Ronald Reagan Popular Books
Ronald Reagan Biography & Facts
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( RAY-gən; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent conservative figures in American history. Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932 and began to work as a sports broadcaster in Iowa. In 1937, he moved to California, and became a well-known film actor there. From 1947 to 1952, Reagan served as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. During the 1950s, he worked in television and spoke for General Electric. From 1959 to 1960, he again served as the Screen Actors Guild's president. In 1964, his "A Time for Choosing" speech gave Reagan attention as a new conservative figure. He was elected governor of California in 1966. During his governorship, he raised taxes, turned the state budget deficit into a surplus, and cracked down harshly on university protests. After challenging and losing to incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 Republican presidential primaries, Reagan won the Republican nomination and then a landslide victory over incumbent Democratic president Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential election. In his first term, Reagan implemented "Reaganomics", which involved economic deregulation and cuts in both taxes and government spending during a period of stagflation. He escalated an arms race and transitioned Cold War policy away from détente with the Soviet Union. Reagan also ordered the invasion of Grenada in 1983. Additionally, he survived an assassination attempt, fought public-sector labor unions, expanded the war on drugs, and was slow to respond to the AIDS epidemic in the United States, which began early in his presidency. In the 1984 presidential election, he defeated former vice president Walter Mondale in another landslide victory. Foreign affairs dominated Reagan's second term, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, the Iran–Iraq War, the secret and illegal sale of arms to Iran to fund the Contras, and a more conciliatory approach in talks with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that culminated in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Reagan left the presidency in 1989 with the American economy having seen a significant reduction of inflation, the unemployment rate having fallen, and the United States having entered its then-longest peacetime expansion. At the same time, the national debt had nearly tripled since 1981 as a result of his cuts in taxes and increased military spending, despite cuts to domestic discretionary spending. Reagan's policies also helped contribute to the end of the Cold War and the end of Soviet communism. Alzheimer's disease hindered Reagan post-presidency, and his physical and mental capacities rapidly deteriorated, ultimately leading to his death in 2004. Historians and scholars have typically ranked him among the middle to upper tier of American presidents, and his post-presidential approval ratings by the general public are usually high. Early life Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in a commercial building in Tampico, Illinois, as the younger son of Nelle Clyde Wilson and Jack Reagan. Nelle was committed to the Disciples of Christ, which believed in the Social Gospel. She led prayer meetings and ran mid-week prayers at her church when the pastor was out of town. Reagan credited her spiritual influence and he became a Christian. According to American political figure Stephen Vaughn, Reagan's values came from his pastor, and the First Christian Church's religious, economic and social positions "coincided with the words, if not the beliefs of the latter-day Reagan". Jack focused on making money to take care of the family, but this was complicated by his alcoholism. Neil Reagan was Reagan's older brother. Together, they lived in Chicago, Galesburg, and Monmouth before returning to Tampico. In 1920, they settled in Dixon, Illinois, living in a house near the H. C. Pitney Variety Store Building. Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in drama and football. His first job involved working as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park. In 1928, Reagan began attending Eureka College at Nelle's approval on religious grounds. He was a mediocre student who participated in sports, drama, and campus politics. He became student body president and joined a student strike that resulted in the college president's resignation. Reagan was initiated as a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and served as president of the local chapter. Reagan played at the guard position for the 1930 and 1931 Eureka Red Devils football teams and recalled a time when two black football teammates were refused service at a segregated hotel; he invited them to his parents' home nearby in Dixon and his parents welcomed them. At the time, his parents' stance on racial questions were unusually progressive in Dixon. Reagan himself had grown up with very few black Americans there and was unaware of a race problem. Entertainment career Radio and film After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology from Eureka College in 1932, Reagan took a job in Davenport, Iowa, as a sports broadcaster for four football games in the Big Ten Conference. He then worked for WHO radio in Des Moines as a broadcaster for the Chicago Cubs. His specialty was creating play-by-play accounts of games using only basic descriptions that the station received by wire as the games were in progress. Simultaneously, he often expressed his opposition to racism. In 1936, while traveling with the Cubs to their spring training in California, Reagan took a screen test that led to a seven-year contract with Warner Bros. Reagan arrived at Hollywood in 1937, debuting in Love Is on the Air (1937). Using a simple and direct approach to acting and following his directors' instructions, Reagan made thirty films, mostly B films, before beginning military service in April 1942. He broke out of these types of films by portraying George Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American (1940), which would be rejuvenated when reporters called Reagan "the Gipper" while he campaigned for president of the United States. Afterward, Reagan starred in Kings Row (1942) as a leg amputee, asking, "Where's the rest of me?" His performance was considered his best by many critics. Reagan became a star, with Gallup polls placing him "in the top 100 stars" from 1941 to 1942. World War II interrupted the movie stardom that Reagan would never be able to achieve again as Warner Bros. became uncertain about his ability to generate ticket sales. Reagan, who had a limited acting range, was dissatisfied with the roles he received. As a result, Lew Wasserman renegotiated his contract with his studio, allowing him to also make films with Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and RKO Pictures as a freelancer. With this, Reag.... Discover the Ronald Reagan popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ronald Reagan books.
