Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts

Book Description

Conspiracy theories about Sept. 11, 2001 continue to spread. Now, in a meticulous, scientific and groundbreaking new book, Popular Mechanics puts these rumors to rest. The magazine’s editors analyze the 20 most persistent claims underlying 9/11 conspiracy theories—and conclusively disprove each one. The result is a triumph of hard fact over conspiratorial fantasy.

Customer Reviews:

The truth shines through........2007-10-17

This book wades through all the crazy ideas out there and puts the nuts to shame. If you want to know the facts and not crazy ideas this is the book for you.

hey.......2007-09-20

so i haven't read the book, i will tell you that, but i think it's funny how John McCain helped write it. That guy needs to be off the balot and in jail for sure. Not all CT's are crazy either. They are family memebers who didn't get a proper investigation from the gov't. The Gov't doesn't care about them or the investigation and they call it a horrible attack on America. Bin Laden isn't even wanted for it. He i wanted for bombing in 198 or something on an american embassy killing maybe 200.
Anyway, read "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" wesome "truther" book

Propaganda and a waste of money. .......2007-09-20

Buy a copy of Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin before buying this pack of lies. You can save your time and money and learn what Popular Mechanics says and OMITS in building their case against the truth. Hearst Publishing is still in the business of propaganda. Wake Up.

Reads like propaganda.......2007-09-14

I wish just once somebody would publish an objective book or collection of writings about this topic. The afterward is particularly insulting to the millions of concerned citizens with legitimate questions. Anyone can see that this book was written with an agenda. If this book doesn't give you ammo for you hate-spewing debunking arsenal, it might actually convince you that there are suspicious circumstances to consider.

Junk Science.......2007-08-29

This analysis doesn't even rise to the level of being wrong. You don't have to be a structural engineer to know that a steel-framed building cannot "pancake" at free-fall speed. You don't have to be a metallurgist to know that jet fuel won't leave pools of molten metal weeks after the fire is out. If you cherry-pick your "facts" you can make Stalin look like a boy scout or Mother Theresa look like the devil. This book starts with the conclusion and then tries to prove it. If you want an analysis that starts with the facts and works towards a logical conclusion, try any (or all) of David Ray Griffin's books.

October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan

Average customer rating:

October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan
A Well-Documented Must READ!!!
A mishmash of proven lies and half truths
Completely Discredited - Fast And Loose With Facts
Totally Discredited Book

October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan
Gary Sick
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Iran | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter With Iran
October Surprise
The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President (Nation Books)
U. S. Foreign Policy And The Iran Hostage Crisis (Cambridge Studies in International Relations)
The Power of Israel in the United States

ASIN: 0812919890
Release Date: 1991-11-19

Customer Reviews:

October Surprise: America's Hostages in Iran and the Election of Ronald Reagan.......2007-05-21

An intriguing look at teachery and treason by the Republican Party. I have never understood the interest that Republicans have in running for elected office; they have little or no knowledge or understanding about how a modern government should work and less interest in the subject. Their dependence upon misogyny, free ranging corporations, inflated dollars, social slavery, outright corruption and pagan material idolatry stymies me. They would regulate the poor and warehouse the rich in gated communities and are loathe to remember that both heaven and hell are gated communities. Never has there been a political party with such base intentions and such great appeal among the nouveau riche.

This story is probably true but now unindictable like the crimes of 9-11; it typifies the arrogance and modus operandi of the GOP. To have negotiated and extended the hostages' captivity in Tehran for any reason whatsoever is the height of immorality and inhumanity but standard political expedience for jumpy political losers like the GOP. They are cut from the same cloth as the kidnappers themselves and thus their nascent ability to negotiate with them. But this is the same party that two decades later suspended our civil liberties, tortured prisoners and took us to war for no credible reason. At this point (2007) if you are catching up on your political research, this book is a great sequel to anything written about Watergate or Richard NIxon's plumbers and an ominous prophecy to the political horrors that follow.

A Well-Documented Must READ!!!.......2005-11-27

If this work were fiction it would be an exceptional read, unfortunately, it is just HORRIFYING!!!

Casey is the ominous voice & Bush is the corrupt clown behind the curtain strategizing & manipulating his way to the White House.

Liberals will love it, Conversatives will repel its Republican blasphemy, and everyone else will appreciate the sliver of light exposing this political cancer.

Gary Sick writes a fabulous tale of factual American political corruption, deceipt & manipuation...painfully it carries the burden of being a history book...and for its contents, I am ashamed.

A mishmash of proven lies and half truths.......2005-10-08

I read this book years ago when it was first published. Mr. Sick allowed himself to be taken in by a collection of Iranian liars as well as some phonies claiming to have experience in intelligence. Some of the people Sick listened to were shown in the Iran-Contra hearings to be con artists who also took in Ollie North and Bill Casey. These con artists are experts at saying what the listener wants to hear. One guy claimed to have been in Special Forces and was an eyewitness to one of VP-candidate Bush's flights to meet with Iranians. It turns out that he was not in Special Forces at all and he had been dishonorably discharged from the US Army. In addition, he could not have been an eyewitness to the event he claims to have seen because he was in jail at the time. The phony intelligence specialists have also been proven to be liars with no experience in intelligence or anything resembling national security work. By the time I finished this book, I actually felt sorry for Sick because he had allowed himself to be taken in by these jokers. He clearly wanted to believe that what he was being told was true.

This book does not prove anything except that even an experienced researcher can be fooled if he really wants to believe. Subsequent investigations by a Democratically dominated Congress proved that there was no October surprise.

Completely Discredited - Fast And Loose With Facts.......2004-04-23

The irony of this book is that it changes the meaning of what "October Surprise" actually meant. The phrase was actually invented by the Republicans (Bill Casey, Stu Spencer, and VP candidate Bush) as a warning as to what Carter would try to do with the hostages. Yet now a former Carter administration member writes a book and hangs the term around the necks of his opponents.

The thesis simply doesn't work. A Congressional investigation spent over a million dollars and released a 968-page report that refutes the claims in this book. (I would add to those who see everything through partisan eyes that the Democrats controlled Congress and all the committees at that time).

The most obvious question is this: how did Ronald Reagan and his team get ahold of the equipment necessary to pull this off? Supposedly, an SR-71 Blackbird flew Bush to Madrid to negotiate for the hostages to be kept until after the election. But SR-71s don't just fly themselves, so who flew it? And what commander signed off for the plane to be missing from his fleet for a couple of days? Did Bush really have time to do that since the polls were showing a close election?

Sick has a well footnoted book, but it fails all across the line. Just because there's a footnote doesn't mean we know who actually said what. We don't know if the antagonists had been in contact with each other (the Congressional investigation showed they were - which ruins their credibility).

The book appears to be a retroactive attempt to say the reason Carter lost was because of the hostages. While there is no doubt that is one of the reasons, it is simplistic to say that such is the ONLY reason. How, after all, can you blame Reagan for the helicopters that didn't work in the bungled rescue attempt in April 1980? And let's not forget that half of the Democratic voters in the primary didn't want Carter to run again anyway.

This book is an attempt to besmirch a Presidency solely because the author disagrees with that man's ideology. It is a shame and a disgrace that this can be done. Reagan won, Carter lost. And it wasn't even close. Please get over it, Mr. Sick.

Totally Discredited Book.......2002-07-18

Gary Sicks' bizarro theory that George Bush flew to Paris in an SR-71 to meet with the Iranians to convince them to keep the hostages until after the election in 1990 is just plain crazy. Congress investigated this and found no basis for Sicks account. This is better fiction though than most spy stories but no one should take this silliness seriously.

Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History

Average customer rating:

Reagan's Three Dragons
An Intellectual Historian in Name only
Uninformed by recent events
The Great Communicator's Political Philosophy
Like Reagan himself: gets some lesser things wrong, but the big, important things beautifully right

Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History
John Patrick Diggins
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Reagan Diaries
The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of his Conversion to Conservatism
President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination
The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World

ASIN: 0393060225

Book Description

Affirming Reagan's position as one of America's greatest presidents, this is a bold and philosophical reevaluation.

Following his departure from office, Ronald Reagan was marginalized thanks to liberal biases that dominate the teaching of American history, says John Patrick Diggins. Yet Reagan, like Lincoln (who was also attacked for decades after his death), deserves to be regarded as one of our three or four greatest presidents. Reagan was far more active a president and far more sophisticated than we ever knew. His negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev and his opposition to foreign interventions demonstrate that he was not a rigid hawk. And in his pursuit of Emersonian ideals in his distrust of big government, he was the most open-minded libertarian president the country has ever had; combining a reverence for America's hallowed historical traditions with an implacable faith in the limitless opportunities of the future. This is a revealing portrait of great character, a book that reveals the fortieth president to be an exemplar of the truest conservative values. 13 photographs.

Customer Reviews:

Reagan's Three Dragons.......2007-10-15

There is already a vast amount of literature on the life of Ronald Reagan, and it shows no sign of abating. The 40th President of the United States is a continuing subject of fascination as the man who reasserted his country's superpower dominance, engineering the fall of communism and the end of the Cold War.

His domestic policies, dominated by his passionate belief in small government and the ability of individuals to shape their own destinies, earned him the enmity of liberals, yet even on his own side of politics he is not the unquestioned hero as for example his contemporary, Margaret Thatcher, is among British conservatives.

I recall a conversation with a retired American diplomat who preferred the unsuccessful 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater as the true founder of the modern conservative movement in the US, dismissing Reagan as an opportunist, a former Democrat who could see the way the wind was blowing, jumping on the bandwagon in the right place at the right time.

John Patrick Diggins seeks to dismiss this argument. For him Reagan deserves to be rated alongside George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt as one of the greatest presidents of all time. He believes history will vindicate Reagan in the same way it did Lincoln, whose reputation was besmirched for many decades after his death, but more about that relationship later.

The problem that Diggins and any other biographer of Reagan face is proximity. As the author states with some exasperation in the bibliographical notes, more than 80 per cent of the material in the presidential library remains classified and can be obtained only through the laborious and often unsuccessful method of applying under the Freedom of Information Act.

Undeterred, he turns to other sources, notably the evidence emerging from Soviet archives of the relationship with the Soviet Union's last President, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as the burgeoning amount of literature discussing the origins behind the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union two years after Reagan left office.

The result is a scholarly, meticulously-researched book that seeks to understand not just the president of the 1980s, but the film actor of the 30s, 40s and 50s, the California Governor of the 60s and 70s and the man who passionately believed in a new beginning for his country - a rebirth that came to be called "Morning in America".

For Diggins, the man who took office in January 1981 had three dragons to slay: the nuclear arms race that threatened the world with extinction; the expanding welfare state that increased dependency and lowered self-esteem and the third, most controversially "a joyless religious inheritance that told people their kingdom was not of this world and they needed to be careful about pursuing happiness in case they enjoyed it".

This was hardly the language that the increasingly influential religious right would have wanted to hear but Reagan could see no conflict in embracing the rewards of this world - after all, it was what trade unions had been advocating for their members for half a century. He may have been ushering in the decade of Wall Street and `Greed is Good', but it is the author's insistence that the president wanted Americans to enjoy the pursuit of wealth and not be ashamed of the bounty they accumulated. It was, Diggins asserts, a necessary step in order to restore Americans' confidence in themselves after the debacle of the Vietnam War, Watergate, the Iran hostages humiliation and a decade of economic malaise.

Diggins does not hold back on the obvious black marks of the Reagan presidency, most notably the Iran Contra scandal, occurring deep into Reagan's second term and at least partially resorting from the arrogance that comes from years of unbroken power.

As with the Nixon presidency 15 years previously, there had been the subtle growth of a macho `can do' culture with little regard for moral or ethical objections. The difference being that Reagan quickly shouldered the blame in a televised mea culpa address in which the Great Communicator was at his best: "A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not...what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated in its implementation into trading arms for hostages."

I take issue with the final chapter in which the author seeks to link Reagan even closer to Lincoln by likening Reagan's battle against communism to Lincoln's struggle to free the slaves. It is for readers to follow Diggin's closely argued reasoning and come to their conclusions, but the fact is Lincoln went to war not to free slaves but to save the Union and that the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 was a ploy to turn foreign opinion against the Confederacy and disrupt it internally at a time when the conflict was going badly for the North.

However, it is certainly worth noting that the Cold War was won bloodlessly while the Civil War resulted in the deaths of more Americans than have been killed in all conflicts combined in the century-and-a-half since.

There are times when this book stumbles into academic denseness, and I am unconvinced that Diggins has made his case for Reagan to be elevated to the heights of the presidential pantheon, but for those seeking an insight into the mind of the man who radically altered the face of American politics, it is to be recommended.

An Intellectual Historian in Name only.......2007-08-26

The dust jacket of this biography claims that John Patrick Diggins is one of America's "most interesting intellectual historians". This description gets two things right - Mr. Diggins is interesting, and Mr. Diggins is undoubtedly a historian. Whether he is much of an intellectual is another matter.

Mr. Diggins' thesis is a peculiar and engaging one - that Reagan is one of the greatest Presidents of our nation, and also one of the most Emersonian, classically liberal Presidents of our time. Diggins, however, does not quite manage to provide definitive proof for either claim, though he does a better job of proving Reagan's intellectual roots than of proving his greatness. The reason for this failure, unfortunately, is not a problem with Diggins' scholarship, but rather an unfortunate case of self-sabotage which begins to show in the latter half of the book. During this section, one wonders if Diggins himself doubts his own thesis. In fact, one wonders if Diggins actually wanted to write a book with said thesis, or if the original argument he wanted to make was as follows: "Ronald Reagan is not a conservative, but even if he was, conservatives can't beat communism in the long run, anyway. Ha ha ha. Neener neener neener."

To this end, many passages within the book are unabashedly, obnoxiously didactic. In fact, one often feels as though one is reading a philosophical essay meant to impugn the purity of American conservatism, rather than a biography of a conservative figure. One of the more absurd of these moments comes near the very end, when Diggins tries to impugn Reagan's conservatism by contrasting his vision with that of Edmund Burke. There are two problems with this analysis - firstly, Diggins misinterprets Burke's quote about the necessity of restraint for rights as implying that a paternalistic government is required to stop people from being greedy. What Burke was actually talking about, of course, was the tendency of people to believe they have a right to everything they want - a dangerous tendency, which often leads to things like the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (which contradicts itself numerous times). The second problem with this analysis, however, is that Mr. Diggins is assuming that conservatism's nature has not changed at all since Edmund Burke. It is not as though Burke sat down and wrote out a "Constitution of Conservatism". Many conservative thinkers, in fact, believe that deriving a contemporary position from Edmund Burke's writings is impossible. It doesn't help, of course, that Burke was from England, and the conservative tradition in England is almost completely non-applicable to America.

