Publishers Weekly
04/06/2015
This biography by Brands (The Man Who Saved the Union), a historian at the University of Texas at Austin, is a reminder of how difficult it is to construct a clear historical portrait of Ronald Reagan and his wide-ranging career. Reagan remains an extremely polarizing figure; sympathetic authors tend to soften his rough edges, while others willfully ignore his successes or vilify him outright. Brands generally falls in the former camp. He admirably summarizes Reagan’s life and times; the writing is clear and the progression of events moves swiftly. Worth noting is how Reagan, “a radio man himself,” learned from F.D.R.’s fireside chats. As governor of California, Reagan effectively employed divisive language in dealing with student protesters—“cowardly little bums”—and, as president, successfully wrangled with both Mikhail Gorbachev and the White House press corps. But Brands’s apologetic tone can muddy the issues at hand. For instance, when addressing the film industry’s blackballing of those who refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, he writes that “creative work suffered when fear ruled. But the risk was worth taking, for the good of the country.” Is this Brands’s opinion, or that of his subject? This is a thorough overview, but it adds little to the existing narrative of Reagan. (June)
From the Publisher
H.W. Brands’ new biography tells the [Reagan] story as well as you could ask for in a single volume. A lucid and witty writer, Mr. Brands lays out the facts in short chapters that bounce along like one of the ‘bare-fisted walloping action’ films that Reagan once starred in. He has a talent for letting his sources speak for themselves. . . . Illuminating. Mr. Brands recounts Reagan’s triumphs and the scandals even-handedly.” —The Economist
“Reagan is an engaging study of a man who Brands says defeated Soviet communism and achieved a halfway economic revolution. Drawing on Reagan’s diary, speeches, statements, letters and memoirs, and on interviews with the president’s aides, Brands tells a briskly paced story. . . . Reagan’s legacy continues to fuel the ideas and frame the choices facing his would-be successors, and this astute biography is further evidence that the 40th president continues to cast a long shadow over a still largely conservative political order.” —The Washington Post
“Brands is the rare academic historian who can write like a best-selling novelist. Through meticulous research, he recreates decades-old dialogue and puts the reader inside the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and the house in Reykjavík, Iceland where Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev debated the fate of the world and laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold War.” —USA Today
“Superb . . . it is hard to imagine a biography of Ronald Reagan that could be more thorough, evenhanded and insightful.” —Dallas Morning News
“A lively and lucid narrative of the life of America’s 40th president. . . . Brands is surely right that Reagan was the most persuasive political communicator since Roosevelt.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Brands’ judicious biography of Ronald Reagan is as much about the art of governing as about the man himself. . . . Reagan emerges as a great but terribly flawed president who managed to reorient government priorities after the exhaustion of liberal administrations and ideas, but one who also burdened the country with enormous debts that his successors had to pay down.” —Star Tribune
“Brands' work draws richly from Reagan's presidential diaries and other recently released sources that earlier biographers couldn't tap. . . . His history of the important meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is detailed and balanced, with the views of both sides given equal weight. These chapters are Brands' best writing, reinforcing the significance of those arms-reduction efforts and both men's insistence on ending the threat of nuclear weapons.” —Philadelphia Inquirer
“Brands’ book stands out in the canon of works on Reagan. . . . With an expert’s talent for synthesizing earlier works, access to previously unavailable sources and new interviews, Brands creates a riveting narrative. His prose flows as smoothly as his subject’s speeches, and his insights provide a fresh look at a transformative president that celebrates his accomplishments but never ignores his blunders. A brilliant example of the biographer’s craft, Reagan deftly and boldly provides a balanced portrait of a man whose personality remains elusive but whose legacy continues to resonate.” —Richmond Times-Dispatch
“Readers will be greatly attracted to Brands' skills as a narrative historian . . . [he] delivers high drama in treating Reagan's handling of diplomatic affairs, tensions with the press corps and squabbles with Congress. Few American historians and biographers can compete with Brands as a powerful historical storyteller. Make no mistake, this is a first-rate presidential biography. . . . The definitive biography of Reagan.” —The Oregonian
“Brands is an immensely talented writer . . . [Reagan] is a pleasurable read.” —The Daily Beast
“A keenly researched book, filled with fascinating stories about a young man who escaped Illinois and an alcoholic father to pursue a dream of fame in Hollywood, eventually playing the role of his life as the leader of the free world.” —Tampa Bay Times
“Monumental life of the president whom some worship and some despise—with Brands providing plenty of justification for both reactions. . . . An exemplary work of history.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A superb biographer writing at the top of his game has found the perfect subject for his narrative skills and profound understanding of the American presidency. Over the years H. W. Brands has produced an extraordinary body of historical and biographical works. This is his masterpiece.” —Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Bully Pulpit
“With characteristic skill and insight, H. W. Brands has painted a compelling portrait of a ubiquitous yet still-misunderstood American. From the Midwest to Hollywood to the pinnacle of power, Reagan was at once enigmatic and effective. Read this great new book to see why.” —Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Thomas Jefferson
