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Max Boot on His New Book "Reagan: His Life and Legend"W. W. Norton

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Reagan: His Life and Legend Hardcover – September 10, 2024

by Max Boot (Author)

327 ratings

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NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Washington Post • 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
Best Books of 2024: The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, The Auburn Citizen

"This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style.... A landmark work." ―New York Times, "10 Best Books of 2024"
"Reagan: His Life and Legend aims to be the definitive biography, and it succeeds." ―New Yorker
"Magisterial.... Important.... Vivid... Splendid." ―Washington Post

Son of the Midwest, movie star, and mesmerizing politician―America’s fortieth president comes to three-dimensional life in this gripping and profoundly revisionist biography.

In this “monumental and impressive” biography, Max Boot, the distinguished political columnist, illuminates the untold story of Ronald Reagan, revealing the man behind the mythology. Drawing on interviews with over one hundred of the fortieth president’s aides, friends, and family members, as well as thousands of newly available documents, Boot provides “the best biography of Ronald Reagan to date” (Robert Mann).

The story begins not in star-studded Hollywood but in the cradle of the Midwest, small-town Illinois, where Reagan was born in 1911 to Nelle Clyde Wilson, a devoted Disciples of Christ believer, and Jack Reagan, a struggling, alcoholic salesman. Boot vividly creates a portrait of a handsome young man, indeed a much-vaunted lifeguard, whose early successes mirrored those of Horatio Alger. And contextualizing Reagan’s life against American history, Boot re-creates the world in which Reagan transitioned from local Iowa sportscaster to budding screen actor.

The world of Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1950s would prove significant, not only in Reagan’s coming-of-age in such classics as Knute Rockne and Kings Row but during the twilight of his film career, when he played opposite a chimpanzee in Bedtime for Bonzo, and then his eventual emergence as a television host of General Electric Theater, which established his bona fides as one of the leading conservative voices of the time. Indeed, the leap to California governor in 1966 seemed almost preordained, in which Reagan became a bellwether for a nation in the throes of a generational shift.

Reagan’s 1980 presidential election augured a shift that continues into this century. Boot writes not as a partisan but as a historian seeking to set the story straight. He explains how Reagan was an ideologue but also a supreme pragmatist who signed pro-abortion and gun control bills as governor, cut deals with Democrats in both Sacramento and Washington, and befriended Mikhail Gorbachev to end the Cold War. A master communicator, Reagan revived America’s spirits after the traumas of Vietnam and Watergate. But Boot also shows how Reagan was armored in obliviousness. He traces Reagan’s opposition to civil rights over forty years, reveals how he neglected the exploding AIDS epidemic, and details how America experienced a level of income inequality not seen since the Gilded Age.

With its revelatory insights, Reagan: His Life and Legend is no apologia, depicting a man with a good-versus-evil worldview derived from his moralistic upbringing and Hollywood westerns. Providing fresh examinations of “trickle-down economics,” the Cold War’s end, the Iran-Contra affair, as well as a nuanced portrait of Reagan’s family, this definitive biography is as compelling a presidential biography as any in recent decades.

53 photographs

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	The Road Not Taken	The Corrosion of Conservatism	Invisible Armies

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	Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (Biography) — A New York Times bestseller, this “epic and elegant” biography (Wall Street Journal) profoundly recasts our understanding of the Vietnam War.	A “must read” (Joe Scarborough) by a New York Times– best- selling author, The Corrosion of Conservatism presents a necessary defense of American democracy.	“Destined to be the classic account of what may be the oldest... hardest form of war.” ―John Nagl, Wall Street Journal

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style. Boot, a historian and foreign policy analyst, grew up idolizing Ronald Reagan, but after a decade of interviews and research, he finds himself asking whether his onetime hero paved the way for Donald Trump, the man whose ascent to power led Boot to abandon the right. The book is a landmark work that shows how Reagan emerged from his New Deal roots to become a practiced Red baiter and racist dog whistler before settling into the role of the optimistic all-American elder statesman. “It is no exaggeration,” Boot writes, 'to say that you cannot fully comprehend what happened to America in the 20th century without first understanding what happened to Ronald Reagan.'"
― New York Times, "The 10 Best Books of 2024"

