Reagan

Reviews

"[I]mpeccably researched and thoroughly compelling… thanks to Boot’s enormously readable and scrupulously honest book, we know more than ever before about this complicated, frustrating and yet oddly magnetic man." — Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times

"Intelligent, elegant and engrossing" — Andrew Preston, Literary Review

"[Reagan’s] remoteness has frustrated previous biographers. But Mr Boot responds with doggedness, evoking Reagan’s early life in small-town Illinois, college years and early forays into politics. Mr Boot is a gifted enough writer to prevent this accretion of detail from becoming a slog, and Reagan’s apparent lack of an inner life becomes a benefit: it keeps the focus on Reagan’s actions, which matter far more than a politician’s thoughts or feelings." — The Economist

"[A] generous yet sharply perceptive biography" — Peter Conrad, The Observer

"[Reagan] aims to be the definitive biography, and it succeeds. It’s a thoughtful, absorbing account." — Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker

"A judicious biography. " — Jacob Heilbrunn, The New York Times

"[A] magisterial new biography… The first important Reagan biography of the post-Reagan era" — Geoffrey Kabaservice, The Washington Post

"[A] readable and insightful biography" — Philip Johnston, The Telegraph

"This is a timely and fascinating book, just what we need to understand, and perhaps transcend, our current age of political paralysis and polarization. Understanding Reagan is key to understanding our politics today." — Walter Isaacson, author of Elon Musk and Steve Jobs

"This comprehensive biography—relying on a decade of research, unearthed records, and revealing interviews—separates man from myth, offering a compelling and clear-eyed portrait of this consequential president and the country he shaped." — Karen Tumulty, author of The Triumph of Nancy Reagan