Best Seller Ronald Reagan Books of 2024
-
Killing Reagan
Bill O'Reilly & Martin DugardFrom the bestselling team of Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard comes Killing Reagan, a pageturning epic account of the career of President Ronald Reagan that tells the vivid story ...
-
The Triumph of Nancy Reagan
Karen TumultyA Washington Post Notable Book The definitive biography of the fiercely vigilant and politically astute First Lady who shaped one of the most consequential presidencies of the 20th...
-
Riding with Reagan
John R. Barletta & Rochelle SchweizerIt is an image etched in the minds of a generation: Ronald Reagan perched atop his horse, riding through the dusty trails and canyons of his California ranch with his beloved wife,...
-
Why the Right Went Wrong
E.J. DionneFrom the author of Why Americans Hate Politics, the New York Times bestselling and “notably fairminded” (The New York Times Book Review), story of the GOP’s fracturingfrom the 1964...
-
Rawhide Down
Del Quentin WilberA Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011A Richmond Times Dispatch Top Book for 2011A minutebyminute account of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, to coincide w...
-
You Never Know
Tom SelleckThere are many miles from the business school and basketball court at the University of Southern California to 50 million viewers for the final episode of a TV show called Magnum P...
-
The Conservative Sensibility
George F. WillThe Pulitzer Prizewinning columnist's "astonishing" and "enthralling" New York Times bestseller and Notable Book about how the Founders' belief in natural rights created a great Am...
-
American Heiress
Jeffrey ToobinA National BestsellerFrom New Yorker staff writer and bestselling author of The Nine and The Run of His Life: The People v. O. J. Simpson, the definitive a...
-
An American Life
Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan’s autobiography is a work of major historical importance. Here, in his own words, is the story of his lifepublic and privatetold in a book both frank and compellingly...
-
The Man Who Ran Washington
Peter Baker & Susan GlasserBEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times The Washington Post Fortune BloombergFrom two of America's most revered political journalists comes ...
-
JFK and the Reagan Revolution
Lawrence Kudlow & Brian DomitrovicThe fascinating, suppressed history of how JFK pioneered supplyside economics. John F. Kennedy was the first president since the 1920s to slash tax rates acrosstheboard, bec...
-
Ronald Reagan Our 40th President
Winston GroomHe was one of America’s true greats. As president, he changed the world, developing a successful strategy for defeating Communism, toppling the Soviet Union, and liberating Eastern...
-
Ronald Reagan
James B. SutherlandRonald Reagan was a Hollywood actor turned Republican politician known for his sunny optimism and gifted salesmanship. He entered the White House in 1981, a time when many American...
-
God and Ronald Reagan
Paul KengorRonald Reagan is hailed today for a presidency that restored optimism to America, engendered years of economic prosperity, and helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Yet ...
-
The Back Channel
William J. Burns“A masterful diplomatic memoir” (The Washington Post) from CIA director and career ambassador William J. Burns, from his service under five presidents to h...
-
Sinatra and Me
Tony Oppedisano & Mary Jane RossThis intimate, revealing portrait of Frank Sinatrafrom the man closest to the famous singer during the last decade of his lifefeatures neverbeforeseen photos and new revelations ab...
-
American Sketches
Walter IsaacsonOne of America's most versatile writers, author of bestselling biographies such as Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin, has assembled a gallery of portraits of (mostly) Americans that...
-
Destiny and Power
Jon Meacham#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER In this brilliant biography, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jon Meacham chronicles the life of George Herbert Walker Bush.NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BES...