"A movement conservative turned Never Trumper, Boot set out to explore where the G.O.P. went wrong by writing a biography of Ronald Reagan, and the result is a definitive one. Boot idolized Reagan while growing up, but his book is not a defense of Reagan as the Last Good Republican. It takes up Reagan’s hostility to civil rights and Medicare, and deems him complicit in the 'hard-right turn' that 'helped set the G.O.P.―and the country―on the path' to Donald Trump. And yet Boot sees a redeeming quality as well: Reagan could relax his ideology. He was an anti-tax crusader who oversaw large tax hikes, an opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment who appointed the first female Supreme Court Justice, and a diehard anti-Communist who made peace with Moscow. He had relinquished 'the dogmas of a lifetime,' Boot writes. This biography carries a pointed message for conservatives: Reagan achieved greatness, Boot argues, by abandoning his ideology."
― The New Yorker, "The Best Books of 2024"

"Max Boot... provides an unusually well-balanced and vividly written profile of a man almost as enigmatic as his contemporary the American sphinx Johnny Carson."
― No. 1 on Air Mail's, "10 Best Books of 2024"

"Reagan: His Life and Legend aims to be the definitive biography, and it succeeds. It’s a thoughtful, absorbing account. It’s also a surprising one. One might expect, given Boot’s trajectory, that this would be a full-throated defense of Reagan, the Last Good Republican. But it is not. Although Boot once felt ‘incredulous that anyone could possibly compare Reagan to Trump,’ he now sees ‘startling similarities.’... Recent events have forced Boot to ask if Reagan was part of the rot that has eaten away at Republicanism. Boot now sees him as complicit in the “hard-right turn” the Party took after Dwight D. Eisenhower which helped set the G.O.P.―and the country―on the path to Trump…. And yet Boot sees a redeeming quality as well: Reagan could relax his ideology…. He viewed the world in black-and-white, yet he governed in gray."
― Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker

"[A] magisterial new biography... Boot has written the first important Reagan biography of the post-Reagan era…. [His] vivid portrait draws on prodigious research…. [This] splendid biography reminds us that Reagan was the leader many Americans felt they needed at a time when they were looking for national restoration, and they may seek his like again."
― Geoffrey Kabaservice, Washington Post

"This remoteness has frustrated previous biographers. But Mr. Boot responds with doggedness, evoking Reagan’s early life in small-town Illinois, college years and early forays into politics. Mr. Boot is a gifted enough writer to prevent this accretion of detail from becoming a slog, and Reagan’s apparent lack of an inner life becomes a benefit: it keeps the focus on Reagan’s actions, which matter far more than a politician’s thoughts or feelings. Though his rhetoric may have been strident, his actions, Mr. Boot convincingly argues, were deeply pragmatic. That is what made him so effective when his party never fully controlled Congress. But he also courted segregationists and homophobes for political benefit, even though he professed to hold no racial prejudice."
― The Economist

"[A] gripping new biography…Boot’s book enters a crowded field, but stands out for its deep research, lucid prose and command of its subject’s broad political and social context….More than half the book covers his life before the presidency, and Boot’s careful focus on Reagan’s early years untangles many of the knots….Boot is particularly good at depicting 1920s small-town America, and he gives full consideration to how religion shaped Reagan’s outlook."
― Jennifer Burns, New York Times

"My favorite book of the fall, and one that is quite the beast to read at 880 pages, Reagan takes us inside the mind of the 40th President. Max Boot is an exceptional writer who crafts a compelling and detailed narrative."
― John Brandon, Forbes

"For the person in your life obsessed with presidential biographies, Boot’s newest book is a deeply reported look into the life of Ronald Reagan. Covering his childhood, his Hollywood years and, of course, his presidency, Boot portrays a man that is somehow both more ideological and more pragmatic than we might think."
― Andrew Limbong, NPR

"[An] impeccably researched and thoroughly compelling new biography…. Thanks to Boot’s enormously readable and scrupulously honest book, we know more than ever before about this complicated, frustrating and yet oddly magnetic man."
― Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times (UK)

"Max Boot’s new biography of Ronald Reagan deals candidly with aspects of the 40th president’s politics that Reagan’s worshipers prefer to not see."
― Brent Staples, New York Times

"Timely, authoritative, and admirably evenhanded... Boot’s book strikes a welcome tone of calm, fact-driven appraisal about a subject who continues to attract over-the-top partisan puffery. It is a nuanced portrait of Reagan for this very unnuanced age... It’s impossible to read Boot’s careful book and hold on to the seductive fallacy that Reagan possessed some sort of magic template for eradicating communist dictatorships or a playbook that could work again today if only applied with enough forceful resolve. And yet Reagan still manages here to come across as the hero that perhaps he was at first for Boot―an architect, if not the sole author, of the Soviet demise, who earned a place in history for helping “to peacefully end a 40-year struggle that could have resulted in nuclear Armageddon."
― Susan B. Glasser, Foreign Affairs

"The actor Ronald Reagan started his political career as a New Deal Democrat who fought for social justice. He ended it as the Republican president of the United States. In this biography, Boot ― a notable historian who fell out of love with conservatism as another American president, Donald J. Trump, took over the movement ― tells Reagan’s story, tugging at the enigma of his life and searching for the seeds of Trumpism in the works and days of the 40th president."
― New York Times Book Review, "19 New Books Coming in September"

"While not as hagiographic as the new film, Boot’s take on the New Deal Democrat turned demonizer of Medicare & GOP icon is generally sympathetic. It’s Reagan the pragmatist & compromiser, say reviews."
― Michael Giltz, Parade, "Best New Book Releases This Week"

"[A] generous yet sharply perceptive biography."
― Peter Conrad, The Observer

"A worthy, impressive example of what a new era in Reagan biography might hold. Boot’s book, the product of a decade’s careful research, presents the fascinatingly contradictory reality of Reagan...Boot’s accounts excels by embracing rather than eliding the paradoxes of Reagan’s political career."
― Jonathan Darman, Air Mail

"The book’s account of the White House years, nearly half of a sweeping tome that examines an entire life, shows Reagan continually flailing among the strong personalities helming the ship of state, especially in reacting to events roiling the Middle East… Boot’s extended analyses of events in the Middle East during Reagan’s term prove enlightening, sometimes baffling, poignant, and tragic."
― A.R. Royce, Middle East Policy Council

"As seen throughout Reagan, Boot’s readable and insightful biography, the future enemy of the Soviet Union was defined by that rural upbringing, with its limitations – insularity, unworldliness, provinciality – balanced by its strengths: an innate decency and politeness, underpinned by a powerful sense of right and wrong."
― Philip Johnston, The Daily Telegraph

"One of the most gripping chapters of Reagan focuses on the assassination attempt that seriously wounded the new president in March 1981. In this almost minute-by-minute account ― reminiscent of Robert Caro’s superb reporting and writing in his multivolume biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson ― a reader learns exactly what happened and what was said. Amazingly, Reagan remained jovial despite the mortal danger. The dozen pages Boot devotes to the shooting and its aftermath are unforgettable."
― Robert Schmuhl, Notre Dame Magazine

"Forty years after Ronald Reagan’s last run for the White House, journalist and foreign policy analyst Max Boot constructs the most extensive biography to date of the 40th U.S. president. Boot points to Reagan as a public figure who was famously difficult to know, though the author does his best to capture the 20th century’s most dominant conservative by talking with Reagan’s associates."
― Christian Science Monitor

"A decade in the making, Boot uses newly unclassified documents, new reporting and analysis, and original interviews with more than 100 sources to craft the possible definitive look at the man…. [Boot writes] deftly and evenhandedly…. So, while every reader will go into his massive work with a set different idea of Reagan the man, by the end of Reagan the book, those ideas may just change a bit. For better or worse."
― Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press

