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President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination

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Richard Reeves is a self proclaimed liberal. A funny thing happened to this author while writing this book, he learned to like and respect Ronald Reagan. In the end he wrote a fair and intriguing portrayl of the 40th U.S. President.

The first biography written using recently released records from the Reagan White House, Reeves compiles a revealing portrait. Reeves debunks the popularly accepted myth that Reagan was driven by his wife and his staff. The book shows a President who knew what he wanted to acomplish and how to get there. He dreamed big dreams and pressed those that worked for him to get them done.

The most exceptional revelation is that he often overuled the First Lady in her concerns and objections. He stubbornly dismissed her repeated calls for him to fire Chief of Staff Don Regan during the Iran-Contra scandal.

Reeves also debunks some of the pro-Reagan myths including his promise to reduce the size of the federal government and the deficit while both grew by leaps and bounds during his two terms. He also shows that both Reagans were disciples of astrology long before the assasination attempt on his life.

I have read many Reagan biographies including the mis-guided DUTCH and the previuosly definitive book by Lou Cannon. Reeves' work on Reagan is now the ultimate biography of this President exploring every facet of his Presidency and presenting a balanced and thorough review of his eight years in office.

The author's work on two previous presidents(Kennedy & Nixon)were gripping in their readability and sense that one was reading a new slant on old facts. This one reads like a collection of NY Times articles--indeed he seems to rely on the Times coverage for much of the book, listing the headlines on a half dozen occasions. It is not 'slanted' in a harsh way, Reeves makes clear that he is writing as a liberal but he doesn't neglect the obvious appeal Reagan had for Americans across the board. There is a lot on Iran/contra--maybe too much and one wished for more about the situation in Poland and Reagan's influence there along with that of John Paul II. However, it is good to be reminded that not all the "experts" really understood what happened in 1986/7 when Reagan and Gorbachov had their meetings.One(George Will) even suggested the Cold War was "lost" during these meetings--which looks now like nonsense. Not his best presidential book, not as multifaceted as Wills' "Reagan's America" but not a dud either.

A local candidate for the city council here in Colorado Springs announced that he was running as a "Reagan Republican." Frankly, I was somewhat perplexed by what he meant by that. Did this mean that he was running as a "mainstream" centrist Republican or did it mean that he is running as a conservative Republican well to the right in the political spectrum? It's hard to know these days since Reagan re-defined the GOP. When Reagan stumped for Goldwater in 1964, he was regarded as a right wingnut. Even during his tenure as Governor of California, he was perceived as being well to the right within the ranks of his party. Nowadays, he is viewed by most political observers as representing the "centrist" faction of the Republican Party.
This is a testament to the Gipper's profound influence on the GOP. He clearly moved his party well to the right. Reeves begrudgingly acknowledges that, despite his own personal animosity toward the policies of Ronald Reagan, that he defined Republicanism as we know it today.
Some facts need to be ackowledged from the get-go. First, Reeves is no fan of Ronald Reagan. He states quite frankly his own distaste for most of Reagan's poliicies. Second, his task was an awesomely difficult one; to capture the essence of a man that virtually everyone agrees is impossible to know. Ronald Reagan, by all accounts, was a personally remote and self-contained individual. Efforts to capture "the real Reagan" are doomed to failure. Reeves does the best that he can, given the nature of his subject.
The author has been criticized for his heavy reliance on already published secondary sources written by disgruntled former Reagan staffers. It is true that his source material is not original. For those who have read the previously published books and articles about Reagan, they may find little that they didn't know already.
However, I think that Reeves does a creditable job of collecting a nice volume of inside information on the Reagan presidency. His chapters on the arms control negotiations with Gorbachev are nicely done. The reader gets a true birdseye view of what transpired behind closed doors. These chapters are the best in the book.
Elsewhere, Reeves is dismissively contemptuous of a man that he considered a half-step from senility. He recounts numerous episodes of Reagan's inattentiveness and lax work habits.
Reeve's book will ultimately stand as a begrudging back-handed tribute to a President that he couldn't stomach. If you're waiting for an even-handed, comprehensive account of the Reagan presidency, good luck to you. It will be difficult to find.