Furthermore, Diggins seems determined to convince his audience that Reagan was not really all that religious, as though there is something shameful in one of our greatest presidents being religious. Diggins also seems fixated on Reagan's fiscal policy, which he often links with the words "greed" and "selfishness." Finally, though Diggins initially credits Reagan with ending the cold war, he later throws in backhanded implications that it had more to do with Gorbachev than Reagan. It is as though Diggins wrote his thesis that Reagan was one of our greatest Presidents and then choked on it and had to go back and assure his readers that while Reagan was one of our greatest Presidents, he was still the selfish, shortsighted clod that Academics envision him to be.

The existence of these flaws is unfortunate, because the book is historically excellent and so readable that it almost rivals a Harry Potter novel. Ultimately, I must recommend the book, with reservation. I give Mr. Diggins three stars for interesting history, and no stars for his intellectual pretensions. It is a pity. If Mr. Diggins had the courage to stick to his original thesis rather than frantically reassure his audience that he was not one of those awful Reagan-loving freaks, we might be reading the best Reagan biography yet.

Uninformed by recent events.......2007-08-09

Dr. Diggins seems to be an erudite, intelligent man who put some serious time into researching his book. The other reviewers have rightly praised his efforts to look at Reagan through the lense of history and not idealogy, and for his ranking of Reagan with Roosevelt and Lincoln among our greatest presidents.

At the same time, I must confess that having recently read the Reagan Diaries as well as other books dealing with the Reagan legacy like Victory, Bill Bennett's recent second history volume, Reagan "In His Own Hand" etc., I must find that some of the conclusions drawn in this book diverge from the facts and tread familiar academic paths of thought about our great President.

The final negotiations that ended the Cold War occured PRECISELY because Reagan worked on every front to thwart the Soviets. This included Bill Casey flying all over the world covertly, actions to stop Soviet technology acquisition, efforts to make them spend money they didn't have on defense, and a lot more. Reagan mentions anti-communist efforts on a daily basis in the diaries. Also, the preposterous comment that Reagan did nothing to support Solidarity is false on its face - not making speeches about something (even though he did) does not mean inaction. Again, his diaries reveal many efforts on behalf of Solidarity, and Walesa himself gives Reagan great credit for his support. The fact remains that Reagan didn't alter or change his demands on the Soviets when Gorbachev came to power - the final agreement reached was the US STARTING POSITION on disarmement years earlier. His strong stance in negotiations and the arms build up (laughably described as starting under the Carter administration in the book - are you kidding?) drove the Soviets to the table because they literally could not afford to fight anymore. Fighting them on every front was intended from the beginning to realize this result. It is as Reagan described before he became President - his view of the cold war was "we win and they lose".

On a philosophical point, Diggins rightly remarks that Reagan often acted against the conservatives of his time's wishes. This does not make him somehow "less" conservative - just proven right in the argument. All idealogies are constantly in these debates, and Reagan comments on his reviews on the right constantly in his diaries as well, since he was such an avid reader of their writings. Just because the greatest conservative of the last fifty years didn't agree with every midget wonk at National Review or in congress is a comment on the midgets, not him. The line between "classical" and contemporary liberalism also seems to blur in his discussions. Yes, many current conservative thoughts on freedom and liberty are classicly liberal views (as many liberal statist views are classicly conservative), the modern distinctions are all that really matter in current discussion.

I started to read this book with great enthusiasm, as its take on Reagan seemed fresh and interesting, but as I saw conclusion after conclusion follow other tired academic views on Reagan and contradict what I had read him say in his own hand were his views and thoughts, I found it ultimately unhelpful.

The Great Communicator's Political Philosophy.......2007-08-07

I read this book for a graduate class in American history. In this noteworthy biography, John Patrick Diggins sheds light on Ronald Reagan's evolving political philosophy and how this philosophy was his rule and guide throughout his life. Expertly written and based on both primary and secondary sources, this book's view favors Reagan's political career in general. Diggins did an excellent job of pointing out both historical and contemporary figures who helped form Reagan's religious beliefs and political philosophy. Some examples are Thomas Paine, Reagan's mother, Whittaker Chambers who was an anti-Communist, and economist F. A. Hayek. By following a more psychological approach in this biography of the fortieth president of the United States, Diggins drew a clearer picture of Reagan's political motivations than has been previously available. Diggins' biography has made Reagan, who was perhaps the most important president of the second half of the twentieth century, more understandable to his readers.

In his biography, Diggins was adept at pointing out many of the misconceptions that liberals had of Reagan's religious and political beliefs. As an example, Diggins emphasized the role Reagan's mother had in formulating his religious beliefs that stayed with him throughout his life. From his mother, Reagan inherited the optimistic outlook on life that the Disciples of Christ Church espoused. It would fit very neatly with his political philosophy that he shared with Thomas Paine. Both men were staunch believers in people attaining liberty and freedom from oppressive government. After all Diggins made the point innumerably throughout his book, that if there was one defining and deeply held belief that Reagan had, it was that "Reagan inevitably saw government as the problem" (xvii). There were so many incongruities in Reagan's religious attitudes and actions that historians will be debating them for many years to come. Diggins expertly pointed out that for all the support that the Moral Majority crowd, led by the Reverend Jerry Falwell, gave Reagan in both his presidential campaigns, he truly shared little in common with their strict religious beliefs. Reagan did not wear his religion on his sleeve. He did not claim to be a born again Christian. During his years in the White House, he seldom attended church services. Although as Governor of California in 1967 Reagan signed a bill to grant women the right to have an abortion, he soon had misgivings but never tried to push legislation through to abolish abortion. He would speak out against abortion for the rest of his life. Similarly, Reagan spoke of the need for religion in the classroom; however, he made no political moves to bring that goal of the Moral Majority to fruition. In essence, "Reagan looked to religion less as a source of divine guidance than as a bulwark against the power of the state" (32).

Since Reagan believed that removing the stifling yoke of government off the neck of the people was of paramount importance, it is no wonder that Reagan came to believe that Communism was the worst sort of government that could be foisted on humanity. His anathema against Communism and to its liberal sympathizers was sharpened by the Hiss-Chambers congressional hearings of the early 1950's. It was also influenced by two particular books. One book was Chamber's book, "Witness as the book that would shape his political outlook" (10). In addition like many conservatives, Reagan read F. A. Hayek's book Road to Serfdom and "accepted Hayek's thesis that liberalism paves the way for communism by institutionalizing a centralized state" (110). Diggins recounted the numerous times throughout Regan's life that he railed against the evils of Communism, which led to his well-publicized "evil empire" speech in 1983. This speech finalized Reagan's reputation as the anti-Communist jingoistic cowboy. Diggins cogently showed in his book that it was Reagan's life long vitriol against Communism, was the only cold war president that could reach out to the Soviet Union and substantially reduce the nuclear weapons arsenal.

Diggins did a masterful job of showing how Reagan, while in the hospital recovering from the wounds he received from the attempt on his life in 1981, awakened to the realization that he had to do his utmost in reducing the chances of the world being destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. Diggins found Reagan was completely misunderstood by liberals who characterized him as a warmonger. Reagan came to see the folly of Mutual Assured Destruction, which had been the cornerstone of America's nuclear deterrence. For the always-optimistic Reagan this new mission was akin to Nixon opening China. Only Reagan who called the Soviet Union the "evil empire," could befuddle his neo-conservative supporters and liberal critics time after time as he worked to get Mikhail Gorbachev to trust him and ultimately become his partner in arms reduction. In doing so, Reagan was instrumental in paving the way for the end to the cold war, and ultimately the collapse of the Soviet Union. In his book Diggins recounted one of the most poignant speeches Reagan, also known as the great communicator, ever delivered, which took place in 1988 to students at Moscow State University. It was Reagan, the optimist and defender of liberty and not the warmonger and staunch anti-Communist that addressed the audience. Reagan spoke about the new revolution that would sweep across the globe, and a technological revolution that computers would bring, which would ultimately transform humanity with the new information age.

