it deals almost exclusively with the eight years of Reagan's presidency (but in great detail : it is some 800 pages long).

The psychological description is so convincing that, after having read this book, one feels almost familiar with this enigmatic figure. Although Cannon doesn't state so himself, most readers will walk away from this book convinced Reagan was fundamentally a decent man, a revolutionary visionary yet at the same time a poor all-round manager.

Question remains : does a country like the US need a manager at all times, or is it sometimes important to have a visionary who articulates a vision and pulls along a whole nation ? Cannon doesn't answer this question, because his field of vision for this book is limited to only 8 years (although he makes it clear that Reagan was genuine when he offered to share Star Wars technology with Gorbatjov in order to make nuclear weapons obsolete).

Looking at the US from across the Atlantic now, I can't help thinking how the US has been transformed during eight years of Reagan from a demoralized country, militarily in retreat before the Soviet Union and economically worried about Japan and Germany, into a confident country again for the first time since Vietnam. For this Reagan and his infectious optimism (similar to Churchill's courage 60 years ago in Britain) must get more credit than any other person. He doesn't get it from Cannon because of the narrow historical scope of the book.

If you want to know the big picture and Reagan's place in history, this isn't the book for you. If you want to get to know this man better from somebody who knew him first hand (and who seems to have liked Reagan despite all his weaknesses), this book is excellent, but long.

Rating:
Summary: THE book on the Reagan Presidency
Review: Like Clinton and GW Bush, Reagan will be argued over for decades to come. Did he win the Cold War? Did he bust the budgets sending us into mountains of debt? Did he bring about the great economic times of the 1980s? Did he just put a smile over the real problems of regular Americans? And what about Iran-Contra? Your answers depend on your political ideology. Both conservatives and liberals will stretch, bend, and lie to make Reagan's achievements or dissapointments match up with their ideological bent. These wing-nuts will ignore tons of facts that argue against their position. This will also be the case for Clinton and GW Bush. So it is.

Cannon, however, has written the single greatest book on the Reagan Presidency. Unlike the liberals who took pot-shots shortly after Reagan left office, or the conservatives who are trying to rewrite the past with overly glowing accounts, Cannon wrote a book whose format should be followed for every president after they leave office: thoroughness and fairness. Cannon, who covered the Reagan White House for the Washington Post, was so much more than just a journalist when he wrote "Role of a Lifetime." He was part political scientist, part psychobiographer, a small part memoirist, and, indeed, he still didn't forget the writing skills of a well-trained journalist.

If you're a hardcore conservative or liberal, you will not love this book. It doesn't kiss Reagan's ass, nor does it only tear him apart. The man did some good and some bad in the White House. Cannon does as good a job as possible in being fair about it.

Rating:
Summary: The Definitive Reagan Work
Review: Lou Cannon began covering Ronald Reagan just before he launched his political career running for governor of California as a political reporter assigned to the Sacramento state capital scene with the San Jose Mercury-News. He continued that coverage when Reagan assumed the governor's office in 1965 until when he stepped down after serving two terms in January 1975. When Reagan became immersed in the national picture, beginning his quest for the presidency, Cannon was there, ultimately covering his entire two terms as president with the Washington Post. His ready access to Reagan and extensive knowledge of the politician and the man provided him with an excellent position to provide the definitive work on the Reagan presidency, which he impressively fulfills with this insightful volume.

With his strong ideologically conservative roots, Reagan has been subjected to polarization in the manner that liberal politician Robert Kennedy was as well. In each case, the man is a lot more complex than stereotypical label pinning and instant analysis reveals. Opponents of Reagan depict him as someone wholly out of his depth and disengaged in the important elements of running a government. Reagan devotees see him as a man of brilliant instincts who, while not exceptionally well read or cerebral, had an uncanny instinct for doing the right thing.

The Reagan that emerges in the pages of Cannon's book is someone with impressive social gifts, leading to the ability to be liked in the manner of previous popular presidents such as FDR and Eisenhower who was, at the same time, highly passive in key areas and all too quick to rely on subordinates to make policy. At the same time, on certain issues about which he strongly felt, he would become actively engaged, seeking to carry out those policies, even if he many times had only a sketchy knowledge of the particulars.

This dichotomy within Reagan ultimately cost him dearly in the case of Iran-Contra, after which he rallied in an area that shocked his supporters of the hard right, that of arms control and a mutually beneficial rapport he developed with Soviet boss Mikhail Gorbachev.

Lou Cannon was there from the beginning of Reagan's career to its end and the closeness of the involvement definitely shows as one reads about the Reagan presidency.

Rating:
Summary: Inside Ronald Reagan and his White House
Review: The quest to understand the presidency of Ronald Reagan is one best undertaken by someone without a stake in the outcome. This is true of most political figures and it is true of Reagan as well. In general, I dislike books written by sycophants and I can't stand attack books written by partisan political opponents. It is for this reason that Lou Cannon's dense history of the Reagan White House is such a pleasure. Originally written in 1990, the book was revised in 2000. This is good because the ensuing decade lends some historical perspective to Reagan's years in Washington. In 1990, Gorbachev was still running the Soviet Union, nobody knew who Bill Clinton was and the economic expansion of the 90's was well in the future.