"“The passage of more than 30 years since he left office,” writes Boot, “affords the kind of understanding of his presidency that historians finally achieved only in the 1980s for the Eisenhower administration.” Boot says that while a huge number of books about Reagan exist, none could be described as a “definitive biography, which is what I was trying to achieve.” Even Reagan’s own children have told Boot they learned new things about their father in the book, so perhaps he has succeeded."
― Cliff Cunninham, Sun News Austin

"[A] definitive and fair-minded biography…[Boot] finds no difficulty in continuing to admire Reagan the man while castigating his troubled relationship with reality and a management style that he aptly describes as behaving ‘as if he were a bystander in his own administration’....The core quality Boot rightly emphasizes as enabling Reagan’s success was his pragmatism, in many respects akin to that of his early political hero Franklin Roosevelt."
― Jacob Weisberg, The New York Review of Books

"Using newly released documents and the perspective of decades, Boot portrays Reagan as a principled conservative, but also a pragmatist who thoughtfully compromised to attain achievable results… Boot’s clear-headed biography brims with insightful anecdotes and clears away myth to give a more solid portrait of a remarkable politician."
― Booklist, starred review

"An unabashed revisionist history of the 40th president of the U.S....The amount of research Boot conducted is immense, and his portrait of Reagan is enhanced not only by the passage of time since Reagan's administrations, but by the author’s 100+ forthright interviews and the availability of more archival materials....Boot's account of the life and times of Reagan is, as promised, no hagiography...A prodigiously researched, satisfying presidential bio."
― Kirkus Reviews

"[An] intelligent, elegant and engrossing biography."
― Andrew Preston, Literary Review

"This is a timely and fascinating book, just what we need to understand, and perhaps transcend, our current age of political paralysis and polarization. Understanding Reagan is key to understanding our politics today."
― Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs

"This comprehensive biography―relying on a decade of research, unearthed records, and revealing interviews―separates man from myth, offering a compelling and clear-eyed portrait of this consequential president and the country he shaped."
― Karen Tumulty, author of The Triumph of Nancy Reagan

"Well researched and reported accurately. Ronald Reagan was a complicated man, yet a caring one. Max Boot beautifully catches the essence of who he was."
― Stuart K. Spencer, Ronald Reagan’s political consultant, 1966–1984

"This is the definitive Reagan biography that so many of us have been waiting for. Max Boot clears away the myths and presents the real Ronald Reagan, with all of his strengths and also his shortcomings. If you like biographies, you’ll love Reagan: His Life and Legend."
― General David Petraeus, US Army (Ret.), former CIA director

"Max Boot’s Reagan biography is superb―in my judgment, definitive. He has achieved what Edmund Morris could not―a coherent and compelling portrait of an enigmatic and elusive figure, one which is also notably fair-minded."
― Richard North Patterson, political commentator

About the Author

Max Boot, historian and foreign-policy analyst, is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a columnist for the Washington Post. His New York Times bestseller The Road Not Taken was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Liveright
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 10, 2024
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 880 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0871409445
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0871409447
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.68 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.8 x 9.6 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #45,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #40 in US Presidents
- #54 in United States Executive Government
- #97 in Political Leader Biographies
Customer Reviews:
327 ratings

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Max Boot

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Max Boot is a historian and biographer, best-selling author, and foreign-policy analyst. He is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a weekly columnist for The Washington Post.

Max Boot’s best-selling biography of Ronald Reagan, "Reagan: His Life and Legend," was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2024 by the New York Times, and also made best-of-the-year lists from The New Yorker, The Washington Post and The Economist. It has been acclaimed as “a landmark work” (The New York Times), the "definitive biography" (The New Yorker), “magisterial” (The Washington Post), and “enormously readable and scrupulously honest” (The Sunday Times).

Max Boot’s previous biography, "The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam," was also a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in biography.

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Customer reviews

327 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book well-written and engaging, with one review noting it doesn't glorify or ridicule its subject. Moreover, the storytelling is praised for being engrossing. However, the book receives mixed feedback regarding its insight, with some finding it insightful while others note it's not quite a definitive biography. Additionally, customers express concerns about the author's determinedly biased approach and one-sided characterization.

Select to learn more

Readability Writing quality Storytelling Insight Pacing Bias Characterization Liberal bias

12 customers mention "Readability"11 positive1 negative

Customers find the book readable and magnificent, with one customer noting that it doesn't glorify or ridicule its subject.

