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Title: Reagan, in His Own Hand by Kiron, K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson, George P. Shultz ISBN: 0-7432-1938-4 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (43 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Legendary book about Legendary Man and Leader!
Comment: You will see everything in this book - how the Great Communicator communicated big things with ordinary people AND that made him a hero and guard for freedom and democracy all over the world. I read the book now for several times. It is an indispensable book for the future generation. Today (February 7) is my birthday and believe me, there was no better present given to me than this book and "I LOVE YOU, RONNIE!" Get thios book and get it for your dear person! You will see that you would feel you would pay much more than the book actually costs. Let us be grateful to this wonderful Leader and President! He freed so many people! We, the people of the former Soviet Union and Warsaw Block country are in debt before Him! GOD BLESS RONALD REAGAN AND GOD BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!
Rating: 5
Summary: Reagan revisited: the political philosopher inside the man
Comment: I came to this book as a student of political science and an admirer of Ronald Reagan. But a snide admirer in that I held the widespread belief that while a man of courage, conviction and vision, he was "an amiable dunce" who generated his beliefs from some hidden wellspring of unspoken, unexamined character.
This evidence refutes that belief.
I finished this book with a fundamentally altered appreciation of Reagan as perhaps the greatest, and certainly the most effective, political thinker of the second half of the 20th century (we must reserve the first half for Winston).
If you love or hate Reagan, you will accordingly love or hate this book, so I'm not going to review the man but rather, the arguments presented as political philosophy and the style of rhetoric as political communication. Each display a striking command and fine nuance of their subject.
Kudos, first of all, to the editing team. In a unique innovation, they have taken Reagan's hand-written scripts for 5-minute radio addresses delivered between 1975 and 1979 and reproduced them , en toto, with strike-outs, add-ins, and re-edits included in the main body of the draft. Thus we see Reagan constantly re-working his craft: changing a passive to an active voice, clearing out a thicket of prepositions to strengthen and clarify, re-doubling or eliminating emphases, and always, always, writing to be heard. (It is interesting to note that the most re-edited piece here is his sole radio address on abortions - he is clearly struggling with the two legitimate, honestly held claims.)
In his foreword, Reagan's Secretary of State, George Shultz writes:
"And that is the reason why this book is so important. It provides a key to unlocking the mystery of Reagan that has baffled so many for so long. How could a man of supposedly limited knowledge and limited intelligence accomplish so much? How did he get elected and reelected governor of our largest state? How did he get elected and reelected president of the United States? How did he preside over a time of unprecedented prosperity, the winning of the cold war, and the demise of communism worldwide? How?"
"Well, maybe he was a lot smarter than most people thought."
What comes across in each radio address, clearly, repeatedly, is the man's rigorous thinking, connection of facts to results, and his program for how he would effect change. What is only understood across the entire corpus is that he is also promoting a consistent, cohesive political philosophy in the tradition and spirit of the classic liberals.
To take just one example, here is Reagan teaching comparative economics:
"I'm going to talk figures & statistics today which make you wonder how long communist leaders can hide from themselves the fact that our system is infinitely better than theirs.
I'll be right back.
There are 3 so called superpowers based on size & population in the world, two are communist one is free. If you don't mind trying to follow some figures you'll discover just how superior freedom is to the 'worker's paradise' that accepted the idiocy of Karl Marx....
We produce 7 times as many automobiles as Russia & more than 600 times as many as China. Those autos travel on more than 3 mil. miles of paved road in the U.S. and only 1/15 of that in Russia, 200,000 miles & in China 161,000.
Now let's get down to some of the differences in daily living. The average wage in our country is $13,400 that is about 4 ½ times Russia's $3000 and 37 times Chinas $360. Perhaps you think their money goes farther than ours. Well not if you translate purchase into how long you have to work at the average wage to buy something - say a bicycle. An American would only have to work a day plus 2 hrs. The Russian has to work 7 full days and the Chinese worker puts in 67 days."
This is fine political education, and let's not forget, a controversial viewpoint at the time. It is, after all, eight years *before* Dan Rather insisted (in 1987) that, "despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy."
There's simply too much to excerpt here, but the book ably covers everything from communist expansion to taxation to regulation to arms treaties to marijuana ("If adults want to take such chances that is their business." !!! Reagan nakedly exposes his libertarian principles throughout, by the way.)
To those who would assert the 80s just happened, this is their refutation. Reagan repeatedly highlights a Carter or Democratic initiative, policy, or platform, explains why it is bad, predicts (or recapitulates) the bad consequences, proposes his alternative and asserts what fruit this future course would bear. As we march through four long years of Ford-Carter with Reagan as our guide, we get increasingly impatient for the clock to hurry up and bring our man into the Oval Office so he can put a halt to this idiocy. It is only with this pre-1981 look into the thinking of the man and the circumstances of the day, that I have understood the impact of his will on the country.
For here is a man who understands words, deeds, and consequences. At a time when the opposition and the newsmen insisted that he not inflame the Soviets, this is a man who went to knock on the door and inflame with the truth. This is the man who stood at Brandenburg Gate and said: "General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
And the wall fell.
In his own hand, with his own voice, Ronald Reagan spoke his beliefs, led his country, and changed the world.
Rating: 5
Summary: Lovely and wise
Comment: One of my favorite pieces in this book begins on page 45 and is about a young man named Peter Jenkins who in October of 1973 left his Connecticut home and started backpacking across America because he didn't like America, even though as President Reagan writes 'he thought he knew America and he didn't like it. He was ashamed of the American flag and he didn't believe in God.' The President goes on to share that the kid met wonderful people and before his five year trek ended at the Pacific ocean, he would marry, even though he had vowed he would basically love em and leave them. And that in the end Mr. Jenkins not only found America, he found God. The young man wrote about his trek in 'A Walk Across America.'
I love all the pieces Ronald Reagan wrote because they show a man of passion, compassion, firm beliefs, and open mind, commitment and joy.
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Title: Stories in His Own Hand: The Everyday Wisdom of Ronald Reagan by Ronald Reagan, Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson ISBN: 0743226550 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Reagan: A Life in Letters by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson, George P. Shultz ISBN: 074321966X Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: I Love You, Ronnie: The Letters of Ronald Reagan to Nancy Reagan by Nancy Reagan ISBN: 0375760512 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 26 February, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Ronald Reagan: An American Life by Ronald Reagan ISBN: 0743400259 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan by Peggy Noonan ISBN: 0142001686 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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