The Washington Post review of Reeves' Reagan suggests that the author looks at selective days in the President's life from a point of fly-on-the-wall omniscience. Reeves in fact seems to always be looking for a fly or flaw in the ointment, and his omniscience is that of the New York Times, for which he worked.

Five flaccid or failed presidencies before Reagan's had seemed to prove that the office was dangerous and devouring, that nobody in the modern era could succeed and survive as president. Two decades of presidential failure mirrored national decline. America and its leaders, on top of the world for brief shining moments after WWII, were either pitiful helpless giants or were merely pitiful and helpless. Then Reagan happened. Like FDR in 1933, Reagan survived, succeeded, and prevailed. Like FDR in 1936, Reagan's bold persistent experimentations with new relations between government and governed were rewarded with overwhelming vindication in 1984. To Reeves, Reagan's reelection and what it meant seem not to matter. Reagan's electoral triumph gets a grudging paragraph from Reeves, and his lead-up to November 1984 is a set-piece swoon for Walter Mondale, Reagan's opponent. Then Reeves moves briskly to the story he really wants to tell, a New-York-Times-eye-view of Iran-contra. Reeves looks at Reagan's triumph and sees a continuation of the long line of presidential failure.

Here are the little tricks that give Reeves' game away: Liberal criticisms of Reagan by Times guys, Tip O'Neill, Brokaw, Rather, and Jennings are carefully quoted. Then, for fairness and balance, conservative criticisms of Reagan are carefully quoted too. Reeves rolls out George Will or Margaret Thatcher or Barry Goldwater or Peggy Noonan on those occasions when they say something that makes Reagan look bad. Almost without exception their contribution to the fairness and balance of Reeves' Reagan is pejorative. Same for fly-on-the-wall flip-offs from administration insiders such as Stockman, Deaver, Haig, or Don Regan. Reeves drags his conservative characters on stage only when he can use them to bash conservatism, and his only raves for Ron (after his excellent discussion of the president's near death experience in 1981) are muted back-hand compliments, usually in footnotes, from French socialist Mitterand and from Soviet arms negotiators.

Reeves is not blatant in his dishonesty (although he claims that Reagan often was), but he has cherrypicked intel to produce a paid political announcement for the prosecution. It's not a lie, but it's not the truth. It's what we see in the New York Times: All the slanted news that's printed to fit the Northeast liberal consensus that dominated America's Big Media before Reagan got his horse's nose under the tent.

This review refers to the unabridged audio cassette edition of "President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination" by Richard Reeves (Recorded Books)- Narrated by George Wilson

This book is not a complete biography of President Regean, but rather focuses on his very challenging political and personal times in the White House. It is a completely absorbing and thouroughly researched and reported account of the years that define the 80's. There is included many detailed political facts, figures,and quotations from various sources.It is not a lopsided or sugar-coated account, but reports on all sides of the spectrum, the good, the bad, and the ocassional goofy happenings(like when Reagan didn't know the microphone was on and joked about being at war with Russia - let the bombings begin!)

Reagan was a man with a vision for returning to the old fashioned times. But with things moving along quite steadily in space, arms, disease(it took him a couple of years before he could say the word AIDS in public),terrorism. federal spending, this was a tough ideal to hold on to. Above and through all, he was at all times a very patriotic man. The first president to have been described in the form of a noun - Reaganism, and a Conservative Repulican who usually carried a high approval rating even by the younger voters. Noted for his positive outlook, and joke cracking(sometimes repeating the same old jokes) even after being shot in an assassination attempt. And when his rating did drop a bit, he would quip that that was no problem, he'll just go out and get shot again. An actor turned politiican he was always on stage, and his way with words and patriotism seemed to endear him to the American People. It was just "Reaganism"

But the issues through the 80's were serious.Here's a sampling: the deficit,an unbalanced budged, the assassination attempt, terrorist hijackings,the Challenger disaster,arms and arms control,"Reaganomics",the Nicaraguans, the Russians, Greneda, Iran,Iraq, Israel,the Iran-Conta hearings(and Oliver North),atstrologists advising on good and bad days,and signs of Alzheimer's beginning to show - toward the end of his 2nd term an assissant was overheard telling him that he(Reagan) was in the oval office getting ready for an interview. And even though his health was beginning to fail him, he still managed to improve relations with Russian leaders. He made a difference.