"Great read" Read more

"...This effort is excellent!..." Read more

"...This book gives the reader a full sense of who Reagan was and what he did, his triumphs and his shortcomings. You can't ask much more of a biography." Read more

"...a single book on Reagan this is certainly the most modern and detailed interpretation available today." Read more

8 customers mention "Writing quality"8 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the writing quality of the book, with several noting that the author is a gifted writer.

"...The study is well written; seems to have been the product of substantial research and original interviews; and does not mince words or descriptions..." Read more

"...The book then moves apace. Boot is a columnist and knows how to write with economy and impact. It's a lengthy history but it's now the standard." Read more

"This biography is well researched, well written and as unbiased as any tale of a famous person’s life can be as compiled by a human being...." Read more

"...a lot of good information and history in this book, and the author is a gifted writer, but he's not actually a good historian...." Read more

5 customers mention "Storytelling"4 positive1 negative

Customers enjoy the storytelling in the book.

"...It is an almost cinematic touch and draws the reader into the story. The book then moves apace...." Read more

"This book was much more of a page turner and a good story than I had expected...." Read more

"...The prose is delightful and the storytelling engrossing...." Read more

"...His narrative betrays his politics...." Read more

19 customers mention "Insight"13 positive6 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the book's insights, with some praising its research while others note it is not a definitive biography.

"...The study is well written; seems to have been the product of substantial research and original interviews; and does not mince words or descriptions..." Read more

"Props for detail, chronology, readability, but otherwise a terrible biography...." Read more

"The author commits the cardinal sin of historic biography; he views and judges his subject and their times through a contemporary lens...." Read more

"This biography is well researched, well written and as unbiased as any tale of a famous person’s life can be as compiled by a human being...." Read more

4 customers mention "Pacing"2 positive2 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book, with one finding it engaging and another describing it as annoying.

"...Highly recommended and entertaining in addition to its factual foundation." Read more

"...to significant reductions in tension, he also notes his disengagement from most issues, which made his administration dependent upon the quality of..." Read more

"...compelling and I thought Max Boot’s writing was way more lively and engaging than I’d have expected from someone with Council of Foreign Relations..." Read more

"...put the book away after wading through half of it because it became annoying, at first, then tiresome in that the author has nothing but negative..." Read more

4 customers mention "Bias"1 positive3 negative

Some customers find the book determinedly biased.

"Liberal point of view. Not impartial at all. I regret purchasing this book. Leaves out a lot details about Reagan. Disappointed." Read more

"Vast and impressive, but determinedly biased..." Read more

"This biography is well researched, well written and as unbiased as any tale of a famous person’s life can be as compiled by a human being...." Read more

"UNBELIEVABLY BIASED..." Read more

4 customers mention "Characterization"1 positive3 negative

Customers criticize the book's characterization, with one noting it is slanted and biased to the maximum, while another points out it is not a balanced view of Reagan.

"...Very one-sided, which regardless of your political persuasion, does not do justice to Reagan...." Read more

"...this is like reading a CNN post on a true conservative... slanted and biased to the max." Read more

"...The author has identified how it started and Reagan’s pivotal role. It is most important in understanding where we are today and how we got there...." Read more

"...This is not a balanced view of Reagan. Don’t buy the book." Read more

3 customers mention "Liberal bias"0 positive3 negative

Customers criticize the book's liberal bias.

"...Completely liberal bias, nothing positive. It’s what one would expect from the left when attempting to discredit the conservative icon...." Read more

"The most biased bio I have ever read. Boot is a liberal hack. Gave it one star because I couldn’t give it none." Read more

"Liberal point of view. Not impartial at all. I regret purchasing this book. Leaves out a lot details about Reagan. Disappointed." Read more

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Fred T Isquith
The Best of the Biographies of Reagan
Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2025
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Max Boot - Reagan: His Life and Legend

This lengthy - and expensive - biography/history, has been well received - and in my mind has reviews and comments better than any of the previous efforts at a biography of Ronald Reagan. He is a complicated figure - and victim of the depression who by determination and luck rose to Hollywood wealth and celebrity status and then found other opportunities as his career faded as Hollywood changed with WWII and the introduction of television in the 1950s.

