First published 2001
Frances FitzGerald uses Ronald Reagan's Star Wars missile defense initiative as her lens to examine the fortieth president. The Pulitzer Prize winner conducted extensive research to reveal how Reagan secured billions in funding for a technologically unfeasible program by tapping into American anxieties. FitzGerald's analysis reveals a president who possessed remarkable political instincts and understood the American mind, yet remained almost completely detached from his administration's actual policies. Her portrait captures Reagan as both appalling and amusing, offering readers the most incisive examination of his presidency available.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, political-science, non-fiction, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-Century
592 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster