Reagan: The
Life
by H. W. Brands
***
What’s inside the 700-plus pages of Reagan: The Life, the latest in the
stream of books by H.W. Brands, historian, professor, and yes, that history
guy you saw on the Texas Rising
miniseries?
Brands isn’t saying. As he told his audience at the
opening session of the annual Rejebian summer book series, “Woodrow Wilson
(subject of another of Brands’ books) once said he would never read another
book if he could talk 15 minutes with its author instead.”
So Brands talked, although for considerably more than 15 minutes. After a show of hands indicated many in the audience not only remembered Reagan the politician but Reagan the actor, Brands launched into his bittersweet theme: if Ronald Reagan had been a better actor, he would never have been a politician. It was a thought still more staggering when Brands linked Republican Reagan, architect of modern American conservatism, with Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, creator of 20th century American liberalism, as the two most influential presidents of their century.
So Brands talked, although for considerably more than 15 minutes. After a show of hands indicated many in the audience not only remembered Reagan the politician but Reagan the actor, Brands launched into his bittersweet theme: if Ronald Reagan had been a better actor, he would never have been a politician. It was a thought still more staggering when Brands linked Republican Reagan, architect of modern American conservatism, with Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt, creator of 20th century American liberalism, as the two most influential presidents of their century.
What’s the link? And how was he going to explain a
phenomenon that decades later still amazes: how a thoroughly ordinary actor
managed to change the political climate of a country? And maybe: why wasn’t
Reagan, outwardly affable, pleasant-looking, and hardworking – all the gifts
that helped him in politics -- a better actor?
Brands credits the key to a conversation with a radio
interviewer who told him, “if you want to understand Ronald Reagan, the one
thing you need to keep in mind is that he was the son of an alcoholic father.”
This wasn’t news to Brands. Reagan himself had
mentioned it himself in his memoirs. But, Brands’ source said, “The reason I
know about this is because I am the son of an alcoholic father. (When) the
first person you want to model yourself on is utterly unreliable, you do not
trust anyone with your emotions.”
Underneath Reagan’s outward pleasantness – all that
most voters would ever encounter – his emotional distancing, the “veil” even
his wife Nancy spoke of as coming between them, destroyed him as an actor. “He
would not go to that place in the human heart where the deepest emotions lie.”
Ironically, that very defensiveness may have saved him
as a politician. Have to go head to head with the leader of an “evil empire” as
Reagan did? Maybe you don’t want to trust him with your deepest emotions.
Reagan made no secret of voting for FDR in each of his
presidential campaigns. But as FDR’s influence rose, Reagan’s acting career
declined. He descended from making movies to huckstering for corporate America
to giving a last ditch speech for Republican Barry Goldwater’s DOA presidential
bid in 1964. It was that speech (ever afterward referred to reverently as “THE
speech”) that set him on the path to a new career. Because if there was one
thing he had learned as an actor, if there was anything he had in common with
FDR, it was “the power to convey a vision.”
And for Reagan, the adulation of a constituency was as
bracing as applause is for actors. He had found his new calling.
(What, you wanted a review? Try this one at The Dallas Morning News. This Wednesday Rejebian continues with
a topic dear to the heart of host David Rejebian, Peter Belakian’s Black Dog of Fate, about the
Armenian immigrant experience, one known to Rejebian’s grandparents and series
founders.)
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