{"product_id":"reagan-an-american-journey-9781594205316","title":"Reagan: An American Journey","description":"\u003cp\u003eFrom New York Times bestselling biographer Bob Spitz  a full and rich biography of an epic American life  capturing what made Ronald Reagan both so beloved and so transformational.  More than five years in the making  based on hundreds of interviews and access to previously unavailable documents  and infused with irresistible storytelling charm  Bob Spitzs REAGAN stands fair to be the first truly post-partisan biography of our 40th President  and thus a balm for our own bitterly divided times.  It is the quintessential American triumph  brought to life with cinematic vividness: a young man is born into poverty and raised in a series of flyspeck towns in the Midwest by a pious mother and a reckless  alcoholic  largely absent father. Severely near-sighted  the boy lives in his own world  a world of the popular books of the day  and finds his first brush with popularity  even fame  as a young lifeguard. Thanks to his first great love  he imagines a way out  and makes the extraordinary leap to go to college  a modest school by national standards  but an audacious presumption in the context of his familys station. From there  the path is only very dimly lit  but it leads him  thanks to his great charm and greater luck  to a solid career as a radio sportscaster  and then  astonishingly  fatefully  to Hollywood. And the rest  as they say  is history.  Bob Spitzs REAGAN is an absorbing  richly detailed  even revelatory chronicle of the full arc of Ronald Reagans epic life - giving full weight to the Hollywood years  his transition to politics and rocky but ultimately successful run as California governor  and ultimately  of course  his iconic presidency  filled with storm and stress but climaxing with his peace talks with the Soviet Union that would serve as his greatest legacy. It is filled with fresh assessments and shrewd judgments  and doesnt flinch from a full reckoning with the mans strengths and limitations. This is no hagiography: Reagan was never a brilliant student  of anything  and his disinterest in hard-nosed political scheming  while admirable  meant that this side of things was left to the other people in his orbit  not least his wife Nancy; sometimes this delegation could lead to chaos  and worse. But what emerges as a powerful signal through all the noise is an honest inherent sweetness  a gentleness of nature and willingness to see the good in people and in this country  that proved to be a tonic for America in his time  and still is in ours. It was famously said that FDR had a first-rate disposition and a second-rate intellect. Perhaps it is no accident that only FDR had as high a public approval rating leaving office as Reagan did  or that in the years since Reagan has been closing in on FDR on rankings of Presidential greatness. Written with love and irony  which in a great biography is arguably the same thing  Bob Spitzs masterpiece will give no comfort to partisans at either extreme; for the rest of us  it is cause for celebration.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647162179637,"sku":"ByrdShop_1594205310","price":26.16,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9781594205316.jpg?v=1781689515","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/reagan-an-american-journey-9781594205316","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}