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From my colleague, Lexington Green<\/strong> at Chicago Boyz<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Best Books About Reagan<\/a><\/p>\n ChicagoBoyz will be hosting a <\/strong>roundtable discussion <\/strong><\/a>to celebrate the centenary of the birth of President Reagan, the week of February 6th 2011. <\/strong><\/p>\n In the meantime I would like to get the views of our contributors and readers on what are the best books about Reagan, the Reagan presidency, the Reagan era. Please leave comments with your favorites. <\/strong><\/p>\n I note that President Obama was recently reading Lou Cannon’s book <\/strong>The Role of a Lifetime<\/strong><\/a> I have read and enjoyed several books about Mr. Reagan, his presidency and his era. I will restrict myself to one favorite. If I had to pick one, I would give the palm to Peggy Noonan’s book <\/strong>What I Saw at the Revolution<\/strong><\/a> I am currently reading John O’Sullivan’s book, <\/strong>The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World<\/strong><\/a> As I said in the comments section at Chicago Boyz, I concur that Cannon’s The Role of A Lifetime and Noonan are the place to start.<\/p>\n There was a prolific outpouring of memoirs by former members of the Reagan administration in the years during and after his time as president. I think we can even divide the lit into books about (or by, at least nominally) Ronald Reagan and those about his administration.<\/p>\n Here are some of my recs….<\/p>\n On Ronald Reagan:<\/p>\n An American Life: The Autobiography<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Reagan: In His Own Hand<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The Reagan Diaries<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n I like starting a subject by looking closely at what they had to say for themselves. Reagan’s diaries and private correspondence put the lie to the “amiable dunce” smear made by Clark Clifford<\/strong> (a decidedly nasty-edged, lawyer-courtier of Democratic presidents who ended his own\u00a0long public career exposed as a\u00a0corrupt dotard, thus proving George C. Marshall’s<\/strong>\u00a0ability to size up a man’s\u00a0character was inerrant).<\/p>\n On the Reagan Administration:<\/p>\n Inside The National Security Council<\/a><\/strong> by Constantine Menges<\/strong><\/p>\n Unfortunately, I believe this one is out of print. Dr. “Constant Menace” details the intrigue at the NSC and State by officials who were less than committed to Reagan’s foreign policy initiatives, in particular the Contras and SDI. Menges,\u00a0the late\u00a0brilliant, often insufferable,\u00a0old-style neoconservative gets a thumbs up from me for his capacity to infuriate State Department officials and his geostrategically incompetent and socially inept boss, NSC Adviser Col. Bud McFarlane.<\/strong><\/p>\n Casey<\/a><\/strong> by Joseph Persico<\/strong><\/p>\n Liberal biographer Joe Persico paints a complicated but at times hagiographic picture of his close friend, CIA spymaster and Reagan political adviser, William Casey. Strong emphasis on Casey’s crusade against the USSR, his unprecedented role for a CIA chief in foreign policy and the ideological struggle over the control over Reagan’s foreign policy. I have a great deal of admiration for Bill Casey and wish someone like him were running the IC today. We’d all be a lot better off.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chicagoboyz-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1891620916\")
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