BEST* 2024 BOOKS : REVIEWS [2]

 

REAGAN BY MAX BOOT

The elegant biography of the 40th president stands out for its deep authority and nimble style. Boot, a historian and foreign policy analyst, grew up idolizing Ronald Reagan, but after a decade of interviews and research, he finds himself asking whether his one time hero paved the way for Donald Trump, the man whose ascent to power led Boot to abandon the right.

The book is a landmark work that shows how Reagan emerged from his New Deal roots to become a practised Red Baiter and racist dog whistler before settling into the role of all all American elder statesman.

'' It is no exaggeration,'' Boot writes, '' to say that  you cannot fully comprehend what happened to America in the 20th century without first understanding what happened to Ronald Reagan.''

The World Students Society thanks The New York Times Books Staff.