H. W. BRANDS holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A New York Times bestselling author, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for The First American and Traitor to His Class.
“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
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