In conclusion Diggins' book, though written when very little of Reagan's presidential papers have been accessed by historians, has captured the essence of the ideas and life experiences that motivated Reagan to act the way he did. Since Diggins' book focused more on the psychological, religious, and philosophical makeup of Ronald Reagan and not on the details of his administration, it will be valuable for years to come by students studying Reagan and the Cold War era. It is doubtful that Diggins' book will need much revision as more presidential papers are released.

As a graduate student I recommend this book for anyone interested in Reagan, American History, Cold War History.

Like Reagan himself: gets some lesser things wrong, but the big, important things beautifully right.......2007-06-11

I never thought I'd give a five-star review to a book with which I had disagreed in so many places. But this is just a fantastic book; original, provocative, magnificently insightful, and oftentimes poetic. It should revolutionize understanding of Ronald Reagan, even if not every interpretation in the book holds up.

Diggins sets out to rescue Ronald Reagan from his acolytes on the right and his detractors on the left. He argues that both fundamentally misunderstand the nature and meaning of his greatness. For Diggins, Reagan is clearly among the greatest two or three Presidents after Lincoln. He credits Reagan with finding a peaceful way to end the Cold War, and for the Soviet Empire to dissolve without war or violent revolution. Diggins states that this is one of the great political surprises in all of history, and so it is.

Diggins rejects the conventional rightist explanation that the Soviet Union collapsed only after Reagan and his conservative Administration challenged the Soviets on every front: via a military buildup with which the Soviets couldn't contend; with counter pressure against communist aggression around the world; with the strategic defense initiative, etc. In fact, Diggins depicts many of Reagan's policies, both domestic and international, as misguided. Diggins contradicts the Reagan view that many of the world's communist insurgencies were facilitated by Moscow. Diggins further asserts that the Soviet Union imploded on its own, and would have done so with or without US economic and military pressure.

But Diggins credits Reagan for seeing beyond other US strategists, and for understanding the opportunity and necessity of negotiating communism's demise without war. Diggins depicts Reagan as seizing a unique historical moment, and understanding how to do business with Gorbachev. He portrays Reagan not as a warrior but as a great diplomat and educator of the international public. The final pages of the book are very moving, when Reagan goes to Moscow State University and addresses the Russian people. Taught that the pursuit of wealth led to despair and to self-estrangement, they instead heard from Reagan that free economies were the path to fulfillment and self-reliance, something that America's "academic-media complex" (a felicitous phrase) failed to understand, perhaps because their own well-being depended less than the Russians' on such understanding.

One needn't agree with Diggins's take on Reagan and his policies in all respects, and I certainly did not. But Diggins is absolutely right in showing the Reagan that was utterly misunderstood by the American left. Far from being a warmonger, Reagan maintained a horror of nuclear war, and he fully grasped the folly of the doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction that had held decades of American thinkers in its deluding sway. Reagan understood that an American President could not assure his people's, or the world's, security solely with the threat that he could destroy the Soviet Union while the USSR destroyed America. As Diggins noted, the survival of humanity depended utterly on innovative conceptual thinking, and this Reagan had, perhaps uniquely among American statesmen of the time. Many of Reagan's policies, from his attachment to SDI to his determination to negotiate disarmament, rightly or wrongly stemmed from the priority that he attached to avoiding a nuclear exchange, indeed a higher priority for him even than his lifelong objective of destroying communism.

Diggins also reveals a Reagan that was in many ways very distinct from the American religious right. Reagan rejected the traditional religious view that humankind was inherently sinful and needed to be restrained. Rather, Reagan saw human nature as fundamentally good (a view Diggins says he acquired from his Transcendentalist mother), and he tried to eliminate government restraints upon that noble nature. The support of the religious right for Reagan was in many respects a consequence of their common objection to American liberalism, and especially its coddling of communist strong-arm tactics. Reagan understood the tendency of the American left to look the other way from the worst habits of America's enemies (a tendency that persists today), and he felt an obligation to speak out against this. But Diggins argues that while Reagan and the religious right made common cause, Reagan's fundamental view of humanity was far different from theirs.

Reading this book was, for me, an unusual if not unique experience. At first I was surprised by several of Diggins's interpretations, which were counter to my own. As I read on, I found the book so provocative, so original, that I found myself reconsidering many of my own long-held views, and loving the book despite my occasional disagreements. Around page 200 or so, however, I reached a sort of critical mass in no longer tolerating what I believed to be interpretative errors by Diggins. He wrote one too many statements that I felt were inexcusably sloppy and ahistorical, shattering my faith in some of his other judgments. But then on the strength of the book's final chapters my reading experience recovered, and by the end I felt that Diggins had put his finger on something fundamentally great about Reagan, so important, and so right, that it outweighed the other factual beefs I had compiled along the way.

Among the many examples of the sloppy statements that Diggins makes en route: He says early on that the US government now faces its highest debt in history (in reality, debt has been declining, and is fairly typical of historic norms.) He writes that Carter easily beat Ford in the 1976 election (in reality, it was one of the closest elections of the era). At one point, Diggins mocks Reagan for reminding Gorbachev of the US/USSR common cause in WWII (Diggins parenthetically wonders what Gorbachev thought of this, given that America had looked the other way as Hitler prepared to attack Russia. This is an absurd aside from Diggins, given that Stalin himself was sending resources to Hitler on the eve of his attack on the USSR. Most assuredly, Gorbachev would have been well aware that Stalin's tunnel vision had been worse than FDR's.) He also asserts that no American statesman has ever offered a rationale for why the Vietnam war was fought, an absurd statement even for a strong opponent of that war.

There are many such slips in the book, and one is a bit surprised that an editor didn't catch and remove them. But in the end, they do not undo one of the most fascinating reinterpretations of a Presidency that I have ever read. In Diggins, Reagan finds his most important biographer to date. Diggins finds in Reagan the "greatness of soul" that saved the world at a truly critical time. Reagan's legacy deserves and needs this understanding, and Diggins's book is the finest available place to discover it.

Corruptions of Empire: Life Studies and the Reagan Era (Haymarket Series)

Average customer rating:

Reckless Disregard
Great stuff
No other book so devastatingly captures the 80s

Corruptions of Empire: Life Studies and the Reagan Era (Haymarket Series)
Alexander Cockburn
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Washington Babylon
The Golden Age Is in Us: Journeys & Encounters 1987-1994
American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

ASIN: 0860919404

Customer Reviews:

Reckless Disregard.......2000-09-04

If ever there were a journalist who cannot be trusted (Matt Drudge aside perhaps), it is Cockburn.

Cockburn's criticism of Reagan are by and large on the mark. But Reagan has been analyzed and critiqued by far more able critics with far greater credibility. Cockburn, a supposed "radical" and a former paid shill for the PLO (who never bothered to disclose this relationship while he was supposedly an objective reporter), was a long time contributor to the Village Voice. His pieces in The Village Voice over the years were, as often as not, a vile stew composed of ersatz radical politics, bitchy attacks on fellow journalists, and the occasional actual story accompanied by relentless self-promotion. He was also not above character assassination and very selective reading of facts in order to further his agenda du jour. Although he goes after Reagan here, liberals are often Cockburn targets -- he delights in attacking them for not being pure enough for him, even as he often gives right wingers and reactionaries a free pass. (If his recent article taken from his forthcoming book about Al Gore is any example of the book, Cockburn's newest offering is another example of this.