Cannon, a veteran journalist spent years covering Reagan and is clearly fascinated by him. The book is not a biography of Reagan. His years prior to 1980 are only briefly touched on. It is a history of Reagan's presidency. As such Canon provides detailed portraits, not just of Reagan but of most of the important players such as James Baker, Mike Deaver, Edwin Meese, Donald Regan, William Casey, Casper Weinberger, George Schultz and others. Reagan is shown to have been neither the detached idiot savant that his detractors like to portray nor the shrewd movement conservative that his loving fans on the political right recall. Reagan was above all a simple man with a good deal of common sense who believed in a few core principals. One of those principals and the key to his presidency was his relentless optimism. At a time when the United States seemed to be running out of gas, when the communism appeared to be here to stay, when Americans were losing hope in their future, Reagan never wavered in his belief that the future was bright and that the Soviet Union was doomed. This "vision" was Reagan's greatest attribute and the reason why he was adored by so much of America in spite of all his other flaws.

Cannon of course documents Reagan's shortcomings, which were considerable. Reagan was unable to even comprehend many of the intricacies of public policy and was thus dependent to a huge extent on his advisors and subordinates. Yet he was curiously unable to effectively manage his cabinet and White House staff. When policy advisors disagreed, Reagan often proved unable to reconcile the differences. And yet raw intelligence or book smarts are not the key to a successful presidency as Jimmy Carter learned. Reagan's dream of a better future, his instinctive fear and hatred of nuclear weapons, his relentless belief in the economic strength of American industry helped drive an administration that tried to put his vision into action as policy.

The scandals are covered as well, in particular the Iran-Contra affair and, as Cannon demonstrates, these scandals were an inevitable outcome of Reagan's remarkably detached management style as subordinates were allowed to run amok. In the final chapter, Cannon concludes that Reagan "may not have been a great president but he was a great American." I agree with this assessment. The ability to manage staff is a key and vital part of being president. Reagan was not the only one to have trouble in this regard. But a key component to greatness is the imagination and vision to see a different and better future. This a trait shared by such diverse figures as Lincoln, both Roosevelts and Churchill. It is sorely lacking in most of our so-called leaders today of both parties. For anyone interested in understanding Ronald Reagan and his eight years in Washington, this book is the standard.

Rating:
Summary: Memories of Reagan
Review: THE REAGAN THEORY

Why do I think Ronald Reagan was the greatest President of the 20th Century, on par with George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt? Aside from his good character, his economic triumphs and patriotism, it comes down to a theory that I came up with after hearing Margaret Thatcher say he won the Cold War "without firing a shot." First, it entails an analysis of World War II, in which some 50 to 60 million people died, yet the world says it was worth it to defeat Hitler and Japan. This leads to my theory, which is based on the unfought World War III. Say this struggle was fought between freedom, led by the U.S., and Communism, led by the U.S.S.R., between 1983 and 1989. Say that during this period, 50 to 60 million people died, and the world was caught up in an Apocalypse just as terrible as the one fought in the 1940s. Say that, through better technology, leadership, military doctrine, and with the help of God, the U.S. wins World War III. Say further that the political fallout of the war is exactly and precisecly that with which actually happened in 1989-91. I say that had it happened this way, the world would again say it was worth it, to defeat Communism. Reagan did it without firing a shot, and this is why I love him so much. Furthermore, in an ironic twist, Bill Clinton owes much of his success to Reagan. The Republicans were victims of their own success in 1992. Having defeated Communism, the Military Industrial Complex came to a standstill, causing the brief economic downturn that cost George Bush his re-election. This in turn led to the Cold War dividend in which all those smart defense techies fueled the Internet revolution. Clinton, presiding over a world made peaceful by Reagan-Bush policies, his feet held to the fire by a Republican Congress bent on maintaining Reagan's economic principles, takes credit (and some of it rightly so) for a period of huge expansion of the economy.

Rating:
Summary: Masterful biography....one of the best I've ever read
Review: Throughout this mammoth presidential biography, I was continually reminded how unbelievably fair and unbiased it was. I suppose such things should be a given, but too often the politics of the writer interfere with what should be a detached historical assessment. Cannon, more than any non-fiction writer on the scene (also see his "Official Negligence" for a similar lack of ideological grandstanding), respects the reader, knowing that credible (and exhaustive) sources, extensive, multi-facteted research, and a balance of criticism and praise brings the past alive far more than sanctimonious revisionism. As for the Reagan portrayed in Cannon's work, he is as most of America knew him to be: charming, devoid of vanity, genuinely friendly, stubbornly committed, and yes, unmistakably deficient in the realm of day-to-day politics. Moreover, Reagan himself understood his limitations, approaching the presidency as he would a film role, or as the CEO of a corporation. Because Reagan was not equipped intellectually to handle complex policy discussions and position proposals, he advocated (more so than any president this century) a "cabinet government," whereby all major decisions were delegated to who were presumed to be trusted advisors. To his near downfall, Reagan trusted too much and his reluctance (and inability) to tackle matters of high importance in his administration directly led to scandals, abuse of the public trust, and violations of stated goals. Reagan's achievements are given their due, but also the proper perspective, for Cannon is not seeking to deify his subject. Reagan was instrumental in the thaw of U.S.-Soviet relations, but he also missed many opportunities and often held too strongly to ideological positions that often contradicted the facts or what might have been a more pragmatic approach. And, lest we forget, the alleged opponent of big government failed to submit a balanced budget in his eight years in office and could not bring himself to cut valued programs of the New Deal legacy (due in part to a sentimental attachment to FDR). In many ways, Reagan was a complicated man, although his philosophies were anything but, which of course added to his lasting appeal with conservatives. Never a mystery and always up front with his intentions, Reagan was an attractive figure for a party in need of strong, dedicated leadership. However, Reagan was flawed in that he was unable to deal with direct confrontation, rapid change, and facts which came in opposition to his "inner script." In all, Cannon presents a fascinating figure; one worth remembering, but always with a realistic tinge. He gave us our pride, but it came (and continues to come) at a heavy cost.