Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader [Hardcover]

As an White House insider during the Reagan Administration, D'Souza observed first-hand the management style of one of the most respected and unrespected presidents of the last half of the 20th century. Initially, he agreed with some of the criticisms, but later came to understand that Reagan simply had a different style than other presidents.

Criticized for being intellectually lazy or simple-minded, President Reagan was never a favorite of the intellectual crowd. His Hollywood past and appeals to higher morals didn't help. Accused of napping during cabinet meetings and using his acting skills to sway public opinion, some dismiss him and his accomplishments, giving the credit to others or dumb luck. In reality, D'Souza says he was very intelligent and could grasp a situation easily, but disliked dealing in the minutia, preferring to delegate to others. He was steered by a strong moral compass, and believed strongly in the people and their ability to make correct decisions when given the facts. His accomplishments were many, including turning around the high-inflation economy of the 1970s (although he had to weather a couple tough years of recession) and bringing the Soviet Union to it's knees by refusing to appease them.

Having grown up in the 1980s, I remember the Reagan years as a time when pride was restored to Americans, when the threat of the Soviet Union seemed very real and iminent. The suggestion that the USSR would fall by the end of the decade would have been ridiculous. But Reagan recognized that it was a system that offered no incentives to its people to perform better, and once he pushed it by forcing them into an arms race, it's weaknesses were revealed. He was often criticized as too old and incompetent for his job, but he proved smarter than all his critics. Too bad a president like that doesn't come along more often.

I found the book to be an easy book to read. D'Souza writes in a clear and logical way, that is easy to follow. His logic is persuasive, and his language without a lot of flowery nonsense. I highly recommend this book to those wishing to understand better the principles and thinking of one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century.

This illuminating work re-evaluates the presidency of Ronald Reagan with the benefit of hindsight. In the Prologue: The Wise Men and the Dummy, the author shows how wrong all the experts were about the Soviet Union for example, and how right Ronald Reagan was. When the most powerful empire in history quite soon imploded, Reagan's prophecies came true. It was the same with the economy.

In chapter 1: Why Reagan Gets No Respect, D'Souza looks at the Reagan enigma, the harsh criticism of the pundits and the secret of Reagan's success. It reveals a complex figure, a distinctive personality of a man larger than life. In chapter 2: The Education Of An Actor, the author considers Reagan's childhood, his career as an actor, first steps in politics and the way life prepared him for the presidency.

Chapter 3: Reagan Goes To Washington, discusses his political career from 1964 to 1980. The part on how he confronted the counterculture chaos as governor of California makes for riveting reading. In the chapter A Walk On The Supply Side, the difficult year of 1982 is discussed, a year in which the economic prospects looked bleak. Reagan however, stayed the course and carried the country with his optimism.

The next year, 1983, saw the beginning of a 7-year period of uninterrupted growth. The recovery took Reagan's critics by surprise, and that's when they ceased calling it Reaganomics. Contrary to popular myth, the 1980s was also a decade of great generosity, which saw a real increase of 57 per cent in charitable giving, from about 65 billion dollars in 1980 to 100 billion in 1990. In this period America became more prosperous, more innovative and more technologically advanced than Japan or Europe.

The following chapters: Confronting The Evil Empire, Making The World Safe For Democracy and The Wall Came Tumbling Down investigate how Reagan foresaw the collapse of communism, how he planned it and how he brought it about. D'Souza points out how the intellectual eggheads got it wrong and Reagan got it right once again. Here also the events in Grenada, Afghanistan and Nicaragua are discussed. Against the odds, the Reagan administration achieved a remarkable turnaround and a massive worldwide advance towards the concept of democracy for all. The role of Margaret Thatcher and the Pope are also dealt with, and these chapters include information on SDI (the space shield or star wars as it was also called).

In the Man Behind The Mask, D'Souza considers the paradoxes in Reagan's life, for example his personal faith, his non-attendance of church and his sardonic view of organized religion. His wit, humour and tolerance of human failings went hand in hand with an objective standard of truth and virtue. Spirit Of A Leader looks at his leadership style and qualities and how he shifted the political centre by changing the terms of the debate. This is measured in the way his opponents adopted his rhetoric and his objectives.

Epilogue: The Road Not Taken is a rather glum indictment of the route that America took from 1989 to 1996, in which D'Souza takes the GOP leadership and conservative intellectuals to task. This book was published in 1997 so perhaps Mr D'Souza might want to get out a new edition with a more positive postscript. Well researched, the book concludes with copious notes and a though index.

Together with Peggy Noonan's book When Character Was King I found this to be the best book on Reagan. He revived the American Spirit, won the Cold War and made the world safer for democracy. And he had a good influence on me in the 1980s when I happened to be a gaunt youth with a gloomy, gothic outlook on life. To learn more about this great man, listen to his speeches on the 5-CD set Speaking My Mind, or read the book Dear Americans: Letters From the Desk Of Ronald Reagan.

The Ronald Reagan presented within the pages of this extremely well-written biography is, without doubt, the REAL Ronald Reagan - not the one so egregiously caricatured by The Reagans, a movie so fallacious that it is simply laughable. Dinesh D'Souza, having been a Senior Domestic Policy Advisor for the latter part of the Reagan presidency, gives us unique and unadulterated(unlike The Reagans movie) insights into events that DID happen and things that Reagan DID say.

This is not, by any means, a blind ode to Reagan. It shares plenty of Reagan speaking gaffes as well as his distant relationship with his children. That being said, D'Souza does not go so far as to demonize Reagan as liberals invariably do. Reagan is vastly underrated as a leader - and Dinesh cites many examples how. Reagan's "rendezvous with destiny" and his bold, clear, & unwavering vision of democracy and freedom put America back on the map as THE world superpower after the chaotic tumult that ensued under the ambiguous indecisiveness of Jimmy Carter.

Reagan took the bad hand that he was dealt of stagflation, an impotent military, rising unemployment, outrageous gas prices, exorbitant mortgages of 21%, disgustingly high taxes, & a permeating sense of festering malaise and, undeterred, set into action his campaign pledges: restoring economic growth through tax cuts, curbing of monstrous inflation, ending the gasoline crisis, sparking technological progress, defeating commununism, rebuilding an outmoded and ineffective military, and most importantly, restoring the optimism, patriotism and pride of Americans in this great country. It is impossible to lead if you are unsure of where you want to go. Reagan, it goes without saying, did not have this problem.

"My optimism comes not just from my strong faith in God but from my strong and enduring faith in man."