This effort is excellent! The author tries to describe his subject good and not so good; strong and weak; emotional and a softy who could be aloof and cold at the same time. He was a person of contrasts; an ideologue who in office was the pillar of practicality. He seems to have been ambitious young adulthood without aiming at politics; one has the impression he would have as soon been a Hollywood figure and then took his opportunities as circumstances presented them.

The study is well written; seems to have been the product of substantial research and original interviews; and does not mince words or descriptions of Reagan - he worked hard at his job; he relied on others as well; he had his strong and weak qualities; he accomplished much.

Boot's biography is not my first attempt to understand Reagan and his political importance and legacy through a biography. This is the best I have found

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Spectre
A Solid, Balanced Biography
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2024
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
Max Boot achieves what he said he set out to do: write a Reagan biography that is "neither hagiography nor hit job."

While giving Reagan deserved credit for restoring a sense of national confidence following a decade of political and economic turmoil and for stimulating dialogue with the Soviet Union which led to significant reductions in tension, he also notes his disengagement from most issues, which made his administration dependent upon the quality of individual subordinates, with avoidable scandals as a result. Analysis of the latter is one of the book's greatest strengths; Boot draws contrasts between competent and incompetent appointees in the same job, e.g., James Baker vs. Don Regan as Chief of Staff, or George Shultz vs. Alexander Haig as Secretary of State. Unlike some Reagan hagiographers, Boot gives full credit to Mikhail Gorbachev as the person who, more than any other, dismantled the Soviet Union.

This book is also valuable, in our current hyperpartisan environment, in pointing out multiple examples of Reagan's pragmatism, both as Governor of California and President, reflected in his willingness to compromise on issues, especially taxation, and his disinclination to become highly engaged on "social issues" on which the nation was deeply divided.

Boot also explores the main paradox of Reagan's personality: great courtesy in his treatment of individuals and sympathy for their problems combined with indifference to groups of people afflicted with the same concerns, as well as aloofness toward his children.

This book gives the reader a full sense of who Reagan was and what he did, his triumphs and his shortcomings. You can't ask much more of a biography.

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21 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer
The Book for Anyone Wanting to Know About Reagan
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2025
Format: KindleVerified Purchase
To start this review, this is the second biography of Ronald Reagan I’ve read following H.W. Brands’ book that is shockingly a decade old now. I was excited when Max Boot’s book was scheduled to come out last year and bought it the day it came out on Kindle. The first thing you’re going to see is it’s a very lengthy work (over 1000 pages of text on my Kindle). That is both positive and negative. It gives Boot the chance to significantly discuss the “life and Legend” of Reagan, but it does seem like he spends more time than necessary on Reagan’s pre-presidential years.
You’ll learn a lot about Reagan’s upbringing and how he was emotionally distant even as a young person which Boot, like many authors before him, attributed to his being raised by an alcoholic father. Reagan’s inability to emotionally connect with people including his own children is a topic Boot returns to repeatedly through the book. As he gets into Reagan’s adulthood and particularly his change from an FDR Democrat to a Republican one of the interesting contentions is that the change wasn’t do to the influence of Nancy Reagan, but instead because of the reading he did.
As Reagan’s political career becomes the focus of the book in California and Washington Boot follows the standard belief that Reagan’s hands off management style was a key aspect. He spends significant time off and on describing the contributions of Reagan’s closest staff and how early staff members in Washington were better at working through issues of the presidency. A consistency of the book are Boot’s references to the way the good or bad advice given by Reagan’s senior advisors impacted his decisions more than other presidents who are engaged in what’s going on.
Boot also repeatedly returns to the issue of Reagan’s opposition to civil rights legislation throughout the book. He emphasizes how Reagan used coded language to appeal to white supremacists to get elected and how he often ignored the impact on the African American community of his policies and the income inequality that those policies expanded during and after the Reagan years.
There are some parts that Boot doesn’t do as much with as I’d expected. First, he hardly discusses the important nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the supreme court attributing it to Reagan’s 1980 campaign trying to shrink the gender gap. He covers this in less than a handful of pages. Surprisingly, he also only devotes one chapter of about 30 pages to detailing the Iran-Contra Affair which most people today think is the biggest issue of the Reagan presidency.
I really enjoyed this book though as I’ve mentioned it might have been a bit shorter (this is the longest book I’ve ever read and that’s saying something as I’ve probably read more than 600 books in my lifetime). I was a little frustrated in with the final pages when he discusses the commonalities and differences between Reagan and Trump. Like many other historians, Boot says that Reagan and Trump both pushed the Republican Party further and further to the right, but no one seems to comment about how the Democrats have moved further to the left.
If you’re looking for a single book on Reagan this is certainly the most modern and detailed interpretation available today.

