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UP CLOSE: RONALD REAGAN by James Sutherland

UP CLOSE: RONALD REAGAN

by James Sutherland

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-670-05345-1
Publisher: Viking

Like all good biographers, Sutherland starts this study of Ronald Reagan not with his birth but with a scene that grabs readers’ attentions: the shooting of the president on March 30, 1981. Readers may be surprised to learn how close to death the president had been, and the traits demonstrated in facing death—humor, optimism, courage and determination—are exactly the ones that defined his life. This straightforward and fast-paced account sticks closely to Reagan’s life, with only occasional excursions into the social issues of his early years, slowing down and expanding to cover the themes that dominated his presidency: communism in Central America, nuclear-arms discussions with Soviet leaders, the Strategic Defense Initiative and the Iran-Contra Affair. The volume ends with Reagan’s death from pneumonia in 2004 with little reflection on his place in history. As with all of the volumes in this fine series, the writing is clear, the bibliography is solid and the historical content is accessible for the intended audience, if somewhat lacking in analysis. (foreword, source notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 11 & up)