Ronald Reagan, since he was president for two terms, was president for a significant portion of my childhood. I was quite young for most of it, so I don’t have a lot of vivid memories associated with Reagan. Probably the most vivid memory I have is that some of Oliver North’s testimony about the Iran-Contra affair interrupted some cartoons I was watching. I listened to the hearing for a couple minutes, but found it intensely boring and was mostly upset that I’d miss the cartoon. I most certainly witnessed some of the events that his policies supported, such as the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War. People around talked a lot about the economy’s recovery and lowered taxes, although those were less understandable to a kid than the changes on the international scene.
An American Life: The Autobiography by Ronald Reagan (ISBN: 0-671-69198-8) chronicles Reagan’s life from the time he was born to the end of his presidency. He spends significant time on his childhood, teenage years, and college years. These formative years provided a strong foundation that would serve as a basis for Reagan’s later success in life and in politics. He was open about the shortcomings that both he and his family members had (such as his alcoholic father). He chronicled his entry into the media business, first as a sportscaster and later as an actor, where he had some considerable success. The major portion of the book, though, is dedicated to Reagan’s political pursuits. He spends a little bit of time discussing his stint as governor of California. He talks about political friends and foes, the problems that faced the state, and what he was able to do about them, claiming victory in some instances and admitting defeat in others. Easily half of the book is dedicated to Regan’s time as president of the United States. The budget, the Cold War, and foreign policy are the major themes. In the discussion about budget, there is a major sub-current: liberal bias in the media and the inability of the Democratcs to compromise. Reagan clearly found the Cold War and his role in it to be extremely important because the book talked about that a lot and included more journal entries quoted on that topic than any other. He also quoted lengthy passages from correspondence between himself and Soviet leaders. Here, it seemed, details mattered. Iran-Contra was dealt with extensively. Reagan wanted the U.S. to play a major role in foreign policy in Europe and South America, but strove for balance that encouraged the countries in those regions to solve their own problems, much like his economic policy at home tried to encourage the American people to do their part to pull themselves out of their economic hardships.
I thought the book was a very interesting read. It’s an autobiography (although ghostwritten), so it’s obviously going to be slanted, but I thought that Reagan was rather honest about things. While there were some topics that got almost no attention (his first marriage got one paragraph in a book that had over 700 pages), I found that to honest, too, and something that people nowadays could probably learn from: stuff that happened in the past, especially if there were mistakes involved, is in the past, and to become a better person, we need to focus on learning from our mistakes and improving ourselves going forward. The book was nostalgic in some senses. His descriptions of the work, the people, and the finished products, both in radio and on screen certainly hearkened back to a simpler time. His entry into politics was interesting. I liked that he first got involved by being involved in the actors’ unions. This local involvement is still where people can make real differences. Local politics has a very direct and very real impact on one’s daily life, and it would be to everyone’s benefit to be more involved in those processes. Reagan talked about the Democratic Party leaving him behind, and people talk in the same way (about both major parties) today. If that is something people fear, the solution is the same: get involved. The book didn’t discuss his home life very much, and it seems that his children got more mentions as they became adults. It was interesting how that was handled, but I don’t mind it. Modern culture wants to know everything about everyone, à la the Kardashians, but respect for privacy and personal space is something modern culture could learn from Reagan, too. The criticisms of liberalism were interesting, considering how much more moderate the Democratic party was in Reagan’s time and the fact that the media was, at least in popular opinion, less biased. Reagan’s criticisms were likely legitimate back then, and it was disappointing to see that not much has changed. I found the journal entries a little much. I would’ve liked more on domestic policy (it is here where I disagree with some of Reagan’s policies and would’ve enjoyed hearing about his ideas from the horse’s mouth).