Simply put, there are better Marxists, better writers, better cultural critics and far more able journalists. Take a pass on this book.

Great stuff.......1999-08-10

Cockburn is the master of the polemic. His words about Reagan, food, travel, *anything*, are worth reading.

No other book so devastatingly captures the 80s.......1998-05-25

I read this wonderful collection of super sharp essays by the 'last marxist' himself back in the late 80s. Still have the Verso paperback edition on my book shelf and have given it as gifts for one occasion or another over the years.

Whether he is writing on Reagan, Thatcher or James Bond and travel his essays can not be beat for totally and unapologetically taking class analysis in a wildly creative and laugh out loud direction. Unpedictable, untrivial and totally original.

Book Description

In October 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a televised speech in support of Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater. "The Speech," as it has come to be known, helped launch Ronald Reagan as a leading force in the American conservative movement. However, less than twenty years earlier, Reagan was a prominent Hollywood liberal, the president of the Screen Actors Guild, and a fervent supporter of FDR and Harry Truman. While many agree that Reagan's anticommunism grew out of his experiences with the Hollywood communists of the late 1940s, the origins of his conservative ideology have remained obscure.

Based on a newly discovered collection of private papers as well as interviews and corporate documents, The Education of Ronald Reagan offers new insights into Reagan's ideological development and his political ascendancy. Thomas W. Evans links the eight years (1954-1962) in which Reagan worked for General Electric& mdash;acting as host of its television program, GE Theater, and traveling the country as the company's public-relations envoy-to his conversion to conservatism.

In particular, Evans reveals the profound influence of GE executive Lemuel Boulware, who would become Reagan's political and ideological mentor. Boulware, known for his tough stance against union officials and his innovative corporate strategies to win over workers, championed the core tenets of modern American conservatism-free-market fundamentalism, anticommunism, lower taxes, and limited government. Building on the ideas and influence of Boulware, Reagan would soon begin his rise as a national political figure and an icon of the American conservative movement.

Customer Reviews:

A 'must' for any college-level collection .......2007-08-09

The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of His Conversion to Conservatism is a far different portrait of Reagan than typical biographies have covered. For one thing, the focus is much narrower and more specific: for another, it's based on a newly discovered collection of private papers, interviews and corporate documents, and provides fresh revelations on Reagan's ideological development. From mentors and influences on his development to the ideals of modern American conservatism, THE EDUCATION OF RONALD REAGAN is a 'must' for any college-level collection strong in not only Presidential analysis or Reagan in particular, but for those strong in American political debates.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Watching a President Develop.......2007-03-15

We have a tendency in this country to assume that when a president is thinking your way he is a genius. When he is presenting a position opposed to you; first he is an idiot, and second all his thoughts are really those of his handlers. Then the presidential advisors start leaving and writing books about how brilliant they are and the president just doesn't listen.

It's only when the books come out much later that we really begin to learn what was going on. In this book, the author concentrates on the magical speech that Reagan made in 1964 in support of Barry Goldwater at the Republican National Convention. 'The Speech' was a turning point in American politics. And of course the sarcastic will say that Reagan didn't write it but his handlers ....

This book goes back many, many years and reviews speeches that Reagan gave. From them comes a line here, a line there and in the end we get 'The Speech.' It's an interesting way to look at how Reagan changed from union president heading the Democrats for Truman to fundamentally changing the country's direction. Along the way we learn, Reagan was no dummy. And I think that as history continues to develop, his reputation will continue to go up.

Why Ronald Reagan was the Great Communicator.......2007-03-10

An excellent book and well written. In addition to showing how GE gave Ronald Reagan the opportunity to become a conservative and a great communicator it also provides a fascinating perspective on the battle between business and labor from 1950-1970. This book shows the journey that Reagan takes from being a confirmed New Dealer to a Goldwater conservative.

Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy

Average customer rating:

Powerful critique of GWB not written by whiney liberal
Well written critical summary of the G.W. Bush Years
Good, but...
An attack more in sorrow than in anger
Critique of the President from the Right

Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy
Bruce Bartlett
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Economic Conditions | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic Conditions | International | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
The Assassins' Gate : America in Iraq
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq

ASIN: 0385518277
Release Date: 2006-02-21

Book Description

George W. Bush came to the presidency in 2000 claiming to be the heir of Ronald Reagan. But while he did cut taxes, in most other respects he has governed in a way utterly unlike his revered predecessor, expanding the size and scope of government, letting immigration go unchecked, and allowing the federal budget to mushroom out of control.

Despite their strong misgivings, most conservatives remained silent during Bush’s first term. But a series of missteps and scandals, culminating in the ill-conceived nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, has brought this hidden rift within the conservative movement crashing to the surface.

Now, in what is sure to be the political book of the season, Bruce Bartlett lays bare the incompetence and profligacy of Bush’s economic policies. A highly respected Washington economist—and true-believing Reaganite—Bartlett started out as a supporter of Bush and helped him craft his tax cuts. But he was dismayed by the way they were executed. Reagan combined his tax cuts with fiscal restraint, but Bush has done the opposite. Bartlett thus reluctantly concluded that Bush is not a Reaganite at all, but an unprincipled opportunist who will do whatever he or his advisers think is expedient to buy votes.

In this sober, thorough, and utterly devastating book, Bartlett attacks the Bush Administration's economic performance root and branch, from the "stovepiping" of its policy process to the coercive tactics used to ram its policies through Congress, to the effects of the policies themselves. He is especially hard on Bush’s enormous new Medicare entitlement…and predicts that within a few years, Bush's tax cuts and unrestricted spending will produce an economic crisis that will require a major tax increase, probably in the form of a European-style VAT.

Bartlett has surprisingly kind words for Bill Clinton, whose record on the budget was far better than Bush’s. Whatever else one may think of him, Bartlett argues, Clinton cut spending, abolished a federal entitlement program, and left a budget surplus. By contrast, Bush has increased spending, created a massive entitlement program, and produced the biggest deficits in American history.

In fact, Bartlett concludes, Bush is less like Reagan than like Nixon: an arch-conservative Republican, bitterly hated by liberals, who vainly tried to woo moderates by enacting big parts of the liberal program. It didn't work then, and it won't work now—and may have similar harmful effects for the GOP.

Customer Reviews:

Powerful critique of GWB not written by whiney liberal.......2007-06-02

Well written entertaining hard hitting book on the various failures of the Bush presidency.

This book is packed with facts and logic supporting the author's thesis that George W. Bush is not a conservative president and has done a bad job from a conservative perspective. Rather GWB has been a highly partisan Republican president in the genre of Richard Nixon in that he has pushed liberal policies like expansion of medicare benefits, pouring billions into educations, committing the troops to nation-building of a democracy (which no doubt will end up like Vietnam) in a place where US troops don't belong.

If you are a die-hard Bush fan or a liberal Bush-hater don't bother buying this book as it probably won't provide any enjoyment. But if you are an intelligent open-minded individual who appreciates a frank discussion of policy from the conservative viewpoint you should not be disappointed.

Well written critical summary of the G.W. Bush Years.......2007-05-20

This book by a Reagan insider reveals in stark detail Bush's hipocracy in using the conservative title. Bartlett shows him as an grandiose opportunist who believes he is guided by God, and making all the errors of judgement that stem from such absurd overconfidence.

