Reagan: The Life

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. [em](June) [/em]