home > by publication type > must reads > New Yorker: Diaries of Ronald Reagan
Email
| Author: | Nicholas Lemann |
|---|
May 28, 2007
Excerpt:
"While he was President, Ronald Reagan kept an almost daily diary. He was the only President during the last century to do so, and the result—in a form that is greatly reduced but still makes a very long book—“The Reagan Diaries”...takes its place next to an earlier volume, almost as large, of correspondence written in his own hand, another of speeches, and yet another of his radio talks. Presidents, including Reagan, usually write memoirs of their White House years afterward; Reagan wins the prize for copiousness of in-office Presidential writing.
Some great politicians have an eerie (Clintonian, one might say) talent for leaving admirers with wildly varied impressions of them. Reagan wasn’t like that. He presented a consistent persona, to which people’s reactions varied wildly. Reagan ran for office as the nominee of a major party four times—twice for governor of California and twice for President—and won all four races by big margins. But people who got close to him were often unable to feel the connection that voters did from a distance. Aide after aide, and Reagan’s official biographer, Edmund Morris, have testified to his remoteness and unknowability, and his children seem to have felt the same way. Intellectuals, journalists, and old Washington pros always saw him as a lightweight—Clark Clifford memorably called him “an amiable dunce.” He also generated consistent ideological opposition, mainly from the left but also from conservatives who thought he didn’t deliver on his assurances that he was one of them.
Reagan’s diaries will reinforce each of these reactions."
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
Complete list of CFR Books
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.