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Michel Forest
Superb biography, worthy of a Pulitzer
Reviewed in Canada on October 8, 2024
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I have a never been an admirer of Ronald Reagan, but I was curious to read about the life of the man who was president when I was a teenager and a young adult. I ended up devouring this book. The author writes very well and is able to paint a particularly revealing portrait of a man who was an enigma to just about everybody except maybe his wife. The portrayal of the dysfunctional Reagan family was a troubling revelation and I ended up feeling sorry for the children, especially Michael, Reagan's adoptive son. Nancy Reagan, it must be said, doesn't come off as a likeable person, to say politely...

Mr. Boot is a former Republican now an independant and he is remarkably even-handed in his appreciation of Reagan's presidency. He shows that even though Reagan was more lucky than competent, he was able to restore a sense of pride in the American nation and that may be his greatest accomplishment.

This book is everything one could ask from a biography and it certainly deserves the Pulitzer. This will probably be the definitive Reagan bio for decades.

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Erling Kagge
Highly Recommended
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 27, 2025
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
A Superb Read!

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Amazon Customer
Timely and well balanced
Reviewed in Germany on November 27, 2024
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
Forty years on from his presidency, The Reagan era is now falling into an historical perspective. So Boot's book is very timely.
The account of his early years and his Hollywood career is informative, and Boot convincingly argues how experiences in this period shaped the attitudes of the later politician. The period as California governor is also well covered.
Whether he intended it or not, Boot actually reveals how the job of President was beyond Reagan's capabilities. He had no intellectual curiosity. He held to beliefs that had no basis in fact. He spent a lot of time in fantasy. He didn't work hard. He was heavily influenced in his actions by Nancy and her astrologer.
So why was he successful in politics? He was a brilliant communicator and he was clearly an affable, decent man. His simple bromides charmed America's conservative voters. But above all he got lucky.. Lucky with his opponents - Carter in 1980 being the prime example. Lucky with the economy, thanks to Paul Volker's masterly handling of monetary policy. And lucky to be there as the Soviet Union was beginning to implode.
This is a fine account, particularly in respect to those who worked with him and provided the brains in the operation. This is far better than Edmund Morris' 'Dutch' . It really does provide perspective on the Reagan era.

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xbb
excelente biografia
Reviewed in Spain on August 30, 2025
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
excelente biografía

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Gems
Very historical book
Reviewed in Canada on January 4, 2025
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
I like the book but it is a lot of family issues and not political issues

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Reagan: His Life and Legend Hardcover – September 10, 2024

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Brilliant. Essential to understand Reagan, 20th century history, and antecedents to Donald Trump.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Best of the Biographies of Reagan

5.0 out of 5 stars A Solid, Balanced Biography

4.0 out of 5 stars The Book for Anyone Wanting to Know About Reagan

Top reviews from other countries

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb biography, worthy of a Pulitzer

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended

4.0 out of 5 stars Timely and well balanced

5.0 out of 5 stars excelente biografia

4.0 out of 5 stars Very historical book

The Best of the Biographies of Reagan

A Solid, Balanced Biography

The Book for Anyone Wanting to Know About Reagan

Superb biography, worthy of a Pulitzer

Highly Recommended

Timely and well balanced

excelente biografia

Very historical book