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NEW YORK TIMES • 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Washington Post • 50 Best Nonfiction Books of 2024
Named a Best Book of 2024 by The New Yorker, The Economist, Chicago Public Library, and The Auburn Citizen

“This elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style…. A landmark work.” —New York Times

“Reagan: His Life and Legend aims to be the definitive biography, and it succeeds.” —New Yorker

“Magisterial…. Important…. Vivid… Splendid.” —Washington Post

In Reagan: His Life and Legend, celebrated political writer Max Boot brings fresh perspective and depth to America’s storied 40th president, shaping a nuanced portrait that reveals the complexities behind Reagan’s iconic image. Based on extensive research that includes thousands of newly available archival documents and more than one hundred interviews with Reagan’s closest aides, friends, and family, Boot crafts what critics have applauded as the most important and definitive biography of Ronald Reagan to date.

Beginning far from Hollywood glamour—in a humble Illinois town in 1911—Ronald Reagan’s early life was defined by contrasts. His mother, Nelle Clyde Wilson, was a deeply devoted Disciples of Christ congregant, while his father, Jack Reagan, faced economic hardships and struggled with alcoholism. Boot vividly charts Reagan’s youthful journey, from celebrated local lifeguard and charismatic radio sportscaster in Iowa to his formative years in Hollywood. Reagan’s movie career blossomed with critically acclaimed roles in films such as Knute Rockne and Kings Row before later veering into lighter fare, including the infamous chimpanzee comedy Bedtime for Bonzo. Eventually, his role as host of the General Electric Theater proved pivotal, firmly establishing Reagan as an influential voice for American conservatism.

Reagan’s transition into politics seemed almost inevitable, and his dramatic election as governor of California in 1966 positioned him as a harbinger of America’s generational shifts. Reagan’s ascendance to the presidency in 1980 ushered in significant social and political realignments, leaving legacies that endure today. Although Reagan positioned himself as a committed conservative ideologue, Boot highlights his pragmatic tendencies: Reagan supported abortion rights and gun control legislation as California governor, negotiated bipartisan deals nationally and statewide, and forged a historic friendship with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that helped draw the Cold War to a peaceful conclusion.

Yet Boot also confronts Reagan’s substantial failings. He unpacks Reagan’s long resistance to civil rights, neglect of the devastating AIDS crisis during his presidency, and how Reagan-era policies ushered in levels of economic inequality unseen since America’s Gilded Age. Reagan’s simple outlook, deeply shaped by his religious upbringing and Western films, imbued him with a clear-cut worldview that sometimes blinded him to critical issues.

With penetrating analysis of the Iran-Contra affair, incisive examinations of Reagan’s controversial “trickle-down economics,” and evocative portrayals of Reagan’s complex family dynamics, Reagan: His Life and Legend offers invaluable new insight into the legacy of a president who, for better or worse, reshaped American political life profoundly. This compelling biography stands among the finest presidential portraits published in recent decades.

Includes 53 photographs.