Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1875698 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

Not balanced, but highly recommended anyway!
This exciting book tells the story of Ronald Reagan's lifelong war against communism. Skipping unnecessary background history, the book immediately launches into the exhilarating story of Reagan's defiance of communism in Hollywood, and his presidency of the Screen Actors Guild. Following that, the book follows the history of American-Soviet relations under the various American presidents. And then, in exquisite detail, the author follows the actions of President Reagan, as he wrestled the Soviet system into discredit and bankruptcy.

Let me start out by saying that if you want a balanced look at President Reagan's strengths and weaknesses in dealing with the Soviet Union, then you will be *terribly* disappointed by this book. This book is a shout of "Halleluiah!", a celebration of Reagan's courage and farsightedness. Using newly opened Soviet sources, the author looks at what the Americans did throughout the era, and what the Soviets thought and did.

I must say that I enjoyed this book immensely. Coming of age at the beginning of the Reagan Revolution, I remember a good deal of what this book covers, but this book does an excellent job of filling in the details that were unavailable at the time (secret meetings between Americans and Soviets, Politburo discussions, personal opinions from both sides of the wall). Therefore, if you want an exciting, fact filled look at Ronald Reagan's triumph over communism, then I highly recommend that you get this book!

Bad feeling after reading this.
Got friends in the US who don't live too far from DC, so government is a big thing for them. They all lived through the 80's and 90's presidents, and there's a real mix of opinions about all the presidents between the 3 of them. Reagan is probably the one that they disagree about most. Mike (Cheers buddy!) gave me a copy of this (he thinks Reagan was a pretty good guy, the other two don't) with the words "It's probably not the best book to read about Reagan, but give it a go and you might understand him more."

I did give it a go, and have now finished it. I'm in two minds as to whether it's a great book or a really bad one. Insofar as the writing is concerned, I have no problem with it - it is very well written insofar as the style is very easy to read. What I have a problem with is whether or not the 'facts' are reliable, and if this is actually a good historical account of Reagan's 'struggle'. The main source of information about how great Reagan is comes from...wait for it...Reagan's personal diaries!! Hardly a great source for an unbiased account...

...which brings me to what is actually written. I think the writer goes far too over the top with his adoration of Reagan. It seems like almost everything that Reagan ever did was considered as a benevolent and brilliant piece of politics to Mr Schweizer. I found this particularly sickening when I read of Reagan's plan to attempt to bankrupt the Soviet Union as a way of bringing Communism to it's knees, with full knowledge of how close to starving some of the population already were. Very hypocritical in the face of his criticism of Stalin's regime.

There is example after example of Reagan's obsession with Communism meaning that he put the 'struggle' before anything else. I think Mr Schweizer is either being deliberately blind or is genuinely so obsessed with Reagan that he cannot see how Reagan was blind to all the bad effects of his 'struggle' on his contemporary actors or the population of the countries that he had some sort of problem with.

The book is supposed to be concluded with Reagan's 'triumph' over communism, but in my opinion all he seemed to do was create political tension in the US and the rest of the world, and communism fell apart without much help from him in the end. My conclusion was that paper had been wasted by someone who was setting out to make a point from a very biased standpoint; and that I had wasted my time reading this, as I didn't really learn anything new, just that Mr Schweizer thinks that Reagan was the best thing since sliced bread.

I'm just glad I didn't waste money on buying it!

Utter drivel!
I read this hoping to get an insight into what drove this actor turned president. He was president for my late teens and early 20's, and what I remember most of all was his portrayal as a complete idiot on the TV series 'Spitting Image', and his constant stream of gaffes that were reported on the news. I had a vague knowledge of his anti-communist stance during the McCarthyist 50's, and knew of his Central American crusades, so I wanted to know more.

I had hoped that I would be reading a history book, but I wouldn't be surprised if this had been written by Reagan's best friend in an attempt to portray him in the best possible light over everything that he has ever done.

I'm not so sure how reliable the 'facts' of the book are either - Schweizer claims to have access to secret Soviet documents that 'prove' all kinds of things, such as numerous Soviet backed attempts to assassinate Reagan. Apparently the main source of information was Reagan's private diaries. If Reagan really believed all that he wrote in these diaries, then it's amazing that he was allowed to become President!!!

The book is incredibly biased towards Reagan as some sort of messianic saviour of the world, and there is virtually criticism of any aspect of his life. This book is nothing more than 100% backing of a chronological list of events of Reagan's life!