When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan
by Peggy Noonan
List Price:
Our Price: $2.24
You Save: $13.76 (86%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Peggy NoonanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-10-01
ISBN: 0142001686
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Book Reviews of When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan
Book Review: Indeed
Summary: 5 Stars
A beautifully written stroll down memory lane, this is Noonan's best book, after from her classic What I Saw At The Revolution. Her style is stripped to a clarity and simplicity unusual in political writing these days. The book is the opposite of our current plague of media spin, talking heads, and partisan hysteria. Her political judgment and historical sense are flawless and full of surprising insights. This is one Irish spinning a fine yarn about another Irish.
When you read it, you'll see why Reagan was the last great American president and why 1980 remains our last truly decisive election. You'll also see why Reagan was both a great and a modest man. At the time, I was old enough to understand his importance but not his greatness. That took more years. Noonan distills the essence of the man and his era.
POSTSCRIPT: Noonan's book is a memoir. For history, it's best to turn to books written by participants and avoid the strange obsessions of revisionist academics. The end of the Cold War:
- George P. Shultz, Turmoil and Triumph
- George H. W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft, A World Transformed
- Jack Matlock, Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended
- David Remnick, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire
On the economic transformation of the 1980s and 1990s and the decline of collectivism, many books are either too technical, too polemical, or both. An exception is Robert Skidelsky's The Road from Serfdom, written fifty years after Hayek's Road to Serfdom was published in 1944, the global nadir of the cause of freedom. Skidelsky explains how the explosive growth of government in the last century was driven by social upheaval and total war.
To better understand the phenomenon we now call globalization, your best bet is Martin Wolf's excellent Why Globalization Works. Wolf explains the history of globalization from the 18th century, how globalization benefits everyone, especially the poor.
The unpruned and unreformed welfare state is a legacy of the 20th century. Politicians in advanced countries have barely touched the issue or deny it exists, as do many voters. For good introductions to what's at stake and why reform is so hard, try Robert Samuelson's The Good Life and Its Discontents, and Jonathan Rauch's Demosclerosis (2nd ed., Government's End). From a partisan angle, David Frum's Dead Right is a study in the co-optation, marginalization, and decline of the once-vibrant conservative movement and why there's no longer a serious force in American politics for shrinking government. Published in the mid-90s, Frum's book anticipated the failure of the Newt revolution and the rise of the big-government populism now ascendant.
Summary of When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan
No one has ever captured Ronald Reagan like Peggy Noonan. In When Character Was King, Noonan brings her own reflections on Reagan to bear as well as new stories?from Presidents George W. Bush and his father, George H. W. Bush, his Secret Service men and White House colleagues, his wife, his daughter Patti Davis, and his close friends?to reveal the true nature of a man even his opponents now view as a maker of big history. Marked by incisive wit and elegant prose, When Character Was King will both enlighten and move readers. It may well be the last word on Ronald Reagan, not only as a leader but as a man.
Historical Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Books
Alexander Hamiltonby Ron Chernow
Penguin Audio; Published: 2004-04-26; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $134.40
America and Americans and Selected Nonfiction (Penguin Classics)by John Steinbeck
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-04-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
Sailing Alone around the World (Penguin Classics)by Joshua Slocum
Penguin Classics; Published: 1999-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sistersby Charlotte Mosley
Harper; Published: 2007-11-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.00
Price in other shops:
Profiles in Courage (slipcased edition): Decisive Moments in the Lives of Celebrated Americansby John F. Kennedy
Harper; Published: 2006-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
Lost Years: A Memoir 1945 - 1951by Christopher Isherwood
HarperCollins; Published: 2000-09-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $17.99
Price in other shops:
Thomas Jefferson: A Lifeby Willard Sterne Randall
Harper Perennial; Published: 1994-06-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.06
Price in other shops:
The Professor and the Madmanby Simon Winchester
Harper; Published: 1998-08-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.49
Price in other shops:
Patton: A Genius for Warby Carlo D'Este, este, Carlo D'
Harpercollins; Published: 1995-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $49.95
Stonewall Jacksonby James Robertson
Macmillan Pub.; Published: 1997-02-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $48.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Wealth and Poverty (ICS Series in Self-Governance)by George Gilder
ICS Press; Published: 1993-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $35.00
President Reagan: The Role Of A Lifetimeby Lou Cannon
PublicAffairs; Published: 2000-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.44
Price in other shops:
La Place de la Concorde Suisseby John McPhee
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Published: 1994-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.62
Price in other shops:
Reagan, In His Own Hand: The Writings of Ronald Reagan that Reveal His Revolutionary Vision for AmericaFree Press; Published: 2001-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.89
Price in other shops:
The Wit & Wisdom of Ronald Reaganby James C. Humes
Regnery Publishing; Published: 2007-10-22; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.16
Price in other shops:
On Speaking Well: How to Give a Speech With Style, Substance, and Clarityby Peggy Noonan
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1999-02-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.48
Price in other shops:
The Reagan Diariesby Ronald Reagan
Harper Perennial; Published: 2009-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.38
Price in other shops:
An American Life: The Autobiographyby Ronald Reagan
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2011-01-11; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.63
Price in other shops:
What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Eraby Peggy Noonan
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2003-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.89
Price in other shops:
Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leaderby Dinesh D'Souza
Free Press; Published: 1999-02-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops: