Reagan: A Life In Letters
by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, Martin Anderson
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Inspiration for the rest of us (2007-06-08)
After all the sneering put downs from the leftist elitists, we can see the truth of a great man, in his own words. Almost singlehanded, he led the revolt of the common man against the elitists who would steal the common man’s liberty for crass political gain. The revolution continues.The book could have been half as long, and therefore twice as effective. (2007-06-04)
If you are expecting intricate epistles along the lines of Paul the Apostle or C. S. Lewis Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis - Box Set, forget about it. Sixty percent of this book is small (almost jotted) memos. It is nice to see that Reagan kept in contact with people, and that he nudged his relationships along with these small bundles. But as a presidential source book, we could have done with less. The book could have been half as long, and therefore twice as effective.
If you are looking for sources on Reaganism, then I recommend Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches and Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan That Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for America. We get interesting policy letters about once every 25 pages or so. The gems are his correspondence with Nixon and Brezhnev. Plus we have a lot of material from the Governator years. These are key, since one does not go from GE spokesman to Leader of the Free World in one bound. We see the Reagan we all know love and . . . developing in the California Crucible.
I think the biggest surprise was the section on pen pals. Instead of Ronaldus Magnus, we see Ronnie, all around good egg. Many of these letters are folksy, dealing with human problems, and occasionally we get Reagan’s insight into current events–Lt. Calley, Charles Manson, and Sirhan Sirhan. Several letters are personal response to his critics. His firm but gentle way of rebuking a misinformed foe serves for a universal lesson.
Favorite Letter: page 664.
Andy Smith, a seventh-grader in Irmo, S.C., wrote the President in 1984, “Today my mother declared my bedroom a disaster area. I would like to request federal funds to hire a crew to clean up my room.”
Dear Andy:
I’m sorry to be so late in answering your letter but as you know I’ve been in China . . .
Your application for disaster relief has been duly noted but I must point out one technical problem; the authority declaring the disaster is supposed to make the request. In this case your mother.
However setting that aside I’ll have to point out the larger problem of available funds. This has been a year of disasters, 539 hurricanes as of May 4th and several more since, numerous floods, forest fires, drought in Texas and a number of earthquakes. What I’m getting at is that funds are dangerously low.
May I make a suggestion? This administration, believing that government has done many things that could better be done by volunteers at the local level, has sponsored a Private Sector Initiative program, calling upon people to practice voluntarism in the solving of a number of local problems.
Your situation appears to be a natural. I’m sure your mother was fully justified in proclaiming your room a disaster. Therefore you are in an excellent position to launch another volunteer program to go along with the more than 3,000 already underway in our nation–congratulations . . .
Sincerely,
Ronald Reagan
Priceless!!!
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This book should be part of the Essential Reagan Cannon. Along with “Speaking My Mind” and “In His Own Hand,” this book should be read with The Reagan Diaries, An American Life, Ronald Reagan: A Life in Politics and In the Words of Ronald Reagan: The Wit, Wisdom, and Eternal Optimism of America’s 40th President. I also recommend Reagan: Man of Principle, for insight on the elusive Governator years.
I love that old man (2006-12-28)
This review is not probably going to be what one would think for someone who loved Ronald Reagan, because this book was written for people who ignorantly thought he was “the most dangerous man in America”.
That is the focus of this book in being ‘Legacy’ which was what his family, friends and administration were dealing with in releasing this book. We knew President Reagan was brilliant, wise, caring, God fearing, moral and a world leader who only comes along in a generation to transform the world, but these letters were meant to convince the narrow minded how wrong they were about him.
For someone who adores this gentle man, I found it startling in reading he names Jane Fonda and her husband a traitor, how Democrats lied to gain power while the nation suffered in mirror image of what just happened to Bush 43 and his insight that Jimmy Carter would be a disaster and was a phoney before he even took office. The reason that was startling is Reagan was right about Star Wars, was right about how to topple the Soviet Union without a nuclear war and was right how the key to eastern Europe’s freedom was religion, so Reagan being always proven correct has deeper meaning for all of history in his naming people traitors and phoneys.
His greatest warning in his letters today are the dangers of a national health care system which will ruin American health care and how it is only a power grab by socialists to gain more control over America for their rule. It will be the 2008 election and Hillary Clinton as part of her agenda is to implement that national health care. Reagan’s voice rings eternal in warning America of what is right and what is wrong.
I would have enjoyed the book more if the letters would have have been his living legacy of God given wisdom more and less of the facts in trying to prove to ignorant people he really was a good soul. I already knew that like most Americans and we didn’t require convincing.
The book though proves Reagan was the genuine person on camera or off. He and his lovely wife, Nancy, endured more from their children and petty personalities than anyone ever should have to. Americans owe them an eternal thank you and an even more deeper gratitude to God in guiding this American’s life who revolutionized America and the world and whose “shining city on a hill” is still moving the entire world.
That is legacy a generation later and I still love that old man.Fascinating look at one man’s view of history (2006-02-24)
Reading this book, its impossible to escape a few conclusions. First, Reagan was a very warm and cordial man. Regardless of your political views, his decency and civility are very much missed in today’s Washington. Next, Reagan was obviously someone who has a grasp of his material. Whether you agreed with him or not, reading this book and others that have reproduced his correspondence, speeches etc. that he drafted personally will forever shatter the mythical “amiable dunce” that his opponents were quick to embrace. Finally, I got a much better sense of the Reagan the man than any biography I’ve read so far. Interestingly, one gets a MUCH better sense of Reagan the man and the President than from his autobiography, which was fairly mediocre in comparison.Hardcover has 42 reviews– (2005-07-14)
See the hardcover edition for customer reviews. The paperback is the same as the hardcover but has a few corrections of typos and other references. I would hope Amazon would duplicate the customer reviews here, but meanwhile the link in the editorial reviews will work.
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Publisher: Wiley