Good, but..........2007-04-18

I hate Dubya as much has the next good liberal, but I found this book to be a bit tough to get through due to its focus on economic issues. Cleary, he can be similarly criticized for straying from conservative positions on a whole host of other issues, but the author never strays from economics (but to be fair, that is his area of expertise). At the end, he even veers off on some VAT tax tangent that has nothing to do with Bush.

It's not a bad book, but buyer beware.

An attack more in sorrow than in anger.......2007-02-23

This is a good book. As a political book it is well above average.
As an attack book it is one of the best because it deals with facts,
mostly, and usually identifies opinions as opinions.

We have 210 pages of text, divided into 11 chapters, mostly complaining about
what Bush did, but a lot of complaints about how he did it, and why.
There 35 pages of appendices and notes, documenting the "what" quite well,
and the "how" fairly well. The "why" seems not as well done, but better than
the average political attack book.

A common attack book strategy is to make a statement as a fact, and provide
a note reference. The reference turns out to be an opinion offered elsewhere,
sometimes by the same author. Another is broad labelling. A request for a
hardship deferral makes one a draft dodger. Not accepting a particular
theory espoused by a professor makes one anti-intellectual. These are
rare in Bartlett's book.

There are also 31 pages of end notes, 49 pages of references and a 14 page
index. You can check his claims. In most cases there are references to
both sides of an issue.

I also appreciated that Bartlett identified the political biases of think
tanks and publications.

There are some weaknesses in the book. Much of the subject matter involves
economics, a topic most readers find boring, intimidating, or both.
To aid the attack, Bush is compared against Clinton in some ways and
against Reagan in others. Bartlett gives Clinton credit for welfare reform.
He properly identifies the tax increases that partly offset the Reagan
tax cuts, but ignores the slowness of spending reductions. Bartlett
argues there will be a major tax increase, probably after Bush is gone,
then spends many pages supporting a value added tax (VAT) as the least
bad way to do it.

Some Republicans will hate the book because it attacks one of their own.
Bartlett got fired for writing it. Some Democrats will hate the book
because it does not accuse Bush of treason, rape, armed robbery, and
wearing ugly ties. This is clearly an attack book, but it seems to have
been written more in sorrow than in anger. The book is far more rational
and far less emotional than some of the reviews here.

Critique of the President from the Right.......2006-09-24

This is an interesting work. Many of the critical analyses of the Bush II Administration (George W. Bush as opposed to George H. W. Bush, referred to as Bush I below) have come from journalists or those on the left or from Democrats. This book is fascinating precisely because it is authored by a conservative, one who served in the Reagan White House and in the Bush I Treasury Department. In that, it is akin to Francis Fukuyama's critical analyses of neocons and the Administration's Nation-Building efforts. And, indeed, Bartlett paid a personal price for his criticisms--he lost his job.

He suggests that the Bush II Administration is simply not conservative. In fact, the first chapter's title exemplifies that theme: "I Know Conservatives and George W. Bush Is No Conservative." Among his contentions: the Bush II administration simply does not care about serious policy analysis; it is more concerned with attaining its goals. The chapter, entitled "The End of Serious Policy Analysis," quotes part of Ron Suskind's interview with a top Bush official (some opine that this quotation may come from Karl Rove himself): "You guys, the aide said, are 'in what we call the reality-based community.' Such people are defined, the aide went on, as those who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernable reality.'" The aide went on, quoting Bartlett: "That's not the way the world works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. Any while you're studying that reality--judiciously as you will--we'll act again, creating other new realities. . . ."

Other chapters question the Bush II Administration for its tax cuts, its trade policy, why Enron serves as metaphor for Bush's economic policy, the budget (mirabile dictu, Bartlett suggests that Bill Clinton's policy is preferable to Bush II), and so on.

Precisely because this is a critique from the right, this becomes a very interesting volume to reflect upon. While sometimes the critique becomes a bit shrill, this is still worth looking at and thinking about.

Average customer rating:

character
a void filled
Insightful Picture of the Real Ronald Reagan
A great opportunity to know a Great, yet down-to-earth leader.
Reagan, What Was He really Like

Reagan: What Was He Really Like?
Curtis Patrick
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1419643517
Release Date: 2007-01-31

Product Description

Over Seven Years in the Making! Personal stories, glimpses, insights revelations, answers to FAQ's from more than 40 people who helped Ronald Reagan as he began his journey from the dawn of his political career, from candidate to governor to president. This book contains enjoyable, interesting, easy-to-read, intimate insider stories from the men & women who were there working alongside Ron & Nancy Reagan, in the beginning, in the "trenches." They were the unsung heroes! Readers will not be bored! Nearly one hundred (100), mostly never-before-published photos in Vol. 1. & Vol. 2. Strong, Positive & Some Stunning Reviews!

"Curtis, I not only like your book, I love it!" Signed: Edwin Meese III Chief of Staff Governor Ronald Reagan. Counselor to the President. RR. U.S. Attorney General, under President Ronald Reagan.

Customer Reviews:

character.......2007-09-07

Innumerous times confidants and associates related Reagan's bedrock principals from earliest days of testing his candidacy throughout his gubernatorial experience. So many could not be shading the truth. His genuine humilty and obvious humor are rare combinations to posses.

As a reader I enjoyed not only learning more about a great man but the ability to get right back into the book after an interruption.

a void filled.......2007-09-03

of all of the books and articles printed over the years, this book more than any other more than fills the void regarding the early years of ronald reagan and his first political efforts. for the most part books cover his days in the mid-west,hollywood,g.e. and the presidency ingreat detail. however, until this book liittle has been said about the interworkings of reagans race to become governor of california.
any student of reagan,american politics,history ,the governorship,political camaigns as they were back in the last third of the last century should look to this book.
strongly urge interested parties to add this volumne to their collection. .

Insightful Picture of the Real Ronald Reagan.......2007-07-28

Curtis Patrick did a marvelous job of tracking down many of the people who played a role in the very beginning of Ronald Reagan's political career in California. As a colleague of Curtis during the first campaign for Governor in 1966 and in the Governor's Office thereafter, I was privileged to serve Ronald Reagan and now be a small part in this book.

During this early period of his political career, there clearly was an extended Reagan family that developed in the campaign and then in Sacramento when many of us made the trip to Sacramento for the Administration. Many of us were inexperienced in the affairs of government, like Reagan, but all toiled together for a cause that most of us felt was noble and necessary for the benefit of our country. The interviews Curtis conducted give a rare insight and view of the early Reagan and how we call came together to advance the cause of a man who became one of the giants of the 20th century.

The recent rash of books about Ronald Reagan tell the story of his successful presidency, but few have but a mention of the early, formative years when he learned to hit his political stride. Not only will this book give you insights on how Reagan developed politically, but you will get a picture of a wonderful man who we all loved and were proud to serve.

A great opportunity to know a Great, yet down-to-earth leader........2007-07-21

Curtis Patrick with this book has brought to light an easy to read collection of personal observations and insights on the man who many regard as our greatest President, Ronald Reagan from those who knew him closely during his transition from Actor to Political Leader...and beyond.
Most of the information and observations from these various contributors to this fine book will not be found in any other source!

Reagan, What Was He really Like.......2007-07-18

I thorougly enjoyed reading about a famous American who loved this country and showed integrity and humor in the job of governing. The writings showed that he was loved and respected by those around him.

