Rating: 
Summary: If you read one book on Reagan . . .
Review: Vilified by the left and deified by the right, it sometimes seems like Reagan can't get a chance at being remembered for being a human being. Decade-long Reagan follower Lou Cannon's nearly 1000 page study of Reagan and his presidency, so far, has proven the first and also the best definitive book on the Reagan Administration.
Cannon and Reagan weren't friends, but he did cover him in the news since the Gipper's days as California governor. But even though Cannon ocasionally offers a helpful anecdote, or expresses sympathies with Reagan, the book is based entirely on his years of reporting and interviews with members of the administration. The interactions between Haig, Schultz, Weinberg, Mike Deaver, Stockman, Ed Meese, etc. form the backbone of the narrative. Seeing as how Reagan's paradoxical ability to envision the larger historical picture and his desire to have as little to do with administrative activities as possible, the real players often seem to be the many secretaries and bureaocrats around Reagan.
Not necessarily so, Cannon explains, but a fairly accurate simplification. In addition to Reagan's handeling, mishandeling, and unhandeling of the new economic reform package, the AIDS issue, Iran-Contra, Cannon explores what he and others have learned about Reagan in their years of working with him. Cannon weaves summaries and examples of Reagan's past throughout the entire book, bringing up personality traits or past experiences when they become relevant to the central story of the Reagan White House. The former President--a seemingly enigmatic figure, as Cannon admits--comes off as you'd expect; a dedicated, honest, visionary, perpetually friendly, distant, and intelligent but not in the traditional way presidents usually are.
Anti-Reaganites will point out that Cannon doesn't spend enough time on Reagan's supposed heartlessness towards the homeless and environment. The pro-Reagan crowd will be dismayed that Cannon could even suggest Reagan wasn't the perfect messianic presence he's been mythologized to be. Maybe it's a sign that this is, after all, an informed, even-handed book that should please most people looking for an overall picture of the Reagan Presidency.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Look At A Legendary Leader
Review: Whether you agreed with Ronald Reagan's policies or not, almost no one will deny that he was born to lead, and always made the country feel special and important. The outpouring of appreciation for the president shown by the country after his death (despite the best efforts of the New York Times) proved once and for all that the message and legacy of Ronald Reagan had a profound impact on this nation's persona. No one outside Nancy understands Ronald Reagan better than Lou Cannon, and this work should be commended.
Rating: 
Summary: Good read for someone a Reagan background
Review: While the title of this book suggests that this book is about Ronald Reagan while he was serving as President of the United States, this book is really about the Reagan Administration, an administration that Reagan himself participated surprisingly little in. The author, Lou Cannon, comes from an interesting perspective--a reporter who covered the Reagan White House. However, this book is not just a summary of the events covered by Cannon (resembling a memoir), but rather Cannon uses his personal and professional experiences as a springboard from which he throroughly researched the events of the Reagan Presidency. Where Cannon's work shines brightest is in his treatment of foreign policy--he clearly conveys the delicacy of foreign relations, the role of the individual in policy decisions, and how foreign affairs is always in a state of flux. However, where this book does not shine as brightly is the sections dealing with domestic policy. Because Reagan relied so heavily on his staff, one has trouble keeping names, titles and relationships straight. Furthermore, Cannon doesn't have the same logical continuity that he displays during the foreign policy sections.There were other aspects of this book that I didn't enjoy. One aspect being the length of the chapters. Now, while this is clearly an idiosyncratic preference of this reader, seventy page chapters could and should be broken down into smaller chapters. Furthermore, the author uses footnotes extensively. I would estimate that two-thirds of the pages have a footnoted anecdote or other piece of narritive. While footnoted narritive in general can be helpful sometimes, it seems as if Cannon or his editor simply didn't have the heart to cut information that didn't neatly fit into the general narritive. Finally, I was confused for the first 250 pages or so as Cannon jumps between the running of the Reagan Administration, Reagan's background, anecdotes and statistics to illustrate Reagan's personality (the paragraphs using Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences was superb, by the way), background of the major players of the White House Team and previews of things to come was confusing and frustrating. In all, I would recommend it to people with a particular interest and background in Reagan or his presidency, but not as a biography of Reagan (as its focus is more Reagan's staff than Reagan himself) or as someone's first Reagan book.
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