Customer Reviews

Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America

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Lately I have been reading some of the books on letters from the former president and this is indeed one of the best in its revelatory powers. What is surprising - once one gets past all the soundbites of the media - is that he was incredibly curious about the world (in a sense, reminescent of Clinton) but at the same time held an optimistic, almost youthful outlook for the American people that never faltered once.

As I said in my review on Reagan: Letters, his was an intellect unlike Nixon, Gore, Dole or Kerry. He did not think in terms of politics first but always in terms of people. He was (as one reviewer aptly noted) at heart a libertarian, revealed by his comments on adult drug usage, religion, taxes and personal freedom. This most abused of Presidents (think Hollywood and academia) effectively reshaped America and the world in his image - an accomplishment of outstanding proportions that few Presidents can approach.

It is not surprising that he supported Goldwater, another closet Libertarian. (I love his comment on election day, "I voted for a few Democrats." Can one imagine a comparable comment from Delay or Clinton?) I liked the rough letters - it shows us a mind in the process of arriving at a final thought. Sometimes the marked out parts are more informative than what remains. Once again, the intellectual range covered within these words is simply astounding - economics, philosophy, the proper role of govt, the correlation between economic and personal freedom, human motivation... One notes again that these are PHILOSOPHICAL (not political) undertones - no quick and easy answers on such questions as minimum wage, quotas, throwing money at education, mass transit, welfare...these were almost too pedestrian for someone determined to change America and the world.

To quote another reviewer, RR possessed one of the rarest of qualities - emotional intelligence. He recognized why people did what did and continually sought to make American into a place where everyone could reach their full potential. Another outstanding contribution to the political literature!

This outstanding book is not narrative, nor is it a history. Rather, it is a collection of short opinion pieces the president wrote and broadcast on radio during the 1970s. In these pages, you will find the Reagan philosophy clearly outlined, defined, and defended.

I first read this book when it was assigned for a graduate class at Wesleyan University. As one can imagine, the book was subjected to some pretty brutal criticism by the students. However, one area of agreement was that the philosophy developed was clearly his, that he wrote the speeches himself, and therefore the image of the "amiable dunce" that has long characterized the traditional academic's view of Reagan is, at least, an oversimplification. More likely, Reagan was an intellectually capable leader with a grasp of the "big picture" who could delegate public policy details to competent staffers, who at times failed in their responsibility.

Whatever your views of Reagan's domestic and foreign policy are, this book will give you insight into the philosophy that drove Reagan. Whether you want to cheer or scream at what you read, you will find the principles of the Reagan revolution clearly articulated. Moreover, this is pure Reagan. He is obviously influenced by William F. Buckley and National Review by this period, but these are not presidential speeches written by staffers and in house intellectuals. This is, to put is simply, the real Ronald Reagan. Everyone interested in understanding his legacy ought to read this book. Highly recommended.

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.

This is really a great collection to have of primary source material on Ronald Reagan, allowing anyone who would want to do more research on Reagan as a person, political thinker, and politician, to see how the former President thought things out. Even the spelling mistakes and crossouts by Reagan left in the book are invaluable. Though they may hurt the flow of the reading, they are important to the books value as a primary source-everything is left in, and one can even see what Reagan decided he did not want to leave in his writings. Excellent book for scholars interested in Reagan.

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  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.

I just finished reading this book -

I have to tell you, I was positively stunned. I now believe Reagan was primarily a classic liberal, with a few conservative traits.

Even his justification for restrictions on abortion were argued from the classic liberal perspective - here is his conclusion, after considerable discussion, where he answered his own question "What kind of abortion bill would I (Reagan, as governor of California) sign?":

"... My answer as to what kind of abortion bill I could sign was one that recognized an abortion is the taking of a human life. In our Judeo-Christian religion we recognize the right to take life in defense of our own. Therefore an abortion is justified when done in self defense. My belief is that a woman has the right to protect her own life & health against even her own unborn child. I believe also that just as she has the right to defend herself against rape she should not be made to bear a child resulting from that violation of her person and therefore abortion is an act of self defense.

I know there will be disagreement with this view but I can find no evidence whatsoever that a fetus is not a living human being with human rights." ppg. 384-385.

This is precisely the same argument I have seen made by pro-life libertarians. Throughout the book, Reagan makes the same arguments time and again - he even justified the military build-up with classic liberal logic - that the United States must defend individual liberty against aggression of foreign powers.

After reading this book, I delved further into Reagan's background - he was regarded in college (he attended small Eureka College, in Illinois) as gifted, possessing of a nearly eidectic (photographic) memory. He participated in a great deal of extra-curricular activities, and graduated with a degree in economics(!) and sociology. I never realized the depth of Reagan's background ...

I am convinced that Reagan was a libertarian who allowed the conservatives to embrace him - but was able to appeal to the crossover Democratic voters who believed strongly in his message of individual liberty. This should give hope to anyone who embraces libertarian ideology, and could also point to a roadmap regarding how a libertarian could be successful in national politics. Ronald Reagan appears to be a classic liberal in the mold of Hayek, but unlike Hayek who denied he was a conservative, Reagan was shrewd enough to embrace the support of the conservatives.

I highly recommend this book for all of you interested in political/economic theory, whether you loved or hated Reagan. Reading it certainly awakened me to a depth in Ronald Reagan that I didn't realize he possessed.

Don't be intimidated by its length - it is a compendium of 5 minute essays he wrote for radio addresses from 1975 through 1979. Checking it out of the library for skimming might be an excellent way to get a good feel for whether you would want to add this book to your personal collection. You really could get a very good idea of where Reagan was coming from just by skimming through the book, reading the titles of the essays, and actually reading only those that catch your eye.

In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed delving into this work ... and came away from the experience with more respect for Ronald Reagan.

This is an excellent book for fans of Reagan and students of political science.

A variety of Reagan's original writings demonstrate the depth of his thought and that his political stances held firm over a period of decades.

This book dispels both the notion that Reagan was a scripted President and that his speechwriters handed him all his good lines.

Each piece by Reagan is short enough to read during a break, yet contains a thread of Reagan's ideology. Together they weave a tapestry of libertarian-conservatism, an ideology that has moved the Republican Party from also-rans in the 1970s to dominant political party today.

This collection of writings offers an interesting look into the mind of Ronald Reagan before his Presidency. (Most of the writings and speeches were compiled from the 1960's and 1970's.) His policy proposals and formulations are interesting and his common sense grasp of economics and foreign policy is inspiring. This is a must for any admirer of the Gipper. Reagan was a visionary who stuck to his guns and principles- and preached free-markets and limited government when everyone else hailed state interventionism and big government.

This collection, largely drawn from radio transcripts of Reagan's mid-1970s speeches, gives some interesting insights into Reagan which dispel both the assumptions of the right and the left. Liberals will be surprised to see that, before his presidency at least, Reagan had an active role in a wide range of policy formulations. Conservatives, however, will be humbled to see just how stubbornly wrong-headed Reagan was on a number of issues. Enough here to please (or displease) people of every political stripe.

Just reading these addresses and stories makes one proud to be an American. Written with humor and class, these essays lay the foundation for modern conservatism. This book will leave you with no doubt in your mind- the Gipper was one of the greatest Presidents in our nation's history.