Tear Down This Myth: How The Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics And Haunts Our Future (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
Whuaaaa!!! This book just crashed my Tea Party!! You mean to say Reagan really had nothing to do with the Berlin Wall coming down or the collapse of the Soviet Union and that negotiations for the Iran Hostage Crisis had already been drawn up under the Carter Administration before the Gipper even took office?! You mean to say that contrary to what all my party representatives have asserted, Reagan's economic policies were really disastrous and these engendered the Wall Street culture of deregulation that led to our current economic upheaval?! Ok, so what exactly did Ronald Reagan do to cement a legacy that has spawned more public monuments, libraries and freeways under his name than any other president in this country's history, including a GOP-led campaign to have his face permanently sculpted into Mount Rushmore?In these times of wacky Tea Parties when reverential invocations of the Gipper are made from both sides of the aisle and the politics of resentment are marshaling their forces for 2012, this book arrives as timely antidote and sound account of what the 40th president was REALLY about. Highly recommended. It's a great (and long overdue) political/historical thesis, but I believe it works much better when presenting its case with razor sharp, clinical logic. In its second half, the approach becomes a bit too journalistic for my taste...not that I have anything against such an approach. I simply believe this book ends up with two different, competing tones of voice...and I wish it would have stuck to just one of them.
What do You think about Tear Down This Myth: How The Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics And Haunts Our Future (2009)?
I might check this out again, but reading it was making me way too stressed out. eh.
—lyn
A very interesting look in the creation of the Ronald Reagan mythos
—pitt