The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism

Average customer rating:

Bringing Down the Walls of Communism
Ronald Reagan - The Crusader
Ronald Reagan= One Great American
"The Crusader" One person can make a difference.
Irrefutable evidence

The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
Paul Kengor
Manufacturer: Harper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World
Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History
America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It
The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of his Conversion to Conservatism
Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years

ASIN: 0061136905
Release Date: 2006-10-17

Book Description

Based on extraordinary research: a major reassessment of Ronald Reagan's lifelong crusade to dismantle the Soviet Empire–including shocking revelations about the liberal American politician who tried to collude with USSR to counter Reagan's efforts

Paul Kengor's God and Ronald Reagan made presidential historian Paul Kengor's name as one of the premier chroniclers of the life and career of the 40th president. Now, with The Crusader, Kengor returns with the one book about Reagan that has not been written: The story of his lifelong crusade against communism, and of his dogged–and ultimately triumphant–effort to overthrow the Soviet Union.

Drawing upon reams of newly declassified presidential papers, as well as untapped Soviet media archives and new interviews with key players, Kengor traces Reagan's efforts to target the Soviet Union from his days as governor of California to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of what he famously dubbed the "Evil Empire." The result is a major revision and enhancement of what historians are only beginning to realize: That Reagan not only wished for the collapse of communism, but had a deep and specific understanding of what it would take––and effected dozens of policy shifts that brought the USSR to its heels within a decade of his presidency.

The Crusader makes use of key sources from behind the Iron Curtain, including one key memo that implicates a major American liberal politician–still in office today–in a scheme to enlist Soviet premier Yuri Andropov to help defeat Reagan's 1984 reelection bid. Such new finds make The Crusader not just a work of extraordinary history, but a work of explosive revelation that will be debated as hotly in 2006 as Reagan's policies were in the 1980s.

Customer Reviews:

Bringing Down the Walls of Communism.......2007-09-09

Ronald Reagan is one of the rare figures in history who transcends political ideology. Often portrayed as more communicator than true statesman, The Crusader presents a far different picture. Paul Kengor does a masterful work of combining Reagan's own words with seldom published source material. The picture that develops is of a man who truly believed communism was evil and dedicated the later part of his life to seeing its downfall.

Since President Reagan's death, more and more historians have begun to change their opinion of his effectiveness and influence as leader of the free world. No matter what your political leanings, The Crusader is a fine example of historical writing done right.

Ronald Reagan - The Crusader.......2007-09-09

I have been a supporter of Ronald Reagan since his first run for the Presidency in 1976. I learned things about President Reagan that I did not know before reading this book. Most notably, this book details and documents just how President Reagan was in charge of his agenda, notwithstanding the best efforts of the American left to portray him otherwise, particularly the defeat and destruction of the Soviet Union.

The book is extremely well written and is a page turner from the first chapter on. This is a must read for any fan of the greatest president of the last century. Reagan haters and deniers will want to avoid this book so as not to have to confront real history and all its implications.

Ronald Reagan= One Great American .......2007-07-22

The late President Reagan's crusade against Communism in Russia freed millions of innocent people around the world, and in the end made the world a much better place when he died.

History will record that Reagan was one of the greatest presidents in American history, and we should all take his example in both moral leadership, and courageousness.

All future American leaders should look to Reagan as an example of honesty, sacrifice, and fortitude for taking on the problems of the 21rst century.

God rest the soul of President Ronald Reagan, and may God bless America.

"The Crusader" One person can make a difference........2007-05-18

If there was ever a book showing that one person can make a difference, it is "The Crusader," by Paul Kengor. It is amazing how many times Ronald Reagan went against the advice of most if not all of his advisors, and in the end proved to be correct.(Most advisors did not want Reagan to tell Garbachev to "tear down this wall," during his now famous speech.)
Today, President Bush often gets criticized for unilateral inclinations. The book shows that Ronald Reagan was the unilateralsit of all unilateralists. It was even humorous to read how Reagan would go through the motions during his cabinet meetings and often in press conferences, while at the same time he had this whole separate operation going on to bring down the Soviet Union, that very few, even very few of his cabinet members, knew about. Can anyone say leader? It also shows, that even though Reagan was calling the shots, how important Bill Casey and Bill Clark were to the entire operation.
This is the best book I have read on Ronald Reagan, and the best book that I have read on the process that actually ended the Cold War.
It really does put the final nail in the coffin for those clueless "intellectuals" who say that the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and even the Berlin Wall would have fallen anyway. The book gives an amazingly detailed step by step account of the economic war against the Soviets and all of the National Security Decision Directives that Reagan virtually single-handedly initiated.
The book shows that Ronald Reagan would often go against conventional wisdom. For example, he had great disdain for the Yalta agreements, and for the policy of containment, and eventually, virtually reversed them.
The book also shows how Reagan's anti-communist passions go way back in his life, and how those sentiments are based on his respect for the human being. It tells of a time when he was in East Germany and saw a lady shopper accosted by an East German guard, and how this incident and others firmed his resolve against the evil of communism. It is pointed out how Reagan was actually motivated to act when others weren't, and how Reagan had an inborn sense of the right thing to do. And the book shows that Reagan's pattern to rescue those in distress goes back to his early days when saved 77 people over 7 summers from the swift currents of the Rock River in Dixon Illinois.
"The Crusader" goes into great detail about the relationship between President Reagan and the great Pope John Paul II, and his role in bringing down communism. And it details Reagan's great admiration for the Polish people, and how they admired him in return, and how Poland's Solidarity Movement was one of the major factors in Reagan's and the Pope's effort to bring down communism. And how the people of Poland, the rest of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union gave great credit to Reagan for bringing them freedom.
The book also details how Reagan brought freedom to Central and South America.
Before I read "The Crusader," I thought that President Ronald Reagan was our greatest U.S. President. After reading the book, my opinion of him only improved. In fact, he and Pope John Paul II have to be two of the great men of the millenium.
It was often said that Reagan had very few, if any, close friends, except Nancy. Probably my favorite story in the book was when, in 1989, just before the previously unimaginable free elections in Poland, Reagan welcomed two members of Solidarity and the two Polish Americans who were hosting them, to his office in California. Reagan pointed to a picture of Pope John Paul II on his office wall and said: "He is my best friend. Yes, you know I am a Protestant, but he's still my best friend." If you are going to have a best friend, not a bad on to have. Thankyou.

Mark S.Robertson
Independence, Mo.

Irrefutable evidence.......2007-05-12

5 stars for the research, which includes documents declassified only in recent years, as well as confirmation from Soviet sources and press articles reaffirming what the Soviets feared, and what Reagan knew .. that the USSR could be brought down with economic pressure.
Despite doubters from even within his own administration (and Nancy), Reagan conspired to wage economic war on the Soviet Union, and succeeded. It was very normal during these times to consider the USSR invincible - understandably bringing about the detente of previous administrations both Republican and Democrat. But Reagan had a goal of actually WINNING the Cold War. Who knew it was even possible? Reagan did, that's who.
From conspiring against the USSR's natural gas lines into Western Europe (a major source of the USSR's revenues that even the West did not cooperate with him on), to actually sabotaging one of the lines, to SDI, and Reagan's military backing of the Afghans - all these factors and more contributed to straining the USSR's economy, and forcing the country to use increased funds into these endeavors - an unexpected expense for a government so thin on resources.
My biggest revlation from the book:
In addition, Reagan's friendliness with the Saudis was hugely beneficial to American interests of the day. Both sides' willingness to help one another led to the Saudis going against OPEC and lowering oil prices worldwide - something the Saudis faced huge criticism from Middle Eastern neighbors for.
Think about it: High oil prices in the 70s helped the Soviet (an oil-producing nation, remember) economy and naturally hurt the USA's - which led to increased military spending by the USSR and helped tighten its grip on the Eastern bloc. High oil also helped contribute to Americans' inferiority complex to the Soviets.
Then, low prices in the 80s hurt the Soviet economy drastically, helped the American consumer, which helped bring increased revenues to pay for Reagan's military spending.
Scholars may argue that each president during the Cold War contributed to the USSR's fall, and the USSR economy might have been on the tipping point anyway, but this book gives absolute, irrefutable evidence that Reagan accelerated the USSR's fall before a generation that never thought it would be possible.

Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era

Average customer rating:

Interesting read
Updated review
Good historical foundation on US Special Ops
Secret Warriors: Good little stories about Army Operatives
Goverment Cover Up

Secret Warriors: Inside the Covert Military Operations of the Reagan Era
Steven Emerson
Manufacturer: Putnam Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Military Science | History | Subjects | Books

Killer Elite: The Inside Story of America's Most Secret Special Operations Team
Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987
American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us
Not a Good Day to Die: The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda
Chosen Soldier: The Making of a Special Forces Warrior

ASIN: 0399133607

Customer Reviews:

Interesting read.......2004-03-05

A facinating book regarding this particular topic. It seems to have been fairly well researched and the writing style was maintained my interest throughout.

Ironically, Emerson seems to fall prey to the very flaw he attaches to the subjects of this book;
"what happens when some men think they know what's best for the country".
Obviously authors like Emerson seem to think THEY know what's best for the country when they reveal leaked classified information in their writing without a regard to the men and women they are unknowingly placing in jeopardy.
But thanks to Emerson, at least if these operators are killed in the line of duty, we can rest easy knowing our own curiosity was satiated.

Updated review.......2003-09-10

Most of the information contained here seems to have been cross checked with multiple sources. Mr. Emerson has produced a fascinating look at the capabilities and foibles of the special and covert operations community during the 80's. Highly recommended for folks wanting to learn more about the "silver age" of US special operations.

Good historical foundation on US Special Ops.......2002-07-22

After waiting quite some time to get a copy, I found the book to be an interesting insight on the genesis of the US Special Ops community. Today, Emerson has capitalized on this early research and is now in the forefront of documenting terrorism. It would be interesting to see if he is utilizing many of the sources he obtained while writing this book.
I thought he had excellent sources, and many of these chapters could have been easily expanded into more in-depth stories. The Iran-Contra mess certainly weighed heavily while writing this book, and unfortunately, Emerson tried to cover the scandal without getting too bogged in that mess...that being said, I don't think he succeeded very well in drawing the ties between IRan-Contra and the organizations he covered so well throughout the book. Nevertheless, a must have for any library on US intelligence operations...a great read!

Secret Warriors: Good little stories about Army Operatives.......2000-06-06

This book is the only one I have seen of its vintage which discusses operations of US Army counterintelligence agents. Some of the stories have been confirmed by people I have had the chance to speak with. Some of the the details were altered to protect certain items. Careful research of the ESP/PSI related bits in other publications may reveal differing views on the outcome of some operations.

It's relatively high level of veracity, easy flow, it was written at the 10th grade level, and humor made it a good read for anyone interested in this topic.

Goverment Cover Up.......2000-02-05

Mr. Emerson sheds more light on the amount of cover ups the government has conducted. The book shows how scary our intelligence and covert operations apparatus is. Although most of the operations are hair brained schemes, it shows us how misinformed the public is to the true nature of out government.

Average customer rating:

Great Read
A Must Read for Those Who Care
easy read...
fascinating look into the oval office
You'll like it

The Reagan Diaries
Ronald Reagan
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir
Einstein: His Life and Universe
Outrage: How Illegal Immigration, the United Nations, Congressional Ripoffs, Student Loan Overcharges, Tobacco Companies, Trade Protection, and Drug Companies Are Ripping Us Off . . . And
A Thousand Splendid Suns

ASIN: 006087600X
Release Date: 2007-05-22

Book Description

During his eight years as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan kept a daily diary, in which he recorded his innermost thoughts and observations. The handwritten diaries have been seen by only a few people to date, and they share Reagan's personal insights into the extraordinary, the historic, and the routine day–to–day events of his Presidency. "When we left Sacramento, we felt the time passed so quickly, we could hardly remember the eight years," said Nancy Reagan. "When Ronnie became president, he wanted to write it all down so we could remember these special times."

From his first inauguration to weekends at Camp David to the end of the Cold War, these Presidential diaries are the most detailed in American history, filled with Reagan's trademark wit, sharp intelligence, and humor. They offer the deep warmth of his voice, while shedding a new light on the character of a true American leader. To read these diaries is to gain a unique understanding of the Oval Office and one of the greatest presidents in our nation's history.

Customer Reviews:

Great Read.......2007-10-14

This is a super book written by a man who turned out to be a fairly decent and good President. It was so easy to read and difficult to put down. Most will enjoy. I did.

A Must Read for Those Who Care.......2007-10-11

I am only about 250 pages into this long book and it already has had a big impact on me. Reading the thoughts of this great president in his own words is very powerful indeed, especially in this modern political world where we get little more than partisan spin in most communication. "The Reagan Diaries" successfully conveys the fact that Ronald Reagan was far deeper, more fair and thoughtful than what most of the media has given him credit for over the years. It is already clear that his values and ideals were not presented correctly (by the press) while he was in office.

His viewpoint is presented in his earliest days in office when he notes that the U.S. may have been treating the Soviet Union incorrectly from a historical perspective. Reagan muses that perhaps instead of propping up this Communist empire to avoid a dangerous imbalance, the U.S. and the world would be better off if we let it implode from within. Another entry to the diary notes that Fidel Castro was very uncomfortable with Reagan and his administration coming into office. Reagan writes of Castro, "Let's hope we give him a good reason to be uncomfortable." Priceless.

If you are any fan of history at all, you need to read this book.

easy read..........2007-10-09

Loved the book easy bed side book for long put to sleeps or casual relaxing Sunday time...either way it was a nice book from on a thoughtful sincere president....makes me wonder what happened to the Party.

fascinating look into the oval office.......2007-10-06

Whatever your political persuasion, this book provides a great look into the incredibly busy schedule that a President has to deal with. It's fascinating to read what he was thinking about historical events and then think back to the way we were told about them from the media at the time.
As some of the other reviewers noted, this isn't a book that you read cover to cover like a great novel that you just can't put down. I read several pages at a time over several weeks to finish it. All in all, if you're a fan of Reagan or you're just interested in politics, you'll find this book worth the time to read.

You'll like it.......2007-09-29

I have not finished the book yet -- it's long -- but I already feel I have discovered things about Reagan that I never learned while watching him in office for eight years. It's delightful to see how he writes about all the Broadway shows he sees and mentions the performers he meets. His observations about Tip O'Neill and Al Haig have been noted and quoted in mainstream reviews but they are still well worth reading for yourself, in context, over the course of the book. For sure, I was not a Reagan fan and all of the recent mythologizing about him is distressing. At the same time, given he has been out of office for two decades, I am beginning to see him as a historical figure and the emotions have begun to fade. I can enjoy this book for the insight it provides into the office of the presidency. There is a sour note, however. Brinkley's introduction gushes too much about Reagan and leads me to wonder if he purposely (or unintentionally) left out things that might portray Reagan in a more negative light. Still if you enjoy politics, history or lived through the time, I think you will smile or even laugh out loud at things you read in the diaries.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books