Ever wonder about the private thoughts of a President? Enter The Reagan Diaries published by Harper Collins. Originally five volumes, the diaries were edited down by Douglas Brinkley to a more palpable 693 pages that take the reader through Reagan’s Presidency in the White House between 1981 and 1989.
The historical significance of the diaries will be immediately obvious to political scientists and historians alike, especially if we consider that only four Presidents (George Washington, John Quincy Adams, James K. Polk and Rutherford B. Hayes) kept a consistent diary.
Nonetheless, if you’re a political and history aficionado you don’t need to be a scholar to enjoy this book. Reading diary entries could seem heavy, but the book will leave readers feeling as though they were taken on a private political tour by a President.
Strikingly, the tone of the diaries is free of any pompous overtones and is consistently marked by Reagan’s thoughtful and principled ruminations. Reagan was succinct, confident, clear and consistent in his beliefs. This much can be discerned with his outright contempt for taxes, big government and communism, tempered with his love of Nancy Reagan, people with physical abilities and the spirit of America.
Personally, the Reagan years represented a time when I was becoming politically aware and historically inclined as a teenager. Among the many things that stuck with me, one in particular was how often the media negatively portrayed Reagan.
Reagan noticed it, too. His distrust of the media led him to comment on more than one occasion, as he did with CBS and the Washington Post when he said, “I think their bias towards the Dems. is showing.” In another entry he wrote, “I cannot conjure up 1 iota of respect for just about all of them.”
In international affairs, Reagan was a Cold War leader who honestly believed in the inherent goodness of America. His approach towards the Soviets was one of firm engagement while eschewing the temptation for hard-line posturing.
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