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Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History Paperback – February 17, 2008

by John Patrick Diggins (Author)

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An important reassessment of the fortieth president, placing him in the pantheon with Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

In this bold, revisionist biography, distinguished historian John Patrick Diggins shows that Ronald Reagan, in his distrust of big government, his pursuit of libertarian ideals, and his negotiations with Gorbachev, was a far more active and sophisticated president than we previously knew. Affirming the fortieth president to be an exemplar of the truest conservative values, Diggins “identifies Reagan as the ‘Emersonian President,’ who believed that power is best when it resides in people, not government” (Library Journal).

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About the Author

John Patrick Diggins is the author of The Rise and Fall of the American Left and The Proud Decades: 1941–1960, in addition to biographies of John Adams and Max Weber. He is a distinguished professor of history at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He lives in New York City.

Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (February 17, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393330923
ISBN-13: 978-0393330922
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.2 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 14 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,372,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4528 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States > US Presidents
- #6784 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Presidents & Heads of State
- #299984 in Books > History

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crafty lefthander

Theoretical Reagan

May 3, 2013

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By far the most challenging biography of Reagan, John Patrick Diggins was not a conservative necessarily, but a fair-minded, opinionated intellectual, who dug deeply into Reagan's religious and Emersonian roots to discover why he acted as he did rather than dwell on the actual effects of the Reagan Revolution.

The key question is how Reagan, for the most part, succeeded without paying much attention to detail, when others, like his utterly failed predecessor, Jimmy Carter, created domestic and foreign policy disasters. Principally, he had faith in the overall goodness of the individual, who sought to please God by doing well.

The only President since George Washington to literally avoid war with a threatening major power, Diggins claims it was his fear of a nuclear confrontation, rather than a desire to win the Cold War,that drove Reagan to push for, and ultimately win, a nuclear arms reduction treaty. What this fine historian missed I think, is that Reagan knew the Cold War was soon to end if he enforced an arms buildup, gave circuitous aid to the Afghan rebels fighting the Soviets, and broke government's tight hold on the U.S. economy,giving it room to bloom. All of this crippled the Soviet mindset. He did not abandon anti-Communist conservative thinking, as the author claims. It was necesary he knew, to remain tough and resolute. Only when Gorbachev emerged as Communist Party Secretary and Premier, and was greatly stunned by Chernobyl, did Reagan feel the time was right to negotiate. And after one failure over Reagan's insistence that the Stategic Defense Initiative not be scrapped, arms reduction was achieved when Gorbachev collapsed like a folding chair, giving in on every point of the eventual Treaty.

Reagan was personally unconcerned about his legacy. He was too modest a man to take credit. 18 million new jobs. Spurring millions upon millions to freedom from the Evil Empire. If you asked him about it, he might say what he did days before he left office. "On the whole, not bad." And think of what more he could have done if the Republicans had gained control of the House of Representatives. The Frankenstein Monster that is the federal government today might actually function within its proper constitutional limits.

This is a thought provoking book, which ought to be read in conjunction with Lou Cannon's fine biography, Ronald Reagan: Role of a Lifetime.

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D. Mataconis

Ronald Reagan: The Romantic President

March 9, 2008

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For the most part, the biographies that have been written about Ronald Reagan in the years since he left office have suffered from one of two defects. Either they have been overly critical and dismissive and failed to grasp the truly revolutionary aspects of the Reagan Presidency, or they have been overly worshipful, something more akin to adulation than real scholarship. In both cases, the differing interpretations of Reagan have likely been based on ideological differences and political resentments of the 1980s and beyond.In Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History, John Patrick Diggins takes a worthy first step toward moving beyond either the worshipful or the hate-filled evaluations of the Reagan Presidency and gives America's 40th President the respectful, if not always positive, evaluation that he deserves.

Reagan's singular achievement, Diggins argues, was the role he played in bringing a peaceful end to the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Though he came into the White House with a promise to rebuild the American military and confronted what his advisers contended were Soviet-sponsored regimes in nations ranging from Nicaragua to Angola, it's clear that, very early in his Administration, if not before then, Reagan became committed to the idea of drastically reducing, if not eliminating, nuclear weapons.

Much to the consternation of his neo-conservative foreign policy team, Reagan made overtures to the Soviets as early as April 1981, when he wrote a letter to Leonid Brezhnev while recovering from an assassination attempt. The Brezhnev dialog never went anywhere, largely because Brezhnev was apparently too stubborn and too ill to actually pursue serious negotiations. Similarly, the short-lived reigns of his two immediate successors made pursuing peace impossible. As Reagan himself once quipped, "They keep dying on me."

It was only with the rise to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, who required reduced tensions with the U.S. to pursue his ultimately doomed strategy of reforming Communism, that Reagan was able to pursue his desire to bring both countries out of the horrifying doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction.

One interesting thing that Diggins' book brings out is the extent to which many of Reagan's conservative supporters became convinced in the late 1980s that their leader had sold America down the river. Many of the same people who, on the occasion of his funeral in 2004, lionized him as the man who had "won" the Cold War. Among the critics were William F. Buckley, Jr., George Will, and Henry Kissinger, all of whom seemed convinced at the time that the Cold War and the tensions with the USSR were a permanent and irreversible fact (Jeane Kirkpatrick had in fact said as much in her writings prior to being named U.N. Ambassador).

Reagan, Diggins, argued, never accepted the neo-conservative view of history and rejected the idea that the Cold War was a permanent fact of life that could only end with an exchange of nuclear missiles that would destroy both nations, if not most of the civilized world. In fact, rather than being a true conservative, Diggins persuasively argues that Reagan was really more of a traditional old-style liberal, what we would today call a libertarian, and that his ideas were influenced more by the libertarianism of Thomas Paine and the romanticism of Ralph Waldo Emerson than conservative hero Edmund Burke. While Reagan courted social conservatives and neo-cons, he did not share their views on the inherent sinfulness and fallibility of man.

Diggins goes criticize some aspects of Reagan's record, most notably, in the domestic sphere, and he rightly criticizes him for the mis-handling of the Iran Contra affair. But, like I said, this is a biography not a hagiography. On the whole, though, Diggins does an excellent job of rescuing our 40th President from his detractors and his worshipers. Hopefully, other historians will follow suit.

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M. Strong

Better to call it, "The Ronald Reagan Administration"

May 17, 2007

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Most authors who try to write an insightful book about Ronald Reagan eventually say in frustration, "It's impossible to get to know the man!" Indeed, the same man that many of us felt close to despite never meeting him was apparently a tough nut to crack in person. That hasn't given historians and biographers much to work with. Most famously, Edmund Morris, a brilliant biographer, laid a huge egg with the highly anticipated "Dutch."

Diggins seems to understand that it's hard to understand the man, so he takes a slightly different approach in this book. First, he studies Reagan's years in Hollywood and as Governor of California, looking at his stance and action on issues (especially Communism) and interpreting their meaning. Once Diggins' narrative reaches the White House years, he really leans heavily on the thoughts and actions of Reagan's advisers, especially the group Diggins calls Neo-Cons (new conservatives).

All in all, Diggins does a very nice job of taking a truly objective look at Reagan's Presidency - one of the first books that has enough temporal distance from the event to do it. That is a worthy achievement and wins this book four stars, but ultimately you are left with the sense that you missed the core of what made Reagan's Presidency what it was - both good and bad - Reagan.

Diggins often uses ideas from Michael Deaver's book about his years with Reagan, "A Different Drummer" to try to give perspective on the President. Despite being a close adviser, friend and fan of Reagan, Deaver does give a fairly objective look at the man. I recommend that book first, or maybe together with this one.

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