President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetime [Paperback]

Lou Cannon (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 4, 2000

Hailed by the New Yorker as "a superlative study of a president and his presidency," Lou Cannon's President Reagan remains the definitive account of our most significant presidency in the last fifty years. Ronald Wilson Reagan, the first actor to be elected president, turned in the performance of a lifetime. But that performance concealed the complexities of the man, baffling most who came in contact with him. Who was the man behind the makeup? Only Lou Cannon, who covered Reagan through his political career, can tell us. The keenest Reagan-watcher of them all, he has been the only author to reveal the nature of a man both shrewd and oblivious. Based on hundreds of interviews with the president, the First Lady, and hundreds of the administration's major figures, President Reagan takes us behind the scenes of the Oval Office. Cannon leads us through all of Reagan's roles, from the affable cowboy to the self-styled family man; from the politician who denounced big government to the president who created the largest peace-time deficit; from the statesman who reviled the Soviet government to the Great Communicator who helped end the cold war.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This is possibly the single best book available on the Reagan presidency. Lou Cannon began reporting on Ronald Reagan as a journalist when Reagan first ran for governor of California in 1966, and then covered him again in Washington after his 1980 presidential election. In short, there is probably no man or woman who has spent more years writing about the Gipper than Cannon. The result is a magisterial account of Reagan's two terms in the White House. Cannon is broadly sympathetic to his subject, but also coolly detached. President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime pulled off the remarkable feat of winning praise from both Reagan's admirers and detractors when it was first published in 1991. This reissued edition, which includes a new preface describing Reagan's postpresidential descent into the abyss of Alzheimer's disease, must now be considered the standard text on the subject--especially in light of the controversy surrounding the book that aspired to Cannon's mantle, Edmund Morris's quasi biography Dutch.

Cannon's book is full of wise analysis and sound observation. He explains Reagan's success convincingly: "Optimism was not a trivial or peripheral quality. It was the essential ingredient of an approach to life.... [Reagan] had a knack of converting others to his optimism, almost as if he drew upon some private reservoir of self-esteem. People who listened to Reagan tended to feel good about him and better about themselves." Though the book bursts with detail, it's never so cumbersome that it bogs down Cannon's narrative. And these pages give only cursory attention to Reagan's life before the White House; this is more a biography of President Reagan than of Ronald Reagan. Conservatives who are defensive about Reagan's legacy may bristle at certain points; Cannon's portrait is not always a flattering one. Yet it's a compelling biography of a compelling man's most important years. It's possible to imagine that a fuller biography of Reagan will be written some day. Right now, however, this is the best there is--and it's very, very good. --John J. Miller

From Library Journal

No journalist enjoys a closer working relationship with Ronald Reagan, his friends, and advisors than Cannon, who has covered the Reagan beat for a quarter of a century. Combining scores of interviews, including three with Reagan, with authoritative journalism, Cannon has written what may be the best contemporary political history of the Reagan years. Unlike most modern presidents whose frame of reference is analytical and political, Cannon reveals how Reagan was shaped by his acting career. Far from being a Hollywood refugee, Reagan is credited with reviving national confidence and not being the demagogue that his opponents perceived him to be. While Reagan succeeded at establishing the national agenda, numerous ethical scandals, the savings and loan debacle, and the unraveling of foreign policy proved the presidency to be beyond Reagan's abilities. Transcending the many self-serving kick-and-tell potboilers, Cannon's absorbing, informative account will be the basis for all future studies. Highly recommended for most public and academic libraries.
- Karl Helicher, Upper Marion Township Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 920 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; First Trade Paper Edition edition (April 4, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1891620916
• ISBN-13: 978-1891620911
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.9 x 9.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #459,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #65 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( R ) > Reagan, Ronald

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 78 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid and unbiased April 15, 2000

By Stan Vernooy

Format:Paperback

The first thing to say is that this book is not a biography. Almost nothing of Reagan's life prior to 1980 is discussed, and the assassination attempt and the cancer surgery are barely mentioned. This is, instead, an account of the Reagan presidency: how the decisions were made and how policy was executed. Reagan is a difficult man to write a balanced book about, but Cannon has succeeded. He examines Reagan's style, his strengths and weaknesses, his successes and failures, without assuming that Reagan was either a hero or a scoundrel. Cannon's explanations are invariably thoughtful, intelligent, and well researched. My only criticism is that the book seems to focus excessively heavily on just a couple of cases: namely the bombing of the Marines in Lebanon and the Iran-contra affair. Many equally important events get much less attention. Despite that, the book is probably the best account of the Reagan presidency which we have, and I would have given it 4 1/2 stars if Amazon allowed that.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Where's the rest of Reagan? November 25, 2006

By Steve Fast

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Reagan's campaign autobiography is titled _Where's the Rest of Me?_, based on a line from one of his movies. Unfortunately, Cannon has amputated a lot of Reagan in the second volume of his biography. (The other volume is Governor Reagan, and it is much, much better.)

Much of the book is based on leaks, kiss-and-tell interviews, and the various Iran-Contra reports. As a result, the book is not a fair picture of Reagan but is really the revenge of administration officials. As a result, the book has a lot of inside information, but Cannon has not put it in context.

Even worse, there is very little of Reagan in the book. Most of the material describes what Reagan's staff is doing to each other, and there is plenty of in-fighting. There's very little of Reagan's thoughts or actions. For example, you get David Stockman's understandably bitter view of economic policy, but there is almost no discussion of the longest postwar economic boom, except an attempt to debunk it. Mostly he portrays Reagan as asleep and uncomprehending. It is highly telling that Cannon has not cited in his bibliography any documents from the Reagan library. He only seems to quote Reagan's diary when it was used by the Tower Board during its investigation of Iran-Contra. So this is a book about Reagan's chiefs of staff, counselors, and a few cabinet secretaries. They are interesting people, but it's not a Reagan bio.

My final complaint is that the book is written in stream-of-consciousness. Cannon describes whatever events he thinks of next, so there is little overall organization to the book. He jumps years between paragraphs. For instance, he doesn't mention the air-traffic controller's strike until he is discussing the re-election campaign, when it has only a tenuous connection to the matter at hand. Major events are hardly covered at all, such as the assassination attempt. So I still have no overall understanding of the themes and organization of Reagan's presidency.

Nonetheless, the book does have some strengths. Cannon is an interesting writer, so you'll enjoy his prose. He also has a lot of interesting inside information gained by his years as a reporter for the Washington Post and many years reporting on Reagan in California. For example, he seems to have a good understanding of Nancy Reagan, probably because Michael Deaver was a key source.

Also, he provides insightfuly analysis about Iran-Contra, the MX missile deployment, the 1984 re-election, and the first budget. His discussion of the different types of intelligence and the ones that were strengths for Reagan is very useful.

Note that even the revised version of the book ends with Reagan leaving the presidency in 1989. It also begins with him taking office in 1981.

Overall, I CANNOT recommend the book. It might be a good supplement if you already understand Reagan's presidency well. But if this is the only book you read about him, you'll be left in confusion and with a biased portrait by a reporter who mostly seems to disparage Reagan.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Forget Morris...this is the way a Reagan Biography should be July 13, 2000

By Eric M. Schmidt

Format:Paperback

After being severely disappointed by the work Morris spent a decade working on--I re-read this book. It is very well written, and unbiased account of the Reagan Presidency and Reagan the man. Lou Cannon didn't need to insert himself into the story to make this book work. History will point to this as the definitive Reagan Presidency biography and Morris may be relegated the ash-heap of poor authorship. As a journalist who covered Reagan as governor of California and as President, Cannon has some interesting insights on a complex Presidency.