What's A Good Biography of Ronald Reagan

But on February 10, the day before Reagan was to testify to the Tower Board a second time, it was obvious to Regan and Wallison that the president was still shaky in his recollections. Wallison drew up what Abshire called an "aide-memoire" to help the president recall what he had told them. At the top Wallison wrote, "On the issue of the TOW shipment in August, in discussing this matter with me and David Abshire, you said you were surprised to learn that the Israelis had shipped the arms. If that is your recollection, and if the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised."

The question, of course, came up... After a preliminary discussion about presidents and their NSC staffs, Tower asked Reagan about the discrepancy between his statement and [Don] Regan's on the question of whether he had given prior approval to the Israeli arms shipment. Reagan rose from his chair, walked around his desk and said to Wallison, "Peter, where is that piece of paper you had that you gave me this morning?" Then he picked up the paper and began to read: "If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised."

Tower's jaw went slack. It was, as Abshire put it, "a low moment."

ha -- in some of the other accounts he reads that statement from his cue cards, looks up, smiles brightly.

The Reagan Library's been releasing heretofore unseen press conferences and appearances. Here he is without a script -- and coherent!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hy24_iDG6E

oh boy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQaYVEpaoMo

Which Reagan books cover his entire life, without being a hagiography?

The offerings are pretty nauseating, but the critical books seem to be mainly about 80's policy. I'm looking for a real biography that includes his childhood and acting career, but not some Kitty Kelley crap.

I am looking at Bob Spitz's book - anyone familiar with this one?

I'd recommend Dante's Inferno.

Lou Cannon's bio is the standard, and it's not hagiographic.

If you get past the weird fictional armature, Edmund Morris' controversial '99 bio is the most stylish: he can write, and the conversations he records with Reagan get a sense of the president's weird banality.

James Mann's The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan is good on how the national security state and conservative commentariat opposed any rapproachement with Gorby, which Reagan, to his credit, fought against; it's clear that on this instance he was no puppet.

but, yeah, the Spitz one is solid. It's also the first one to address his immediate post-presidency years rotting in Carmel office space or whatever: walking to the park, realizing he needed to carry money for the first time in his life.

Thanks for the recommendations, Alfred! I'd do my own research, but the data stream is so clogged with eagle-clad rubbish that it's difficult to find decent material.

I'm in a Cold War frame of mind as far as my reading lately, thanks for the help.

not a fan of the morris one, boringly enough-- the insights it purports to need the weird fictional armature for are the same insights everybody else manages without it (namely "this guy's kinda off, huh")

lou cannon's stuff on him is excellent

have not read garry wills' book but the reagan material in nixon agonistes is good (+ beautifully written)

still the sections of the invisible bridge about his childhood + hollywood are prob my fave stuff on the subject-- however not sure how conveniently they can be extricated from the interwoven narrative about every newspaper headline of the 1970s.

This dude was so weird:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9nFajZtWpE

Surprised there's been no mention of J.G. Ballard's 1968 short story Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan

Oh my, too bad my library days are behind me, I would track that down.