“A superb American historian has brought us a fascinating, judicious, original, and concise biography of one of the most important presidents in American history. It is impossible to understand the late twentieth century without understanding Ronald Reagan, and H. W. Brands here addresses an impressive range of the key mysteries of the fortieth president's epoch and life.” —Michael Beschloss, author of Presidential Courage
“Ronald Reagan understood what was best about America, and expected the best for it—which is why he led it so successfully. In Reagan, H. W. Brands expresses, with deep, deft, strokes, what will become the accepted view of a great man.” —Richard Brookhiser, author of Founders’ Son: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
“No one loved a good story better than Ronald Reagan. His own story—synonymous with the American Century and reflected in his political evolution from New Deal Democrat to Washington-phobic conservative—has never been told better. Studded with fresh insights, empathetic and yet constructively critical, it may well be H. W. Brands’s finest book. Certainly it confirms Reagan’s place as the conservative FDR, a transforming leader whose influence on his country’s politics and governance is arguably greater than the day he left the White House.” —Richard Norton Smith, author of On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller
“National treasure H. W. Brands, who gave us the definitive single-volume biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt, completes his biographical tour d'horizon of twentieth-century politics with this superb life of Ronald Reagan. In doing so, Brands tracks the paths we wandered through the depression and the Second World War, the battle against communism, and the conservative revolution. How did we get to today’s angry, polarized nation? Read Brands’s life of Reagan, and find out.” —John A. Farrell, author of Clarence Darrow and Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Century
Library Journal
04/15/2015
In this dense biography, Pulitzer finalist Brands (The First American) focuses on the life of Ronald Reagan (1911–2004), moving chronologically through the diverse phases and careers of the popular yet controversial president. There is rarely much background or context for anyone else around Reagan (such as his wife, Nancy, Richard Nixon, or Barry Goldwater), which is at once a strength and weakness of the work. Readers seeking a broader account may consider Rick Perlstein's The Invisible Bridge, which investigates an era when Reagan transformed from an unknown into a political force through his persuasive communication abilities and shrewd strategy. What Brands's chronicle does better than similar texts is demonstrate the evolution of the man, from the son of an alcoholic to the Great Communicator, by shining light on aspects of Reagan's achievements and personality that prove him to be somewhat awkward (shown in funny, lonely letters to friends while an actor), solitary (demonstrated in ranch sojourns), and mysterious. The author fantastically depicts a man who was alone in a crowd while maintaining a magnetic charisma. Analysis of Reagan's political decisions tends toward the favorable. VERDICT While the narrative ends with Reagan's death, his decisions and policies continue to be divisive topics among historians, economists, and political analysts. For fans of Reagan as well as readers of American history, biography, presidential history, political science, and communication. [See Prepub Alert, 11/25/14.]—Benjamin Brudner, Curry Coll. Lib., Milton, MA
JUNE 2015 - AudioFile
This straightforward chronological reporting of Ronald Reagan’s life is lumbering and mechanical. And try as he might, narrator Stephen Hoye cannot improve the material with his delivery. While all of the detailed occurrences are accurately portrayed, this is familiar territory; nothing new in style or perspective is offered. In the majority of his work, it seems as if Brands makes a deliberate effort to be critical of President Reagan. By the end, though, the book contradicts itself as one is left with the impression that the author believes that Reagan ranks with FDR as one of the great U.S. presidents. Hoye is his authoritative and stately self—always convincing but at times a bit loud, at times somewhat overwrought. Overall, an uneven listening experience. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2015-03-20
Monumental life of the president whom some worship and some despise—with Brands (History/Univ. of Texas; The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace, 2012, etc.) providing plenty of justification for both reactions. At least some of Ronald Reagan's (1911-2004) perceived greatness, suggests the author, came about as a gift of historical accident. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker "squeezed the inflationary expectations out of the economy and put it on the path to solid growth" in the middle of Jimmy Carter's recession-plagued presidency, just in time for Reagan to harvest the praise when things did turn around. Some came about because the man, though actually distant, expressed a warmth that made people think he cared about them, a good talent for a politico to have. Some came about because, though Reagan had an ideology, he was also a pragmatist who understood that the reason to enter government is to govern—something so many of his followers have forgotten. Brands, a lucid, engaging writer, traces interesting connections between Reagan the politician and Reagan the actor: he was typecast early on as a good guy who played the law-and-order type against more compelling villains, and he learned from Errol Flynn's blacklisting for left-wing views that conservatism was a safer bet. Brands gives Reagan full honors for realism and hard work, as well as a grasp of the need to do sometimes-unpopular things like raising taxes: "American conservatives…disliked taxes but disliked deficits even more." Given the timidity of later politicians to own up to unpleasant facts, there's fresh air in all that, even when it had bad or mixed results—the "most sweeping revision of the tax code since World War II," say, or Iran-Contra, which, by Brands' account, was a phase in Reagan's long war against his "ultimate target," Fidel Castro. An exemplary work of history that should bring Reagan a touch more respect in some regards but that removes the halo at the same time.