-
The Invisible Bridge
Rick PerlsteinThe New York Times bestselling dazzling portrait of America on the verge of a nervous breakdown in the tumultuous political and economic times of the 1970s.In January of 1973 Richa...
-
The Notes
Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan left behind a legacy that America will never forget. Now, in this oneofakind collection of his most intimate thoughts, his favorite quotations by others, and his own ...
-
Hotel Scarface
Roben FarzadThe wild, true story of the Mutiny, the hotel and club that embodied the decadence of Miami’s cocaine cowboys heydayand an inspiration for the blockbuster film, Scarface...In the s...
-
The First Family Detail
Ronald KesslerNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Ron Kessler appears to get everything first.”Slate As in a play, presidents, vice presidents, and presidential candidates perform onstage for...
-
Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher
Nicholas WapshottNew details of the remarkable relationship between two leaders who teamed up to change history.It?s well known that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were close allies and kindre...
-
A Generation of Sociopaths
Bruce Cannon GibneyIn his "remarkable" (Men's Journal) and "controversial" (Fortune) book written in a "wry, amusing style" (The Guardian) Bruce Cannon Gibney shows how America was hijacked by the ...
-
Democracy in Black
Eddie S. Glaude JR.A powerful polemic on the state of black America that savages the idea of a postracial society. America’s great promise of equality has always rung hollow in the ears of Afric...
-
The Reagan Diaries
Ronald Reagan#1 New York Times Bestseller“Reading these diaries, Americans will find it easier to understand how Reagan did what he did for so long . . . They paint a portrait of a president wh...
-
Ronald Reagan
Jacob Weisberg, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. & Sean WilentzThe conservative icon who reshaped American politics and laid the groundwork for the end of the Cold WarIn the second half of the twentieth century, no American president defined h...
-
The Timeless Quotations of President Ronald Reagan
Alton Pryor"Government is the people's business, and every man, woman, and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of tax paid" is only one of the striking quotes from the man that m...
-
Enemies
Tim WeinerThe hidden history of the FBI and its hundredyear war against terrorists, spies, and anyone it deemed subversiveincluding even American presidents. NEW YORK TIMES BESTSEL...
-
Zero Fail
Carol LeonnigNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “This is one of those books that will go down as the seminal workthe determinative workin this field. . . . Terrifying.”Rachel MaddowThe first definitive...
-
The Ultimate Ronald Reagan Collection
Charles River Editors & Ronald ReaganIncludes: Charles River Editors original biography of Ronald Reagan Reagan’s Inaugural Addresses, all of his State of the Union Addresses, and his Farewell Address “Freedom is neve...
-
Midnight in Chernobyl
Adam HigginbothamA New York Times Best Book of the Year A Time Best Book of the Year A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of the Year 2020 Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence Winner One of NPR’s...
-
Reagan, In His Own Hand
Kiron K. SkinnerUntil Alzheimer's disease wreaked its gradual destruction, Ronald Reagan was an inveterate writer. He wrote not only letters, short fiction, poetry, and sports stories, but speeche...
-
Girl in a Band
Kim GordonNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERKim Gordon, founding member of Sonic Youth, fashion icon, and role model for a generation of women, now tells her storya memoir of life as an artist, of mu...
-
Ronald Reagan
Michael SchallerIn this short biography, Michael Schaller, acclaimed historian of the American political right, offers readers a poignant account of Ronald Reagan's life and achievements, from his...
-
Nixonland
Rick PerlsteinAn exciting eformat containing 27 video clips taken directly from the CBS news archive of a brilliant, bestselling account of the Nixon era by one of America’s most talented y...
-
Reagan Rising
Craig ShirleyWith a Foreword by Jon MeachamNew York Times bestselling biographer Craig Shirley charts Ronald Reagan’s astonishing rise from the ashes of his lost 1976 presidential bid to overwh...
-
Evil Geniuses
Kurt AndersenNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER When did America give up on fairness? The author of Fantasyland tells the epic history of how America decided that big business gets whatever it wan...
-
How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life
Peter RobinsonAs a young speechwriter in the Reagan White House, Peter Robinson was responsible for the celebrated "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech. He was also one of a core group of...
-
Three Days in Moscow
Bret Baier & Catherine Whitney"An instant classic, if not the finest book to date on Ronald Reagan.” Jay WinikPresident Reagan's dramatic battle to win the Cold War is revealed as never before b...