Reagan's America [Hardcover]

Garry Wills (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 16, 1986

In uncovering the forces behind the magical accord that Reagan has engendered with the American people, Wills gives fascinating new insights into the patterns of behavior and the values of the Reagan presidency. In this new edition, Wills discusses the effects of Reagan's popular image on the American political system. 8 pages of photos.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ambitious and insightful, this study examines aspects of Ronald Reagan's life and career that account for his extraordinary popularity with the American public. Wills, author of Nixon Agonistes and Inventing America, portrays a Reagan whose optimistic personality is in harmony with the deep instincts of Americans. The President, he maintains, embodies the country's values and its collective dreams and memories. In his show-business years, Reagan was "the voice of midwestern baseball" and "the plain-spoken hero of horse epics"; later, as Hollywood union leader and California governor, he was the complete "company man." As President, his simple answers in the face of troubling complexities have let Americans feel positive about themselves. While sometimes overdetailed, Wills's study succeeds admirably in isolating the sources of Reagan's appeal. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC, QPBC and History Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wills has written the first major social biography about Ronald Reagan. He focuses largely on the institutions that have molded the man rather than on Reagan himself. Parents, alma mater Eureka College, and the industries that provided employmentjournalism, radio, and motion pituresinstilled in Reagan views about life both real and stereotypical. According to Wills, roiling institutional contradictions have molded Reagan into a believing and believable bearer of modern myths. In turn, Wills explodes many of the myths that pervade the Reagan persona, including his evocations of an idyllic childhood, the virtues of the Wild West, and his distrust of government. As eloquent and provocative as the author's Nixon Agonistes , Reagan's America will receive a wide readership. Highly recommended. BOMC, Quality Paperback Book Club, and History Book Club alternates.Karl Helicher, Wolfsohn Memorial Lib., King of Prussia, Pa.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1st edition (December 16, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385182864
• ISBN-13: 978-0385182867
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,774,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Garry Wills is one of the most respected writers on religion today. He is the author of Saint Augustine's Childhood, Saint Augustine's Memory, and Saint Augustine's Sin, the first three volumes in this series, as well as the Penguin Lives biography Saint Augustine. His other books include "Negro President": Jefferson and the Slave Power, Why I Am a Catholic, Papal Sin, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, which won the Pulitzer Prize.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best authority on Reagan's early life, March 15, 2004

By 

Michael Albert Riccardi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reagan's America: Innocents at Home (Paperback)

COvering much of the same ground as Edmund Morris in his authorized biography, "Dutch," Garry Wills' "Reagan's America: Innocents at Home" is a much more successful look at the institutions and country that shaped the 40th President.

With his usual incisive analysis and beautiful use of the English language, Wills does what Morris found impossible: the discovery of Reagan's soul.

To Wills, Reagan is the logical product of the American heartland and of the institutions of the heartland: community service (he was a lifeguard first), small town media (he was a Des Moines, IA, radio announcer). Reagan is also shaped by the institutions of coastal America that are marketed to the heartland: movies and big business (when Reagan made the final turn toward conservatism, he was the national spokesman for General Electric). Finally, Reagan is also the product of a dysfunctional family, with some of the same logical results: a withholding from others, a love of the abstract and of fantasy.

At the end of Wills' study, the reader gains a clear impression of the forces that created Ronald Reagan and bonded him to the American people. It is true that Reagan, as Morris argues, is enigmatic. But he is not impossible to begin to understand. Wills is the essential guide to the Reagan who was fully formed long before he reached the White House.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Part Biography, Part Critical Cultural History, November 15, 2008

By 

John Hevelin (San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reagan's America: Innocents at Home (Paperback)

I have read many books by Gary Wills, and this is one of his best. It is an astonishing work of history and cultural analysis, impressive in the breadth of his learning and the depth of his insight. Mr. Wills writes knowledgeably and skillfully about a wealth of topics: the America of Mark Twain ... religious fundamentalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries ... the Great Depression ... history of Hollywood, including labor politics ... California politics ... the John Birch Society ... Cold War strategy, nuclear deterrance, and the "Star Wars" defense system ... relations with Latin America, the World Court, and the United Nations ... "supply-side economics," the Laffer Curve, and Reagonomics ... and much, much more, all to create the context in which to understand Reagan's success and his appeal to his constituencies.

Uncritical Reagan enthusiasts will not be happy with the way Wills dissects the contradictions inherent in Reagan the politician, but Wills's analysis is cogent and persuasive. Wills discusses at length the gap between word and deed in Reagan's career. Of Reagan as Governor of California, Wills writes: "Thus, the candidate who had run against big spenders quickly became the governor who asked for and got the highest tax raise in the history of California (or any other state)...." And of Reagan's first term as President, Wills writes: "In 1982, unemployment rose to 10.7 percent, higher than it had been since the Great Depression, along with the greatest number of bank failures since 1940. Record bankruptcies and farm closures were occurring.... He added as much to the national debt in those four years as had been accumulated in our national history to that point, so that one of every seven dollars spent by the government in 1985 went to paying interest on the debt." And Wills spends considerable time critiquing the myths of individualism and self-reliance that underlay the Reagan mystique.

Wills is critical of Reagan, but his assessment is never disrespectful or mean-spirited. Wills works hard to understand Reagan in terms of Reagan's own values and in terms of the values of the Americans that supported him. This is a remarkable study of a man and his times, and is well worth reading.

I was astonished to learn that while in high school, Reagan saved the lives of over seventy-five people while working as a lifeguard.

25 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars clueless in America, October 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Reagan's America: Innocents at Home (Paperback)

Wills dissects Ronald Reagan's career with a sharp scalpel calling attention to the man's ignorance, naivete and disingenuous story telling, all coexisting with personal charm and an optimistic nature. He ties in Reagan's notion of an innocent past and glorious future with American mythology. Reagan's appeal as the first amiable conservative (W would seem to be the second) stood him in good stead with the public. What were we thinking? This is not a hatchet job but a carefully reasoned and most thoughtful assessment of the man whose fanciful economic policies led the country into deep debt and tragically slowed social progress.