The book just doesn't touch on these subjects, it gives an in depth look at all sides of the situations.Also getting into Reagan's private thoughts as there are many diary entries as well. Narrator George Wilson gave an amazing reading. He not only kept me enthralled - there were many facts and figures to digest and I think listening to them was helpful - he became the characters that were speaking. He sounded so much like Reagan, at first I thought they were recordings of some sort, also getting the voices and nuances of many of the major players in the story just right as well. V.P. George Bush, Journalist Tom Brokaw,and others.
History buffs will love this one. There are 18 cassettes - with great sound quality - with 26 hours of the 1980's to relive.The only thing this audio edition didn't have, that I sometimes find helpful with bios and nonfiction accounts was the bibliography and any notes that might have gone along with the reading. But still a 5 star read for audio enthusiasts.

Enjoy the read.....Laurie

The purpose of any book review is to give the reader enough information to decide if they want to invest the time and money in reading the book in its entirety. Richard Reeves, a distinguished former reporter for "The New York Times," has tackled a difficult subject in writing a biography of a politician who still engenders strong emotions in people of a positive and negative nature. You need not share Ronald Reagan's politics (Reeves does not), to find this an interesting and enjoyable read.

From the subtitle, Reeves makes his interpretation clear. Reagan was not "a tired old man we elected king," but rather a bold, dynamic politician who left behind a strong and powerful legacy. This book is revisionist in that it challenges the idea that Reagan was often "absent without leave" while in office. Reeves has done a good job of developing Reagan's voice, using notes, letters, and other records that the President left behind. Much of what he uses is new.

Reagan was, according to Reeves, a big idea man. He thought up new ideas and left the details to others. In comparison, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill thought up big, creative ideas and had a good sense of strategy, but also liked to interject himself into the implementation of these ideas. Jimmy Carter, who was at the White House just before Reagan, had little vision and tended to interject himself into the implementation of policy even when he had a limited understanding of the topic. Reagan was often faulted in office for being detached from his job--like when no one on his staff woke him up to inform him of a dog fight between U.S. and Libyan fighter planes--but given the number of issues that one address in the Oval Office, his interest in the big picture looks pretty sound to Reeves.

This book has its limits, though. This is not a full-fledged biography. Reeves looks just at the presidential years. Readers wanting to know about Reagan's background will be disappointed. Reflecting his training as a political reporter, Reeves shows a preference for the political process rather than policy. He skips some of the weightier issue that Presidents address like international finance, commerce, and trade policy. These topics get at best only superficial coverage. Reeves does focuses on tax and budget issues, which were of great interest to Reagan. Like many Presidents, Reagan often had enormous influence on areas that were of little personal interest to him and by ignoring these topics, Reeves does not do full justice to his subject.

Still, as a first draft of history, this ain't too bad.

Historian Richard Reeves, who has made a literary career exploring the White House years of many of the more recent occupants of the Oval Office wrote last year's best selling non-fiction book `President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination,' a biographical examination of America's 40th president.

This work on Reagan's time in Washington is Reeves' eleventh book and his third biography of a chief executive's tenure solely in the White House. He previously wrote about the presidential reign of Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. He is currently the Senior Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and a syndicated columnist whose column has appeared in more than 100 newspapers since 1979.

Reeves published his first book, `A Ford, not a Lincoln' in 1975. His tome `President Kennedy: Profile of Power' is considered the authoritative work on the 35th president and won several national awards including being named the Best Non-Fiction Book of 1993 by Time Magazine and Book of the Year by the Washington Monthly.

