Exit with Honor

by William E. Pemberton

Few presidents have sparked as much interest in recent years as Ronald Reagan, already the subject of a large number of biographies and specialized subjects. This biography, based on recent research into the Reagan archives and synthesis of the large memoir literature, explores the shaping of his values and beliefs during his childhood in the American heartland, his leadership of the American conservative movement, and his successful political career culminating in the first two-term presidency since Dwight Eisenhower. Pemberton finds Reagan's personal career and ability to understand and communicate with the American people admirable, but finds many of the long-term effects of his presidency harmful.

Genres: History

328 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1998

Reviews

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

How did one of our most intellectual and physically lazy presidents, a man who "turned the presidency into a 9-to-5 job" accomplish so much? He ran the white house like a CEO, hired people, set ideological parameters, and took a nap. Deserves some credit for being more ideologically flexible with anti-communism than is remembered, but that's about it. People were doing better economically in 1989, but they wouldn't be in 2009.

[Brandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a grad class.
I'm really giving this a 3.5. It's incredibly well researched and super interesting, but the writing is just not very good. Sentences repeated verbatim throughout, exact anecdotes repeated... now that I think about it, maybe it was an attempt to mimic Reagan, haha. Anyway. I'm intrigued to find another bio to compare. Yet another to-do over the summer.

[Fred Kohn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could have rated this book higher. It is well researched, well documented, and well written. But I got sick and tired of reading in every paragraph or two some quote or anecdote designed to show how stupid and/or lazy Reagan was. Especially when the last few paragraphs of the book revert to glowing praise.

[Pallavi]

it made me DISLIKE him even more

[Jhardacre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of interesting information but author tended to repeat himself frequently.