I needed this book.
Until this book I was mostly getting variations on the same theme. Commonly repeated throughout my 25+ volume Reagan library (hardcopy, audiobook & Kindle) is the story of his life...the oft-told high points...lifeguard on the Rock River, college kid & football player, novice sports broadcaster & prime Midwest play-by-play announcer, actor, soldier, union leader, anti-communist activist, divorced actor, re-married actor in career decline, brief Vegas showman, TV star, GE pitchman & plant visitor, politics-dabbler, Governor, 3x presidential candiate, weekly radio commentator, President, and Alzheimer's victim.
All the tellings of the above high points glossed over (or completely ignored) the in-between stuff. With each retelling of the high points, I'd wonder, "I wonder if he ever..." or "what was he thinking at that time?", etc. The glue-stuff that holds the story together.
Written in 1965 (and according to Peter Robinson, a Reagan speechwriter) 75% by himself (there is a ghost writer), he fills in the blanks for us up to that date. And for those (in the 1980's & 90's) who joyously declared Reagan an empty suit, they need to read about his union involvement and his well-reasoned transformation from "very liberal Democrat" to conservative.
If you need to adress that Reagan "fix" you're going through, this book will definitely help yoou.
