Reagan by Max Boot

Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Reagan:

Wow, that whole “Gipper” thing was total BS.

Quick synopsis:

The life of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like:

Reagan’s post-presidency office was used as a set in Die Hard.

Fun Fact for History Nerds:

By 2022, Reagan had an approval rating of 73% only bested by JFK among modern presidents.

My Take on Reagan:

I really hate writing about politics. People have very strong feelings, and I’m just a history nerd trying to make it in this crazy world. I knew Reagan by Max Boot would test my abilities to write a comprehensive review without getting dragged into endless online discourse. In order to make my life easier, I am going to first tackle Reagan purely as a book and then I’ll discuss Boot’s approach to Ronald Reagan’s politics and legacy. I don’t think I need to provide much of an introduction to the Gipper, so let’s get to it!

As far as a book, Reagan is really good! Boot’s prose flows easily and the book never drags. It is a hefty tome (over 700 pages of actual narrative), but I never felt the need to skip sections because it didn’t add to Reagan’s overall story. From a construction perspective, I would say Boot’s introduction is a bit too detailed about what he intends to highlight about the former president. It means there is a bit too much repetition in themes that Boot references directly and with the same language. These are very small sections and, as I said, don’t bog down the narrative. However, you do notice when you see the same phrase. If you don’t have a dog in the fight of, “How good of a president was Reagan?” then I highly recommend it.

Now the part I hate. How does Boot handle his subject from a political perspective? Simply, if you have strong feelings about Reagan either way, then I think you will be upset. Boot does not call Reagan a terrible human being and world leader. He also doesn’t deify Reagan. If pressed, I would say that Boot criticizes Reagan more than he compliments him. After long passages, Boot will use phrases like, “To be fair to him” or “To give him credit”. These phrases usually indicate you have just finished a criticism of someone and are now trying to add context. I felt in a couple of specific instances that Boot did extrapolate a bit too much in his criticisms, but this is far from a hit piece of the subject.

Boot does highlight Reagan’s positive attributes while leveling some harsh words on his legacy. The final chapter would delight Reagan fans, though. Boot spends most of this section putting a finer point on Reagan’s accomplishments and the positive attributes which made so many people love him.

Other reviewers mentioned this, so I should probably as well. Yes, Donald Trump does come up a few times. It’s not often or for very long. Yes, you can tell how Boot feels about him. It doesn’t ruin anything else about the book, but it does feel badly placed. You could cut these sections out (again, they are very short references) and the book would not suffer at all.

In the end, a biography is supposed to help you understand the subject better. I definitely feel more intelligent about the entire life of Reagan even if I disagreed with Boot’s conclusions here and there. This is worth reading if you are willing to disagree with the author and still respect the work they put in.

(This book was provided as a review copy by the publisher.)

Verdict:

A very good read on a tricky subject. Buy it here!

If You Liked This Try:

• Ron Chernow, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton