REAGAN: THE MAN AND HIS PRESIDENCY, by Deborah Hart Strober and Gerald S. Strober, Houghton Mifflin Co., 640 pages, $35.
The Strobers wrote this book with the help of interviews with 108 men and women who knew Ronald Reagan at different times in his life. The list of the people they talked with includes George Bush, Jerry Falwell, Alexander Haig, Fawn Hall, Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick, Oliver North, Michael Reagan, George Shultz, Caspar Weinberger, and even Manuel Noriega. Their stories combine to create the best biographical portrait of Ronald Reagan to date.
Among the topics recorded in this substantial biography are Reagan’s personality, the 1981 assassination attempt, the emerging AIDS crisis, the Iran Contra scandal, the Grenada invasion, and the debates with President Jimmy Carter during the 1980 campaign. Along the way, the book imparts the flavor of nearly a decade of world history.
Jim Romeo is a freelance writer from Chesapeake, Virginia, and the author of The Autograph Sourcebook.