Twenty-six years after Ronald Reagan became president and changed the course of America, Reeves has written a surprising and revealing portrait of one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century. As he did in his bestselling books `President Kennedy: Profile of Power' and `President Nixon: Alone in the White House,' Reeves used newly declassified documents and hundreds of interviews to show a president at work day by day, sometimes minute by minute over the 40th president's two terms by selecting certain highlights in his eight years in office.

'President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination' is the story
of an accomplished politician, a bold, sometimes reckless leader, a gambler of what he believed to be right, a man who imagined an American past and an American future and made them real.

Reagan is revealed to be a man of ideas who changed the world for better or worse with his own vision of good and right, a leader who understood that words are often more important than deeds in dealing with others, whether they be aides, the public, politicians with opposing viewpoints or world leaders. Reeves shows a man who understood how to be the president, who realized that the job is not to manage the government but to lead the nation. Reeves writes that in many ways, especially in the conservative movement of today a quarter of a century later, Reagan is still leading the charge.

As his vice president, George H. W. Bush, said after Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt and hospitalized in March, 1981, "We will act as if he were here."

Reeves shows Reagan to be a heroic figure if not always a hero. He did not destroy communism, as his champions claim, but knew it would self-destruct and hastened the collapse by the build-up of America's military might in the 1980's. He believed the Soviet Union was evil and had contempt for the established American policies of containment and détente that was advocated by his many contemporaries and prior presidential officeholders. Asked about his own Cold War strategy, he answered, "We win. They lose!"

Like one of his own personal heroes, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Reagan became larger than life. But as Roosevelt became an icon central to American liberalism, Reagan was the nucleus holding together American conservatism. He is the only president whose name became a political creed, a noun not an adjective: `Reaganism.'

Reeves claims through his liberal bias that Reagan's ideas were so old they seemed new. He preached individualism that many found to be inspiring yet also cruel. He dumbed-down America, brilliantly blending fact and fiction, transforming political debate into emotion-driven entertainment. He recklessly mortgaged America with uncontrolled military spending, less taxation, and more debt.

In focusing on the key moments of the Reagan presidency, Reeves recounts the amazing resiliency of Reagan as the real `comeback kid,' long before the term was used on Bill Clinton. Here is a seventy-year-old man coming back from a near-fatal gunshot wound, from cancer, from the worst recession in American history. Then, in personal despair as his administration was shredded by the lying and secrets of hidden wars and double-dealing, he was able to forge one of history's amazing relationships with the leader of `the Evil Empire.' That story is told for the first time using the transcripts of the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings, the climax of an epic story, as if he were here to tell us in how own unique style.

After Dwight Eisenhower's two full terms, we had five presidents in a row who didn't complete eight years in office until Reagan did so twenty-eight years later. Now we're going to have two chief executives in a row who will have served two terms. Is this now considered to be a new trend started again by Reagan or a continuance of what once was the norm of presidential politics that was maintained by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others in the course of American history?

Richard Reeves estimates that over 900 books have been written on Ronald Reagan. This is an astonishing output for a man who left office just two decades ago. Unfortunately, many if not most books on Reagan are hagiographies designed to further a right-wing agenda. The most amusing trait such Reagan books have is they all portray Reagan as an uncompromising right-wing ideologue. Read this book to find the real Reagan. Reagan was indeed a conservative ideologically but Reagan was willing to compromise. Reagan's record going back to his days as the governor of California is replete with examples of Reagan shunting aside ideology to make a compromise. Reagan subscribed to the "half a loaf" theory of legislation. Reagan also was not the ideologically consistent paragon his hagiographers paint him to be. Taxation is the best example. Reagan hagiographies point to Reagan reducing the top tax bracket from 70% to 28% but ignore the realities of Reagan's record on taxes. Reagan--realizing supply-side economics was not working and was leading to massive deficits--went back to raise taxes practically every year of his presidency (especially regressive taxes such as excise taxes)! The Reagan administration euphemized these as "revenue enhancements", not tax increases. When Reagan reduced the top rate to 28% in 1986 it was in conjunction with a liberal Democratic senator (Bill Bradley) and they agreed that changes should be revenue neutral (offsetting tax rate reductions with the elimination of tax loopholes).