An American Life: The Autobiography by Ronald Reagan (ISBN: 0-671-69198-8) chronicles Reagan’s life from the time he was born to the end of his presidency. He spends significant time on his childhood, teenage years, and college years. These formative years provided a strong foundation that would serve as a basis for Reagan’s later success in life and in politics. He was open about the shortcomings that both he and his family members had (such as his alcoholic father). He chronicled his entry into the media business, first as a sportscaster and later as an actor, where he had some considerable success. The major portion of the book, though, is dedicated to Reagan’s political pursuits. He spends a little bit of time discussing his stint as governor of California. He talks about political friends and foes, the problems that faced the state, and what he was able to do about them, claiming victory in some instances and admitting defeat in others. Easily half of the book is dedicated to Regan’s time as president of the United States. The budget, the Cold War, and foreign policy are the major themes. In the discussion about budget, there is a major sub-current: liberal bias in the media and the inability of the Democratcs to compromise. Reagan clearly found the Cold War and his role in it to be extremely important because the book talked about that a lot and included more journal entries quoted on that topic than any other. He also quoted lengthy passages from correspondence between himself and Soviet leaders. Here, it seemed, details mattered. Iran-Contra was dealt with extensively. Reagan wanted the U.S. to play a major role in foreign policy in Europe and South America, but strove for balance that encouraged the countries in those regions to solve their own problems, much like his economic policy at home tried to encourage the American people to do their part to pull themselves out of their economic hardships.I thought the book was a very interesting read. It’s an autobiography (although ghostwritten), so it’s obviously going to be slanted, but I thought that Reagan was rather honest about things. While there were some topics that got almost no attention (his first marriage got one paragraph in a book that had over 700 pages), I found that to honest, too, and something that people nowadays could probably learn from: stuff that happened in the past, especially if there were mistakes involved, is in the past, and to become a better person, we need to focus on learning from our mistakes and improving ourselves going forward. The book was nostalgic in some senses. His descriptions of the work, the people, and the finished products, both in radio and on screen certainly hearkened back to a simpler time. His entry into politics was interesting. I liked that he first got involved by being involved in the actors’ unions. This local involvement is still where people can make real differences. Local politics has a very direct and very real impact on one’s daily life, and it would be to everyone’s benefit to be more involved in those processes. Reagan talked about the Democratic Party leaving him behind, and people talk in the same way (about both major parties) today. If that is something people fear, the solution is the same: get involved. The book didn’t discuss his home life very much, and it seems that his children got more mentions as they became adults. It was interesting how that was handled, but I don’t mind it. Modern culture wants to know everything about everyone, à la the Kardashians, but respect for privacy and personal space is something modern culture could learn from Reagan, too. The criticisms of liberalism were interesting, considering how much more moderate the Democratic party was in Reagan’s time and the fact that the media was, at least in popular opinion, less biased. Reagan’s criticisms were likely legitimate back then, and it was disappointing to see that not much has changed. I found the journal entries a little much. I would’ve liked more on domestic policy (it is here where I disagree with some of Reagan’s policies and would’ve enjoyed hearing about his ideas from the horse’s mouth).
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A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story of Combat and Chivalry in the War-torn Skies of World War II (ISBN: 978-0-425-25286-4) by Adam Makos and Larry Alexander is a unique story that tells the story of one of America’s greatest generation as well as a German fighter pilot who was doing his patriotic duty in fighting to defend his family and his country who came together for a few minutes over wartime Germany for an experience like no other. The book chronicles the life of Franz Stigler, the German ace pilot. He had other plans for life, but became one of Germany’s top pilots once war forced itself into his life. In the 480 combat missions he flew, he faced just about everything imaginable, including the loss of his closest kin. It also tells about American Charlie Brown, although I thought maybe not in quite the same detail. Brown did not have the long, distinguished combat career that Stigler did. He got off to a bit of a rough start, though, and his plane and crew were badly shot up in their first bombing raid over Germany. A couple of them lost their lives, and it seemed to the men in the plane that they should not have been able to fly back to their base in England. Brown more than once credited the fact that the plane stayed up to the hand of God, and I do not doubt him. As the American bomber flew away from its target, Stigler approached in his fighter. He could’ve easily been the straw to break the camel’s back, but he was himself amazed at how the plane stayed up in its battered state, flew in for a closer look, and felt a professional respect for his aeronautical compatriot behind the controls of the American plane. His long combat career and worthy mentors had taught Franz that his job was about protecting his homeland and the everyday people of his homeland (Franz, like many of the aviators, was ideologically against the Nazis), not needlessly killing, even when he had the enemy in his crosshairs. Instead of shooting the plane down for yet another kill, Stigler escorted the bomber past the German anti-aircraft defenses. This act was unprecedented and unrepeated. The book finishes with a description of Brown’s desire to find the German pilot who had been so kind to him and their subsequent opportunity to meet up and bring some understanding to people who had been on opposite sides of such an awful conflict.