A middle-of-the-road liberal (John Adams, 2003, etc.) looks into
Ronald Reagan's soul and concludes that it was great-and that the
president was "politically wise, humane, and magnanimous" to
boot.Reagan was more radical than conservative, by Diggins's
account. He found inspiration in the life and work of Tom Paine,
that little acknowledged founding father; he quoted Paine to the
Soviets and hailed the Afghan mujahedeen and Nicaraguan contras as
Paine's rightful heirs. He considered the state to be the source of
most evil, though his actions, Diggins writes, made big government
inevitable; his dream of an almost stateless society and his
sensibility generally "partook of the tragic vision of liberalism."
And, Diggins suggests, Reagan's religion was less inclined to
Christian fundamentalism than to a Jeffersonian deism: "He seemed
to offer a Christianity without Christ and the crucifixion, a
religion without reference to sin, evil, suffering, or sacrifice."
All in all, Diggins writes, Reagan "was a liberal romantic who
opened up the American mind to the full blaze of Emersonian
optimism." For this and many other reasons, not least because
Reagan knew his Transcendentalists, Diggins holds that Reagan needs
serious attention from intellectual historians, who have largely
dismissed him as a nonintellectual. Not so, Diggins counters:
Reagan was aware of the nature of his arguments, was well schooled
in them. If Diggins has a beef, it is with the unworthy
neoconservatives who claim Reagan as their own; Diggins faults
Reagan's view of the Cold War as inaccurate and lacking in
complexity, for instance, but clearly favors it to the reckless
warmaking of the current administration. "To rescue Reagan from
many of today's so-called Reaganites may help rescue America from
the pride of its present follies," he adds.A significant book, if
surely arguable in granting Reagan more depth and ability than most
nonbelievers have hitherto suspected. (Kirkus Reviews)
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.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