Reagan mythology matters because every Republican presidential candidate has to conform to this impossible to match myth--a standard Reagan himself could not meet. Reeves is able to cut through the smoke because of his technique of writing presidential biographies in which he focuses on the world as the president saw it. Namely, he focuses on the advise a president is given by his advisers and the information he was aware of before reaching a decision. The Reagan that emerges through the smoke is a pragmatic one. This technique renders Reeves' liberalism to irrelevant. The book is about what Reagan saw, heard, and did. There is not much in the way of analysis of his actions and their consequences, which is the chief reason this book is a 4 star, not a 5 star book.

The most interesting parts of the books are those about Reagan dealing with the USSR in his second term, his first year in office when he successfully forged a bipartisan coalition to pass his tax and budget cuts. The weakest part is, in my opinion, an inordinate amount of time spent on the Reagan administration's covert actions in Central America.

Why is the book called President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination? There is little analysis in this book but what little there is concerns the 40th president's personality. Reagan was a stubborn man who clung to a warped view of the world as he believed it to be. The book shows Reagan's overlooked tendency to flat out make things up--and then to genuinely believe that they were true (the most famous example of this is Reagan believing he fought in World War II and liberating a Nazi concentration camp--when he was in California filming war movies the entire time!). However, Reeves also points out that Reagan was a much harder worker than he was given credit for at the time by his political opponents. Among the Reagan myths shattered in this book is the myth--this one a liberal myth--that Reagan was a stooge controlled by his staff. In this book it is shown that in the end it was Reagan who was running the show, although he rarely concerned himself with the details of governing.

President Reagan: the Role of a Lifetime (Lou Cannon) is the other excellent book on the Reagan presidency. It is probably a superior book. For someone interested in Reagan I would recommend reading that book before this one. However, this book is indispensable in any Reagan library. If you are just a student of presidential history I would recommend this book since its style provides more insight on what it is like to be president than Lou Cannon's book. Both of these books are significantly superior to Edmund Morris' Dutch. Morris is an excellent writer but Dutch's bizarre style renders that book average.

I found this book in the bargain section of Borders for $5 and decided to pick it up, as I haven't read too many books about Reagan, even though I was born during his presidency. This is not a definitive biography, or even a very thorough treatment of the 40th president, despite its 490 page legnth. Instead, this book is a play-by-play of the Reagan presidency; from the day he took office in 1981 to the day he left in 1989.

What I like about this book is its brevity. There is no hero-worship here, like you hear from many commentators and politicians today. The book amazed me with just how many momentous events happened during the 1980's and how the Reagain administration dealt with it. Politically, Reagan's actions seemed to me very similar to today. Reagan succeeded an unpopular president and invoked the bad memories of his predecessor whenever possible. Reeves guides the reader through the ups and downs of Reagan's political fortunes with consummate skill, never letting us forget that there was a lot of opposition and criticism of him, even though both his elections were very soundly won. Reeves describes Reagan's political manuevers and the actions of his staff very well. His descriptions of the meetings with Gorbachev are probably the book's strongest sections. Here, he succeeds in telling the story with an engaging "fly on the wall" intimacy, which is a pleasure to read.

The weak points of the book are the lack of narrative, organization, and contextual significance. Reeves never gives any perspective on the consequences or larger meanings of Reagan's actions. He just says what he did. This is fine for a journalist but poor for an historian, who is supposed to sum up and find meaning from events. The chapters are titled by a date; none of those dates seem to be particularly meaningful. He skips between subjects abruptly, which gets quite distracting. Has he never heard of transitions? The characters are often not properly identified, often leaving the reader to search throughout the book to figure out exactly who did what, particularly when it came to staff changes.

Thematic organization might have helped. Intead, Reeves takes the reader through the Reagain years almost day-by-day, without offering any guideposts or indications of what happened before or what will happen after. Lack of coherent organization is this book's greatest weakness, followed by a lack of historical significance of everything in the book.

Some reviewers have mentioned bias. Reeves admits in the introduction that he did not and still does not agree with Reagan's policies nor did he particularly like the man. So there is no hidden agenda; he laid his opinions out clearly. However, I find most of the book is fairly complimentary. At about the 2/3rds point, he gets into the Iran-Contra scandal in depth, which he set the stage for throughout the book (the closest thing to a narrative connection he offers). This section is the most critical, as he suggests that Reagan did not have full mental capacity by 1986-87. Overall, though, the book is relatively without harsh judgement, and about as good as can be expected from someone who didn't like the man at the time.

Again, this is by no means definitive, and seems to be overdependent on staff memoirs, recollections, and interviews that may be biased themselves, as well as newspaper accounts - especially op-eds and the New York Times. There seemed to be little of the actual workings, motivations, thoughts of Reagan himself. Instead, its more how those under him and reporters perceived him, except concerning the Gorbachev sections. He includes a section detailing his trouble with accessing documents from the Reagan library. Perhaps that's a reason for some weaknesses.

If you want a thorough biography of Reagan, there are better ones out there. But if you want to get a sense of presidential politics of the 1980's as it happened and as it was perceived at the time, this is a great book for you.

This book shows that Ronald Reagan was a great president through a carefully researched reconstruction of what happened and what was said. Richard Reeves meticulously worked to find out what Reagan knew and thought, when Reagan knew and thought it, and then how Reagan and his administration acted. The book benefits from the treasure of Reagan archives that were made available shortly before Reeves researched this book.

"President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination" portrays Reagan honestly and not like the Godzilla-monster war monger that neo-cons want you to believe about Reagan. That's not Reagan. He was strong and firm in his convictions, but also warm and willing to negotiate with people who were capable of honestly dealing with him. He sought "peace through strength." One of his greatest assets was knowing the difference between when he could deal with others and when he had to be firm.

He saw that he could change the dynamic of the Cold War, bring change to Eastern Europe, and work with the reformer Gorbachev, but Reagan also knew to be careful with the quicksand called the Middle East. After the bombing of marines in Lebanon, Reagan got out.

One startling fact about Reagan is that he believed nuclear weapons to be immoral and sincerely feared the Armegeddon. Briefly Reagan thought he could reach his dream of abolishing all nukes. The actual transcripts of the summit in Iceland with Gorbachev show that Reagan and Gorbachev tentatively agreed to abolish all nuclear weapons. Reeves does a wonderful job of telling the story, sentence by sentence, when Reagan told his advisors the news. You must read this book.

Originally Reeves did not like Reagan, but after carefully learning about the real Ronald Reagan, Reeves clearly was deeply impressed and had a change of opinion. Richard Reeves describes Ronald Reagan as a man who knew "how to be President, who knows that the job is not to manage the government but to lead a nation. In many ways, a quarter century later, he is still leading. As his vice president, George H.W. Bush, said after Reagan was shot and hospitalized in 1981: 'We will act as if he were here.' He is a heroic figure if not always a hero. He did not destroy communism, as his champions claim, but he knew it would self-destruct and hastened the collapse. No small thing. He believed the Soviet Union was evil and he had contempt for the established American policies of containment and détente. Asked about his own Cold War strategy, he answered: 'We win. They lose!'

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal in June of 2007, Rudy Giuliani named this book as one of five leadership books he found inspiring. Giuliani said, "My wife, Judith, recently bought me Richard Reeves's book (subtitled "The Triumph of Imagination"), which excels in depicting Ronald Reagan's management style and unrelenting pursuit of his core principles: the restoration of the American spirit, limited government, a strong defense and the defeat of communism. For a longer-range look at the experiences that shaped Reagan's values, I recommend "The Role of a Lifetime" and 'A Life in Politics,' both by Lou Cannon, both works that do a remarkable job of revealing the character of this amazing man."

Despite the reactionary reviews from those who probably prefer the Godzilla-monster Reagan, this is a good biography that shows the greatness of Reagan. I also liked the Reagan biography called "Fate, Freedom and the Making of History" by John Patrick Diggins. Both books benefit from the recently-released Reagan archives and deserve five stars.