I’ve not read many autobiographies, so this was a chance to learn the story from the person who was the subject itself. I’m glad I did it this way. As I’m certain another author would not have captured what was important to the story from Reagan’s perspective.

The early days were important, to understand his childhood, how he lived and what he learned from an early age. The Hollywood days were very interesting as I did not know just how amerced in Hollywood he was. President of SAG was a big honor and taught him a lot. The California Governor days were also interesting.

His time in the White House was very well documented. His story about the economy and rescuing it from Carter was a lesson for any leader. He accomplished economic success by doing three simple things: (1) reducing government spending, (2) reducing government regulation, and (3) reducing taxes. Simple.

The story he told about he and Gorbachev negotiating the nuclear arms reduction was fascinating. It was clear from the story that a deep personal relationship had been built between these two leaders, which is the reason why they were able to achieve some successes in their negotiations.

A great deal was accomplished by Reagan in just 8 short years and his presidency stands out as a great example of how to lead.

This was such a fun, quick read!! I learned so much about Reagan and what made him such a well-respected president. I can definitely hear the influence of FDR’s fireside chats in Reagan’s performance for the audiobook. I’m curious now to read more about him.

UGH i just love this man. Listened to this on audio and he narrated it which made it even better. Found myself getting teary at parts. Pls read

It's not every day that you reach the end of a 752-page book assigned for school and think, "I don't want this to end!" However, that is exactly how I felt when I hit the epilogue of this presidential autobiography.

This book is incredibly entertaining, and even though it covers a lot of political and social issues in great depth and with appropriate seriousness, I laughed out loud countless times because of Reagan's shining personality and humor. He shares lots of hilarious anecdotes from his life, covering the types of details that no academic biographer would ever bother to include, and I have added a wealth of new historical stories to my repertoire. Recently, I had my whole family in stitches as I talked about how in one chapter, Reagan transitions directly from reflections about the first summit with Gorbachev to an anecdote about the death of a goldfish that he was responsible for feeding at the house where he was staying.

"The PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES was responsible for feeding their goldfish?!" my mom cried.

"Yes! And he was like, 'I don't know if I fed it too much, or if I fed it too little, but it died on my watch, and I felt terrible!'"

During my class, in addition to reading this, I also read selected chapters from scholarly works that complemented it and provided an academic perspective on the different stages and issues of Reagan's political career. They were great sources, and they went to show how accurate Reagan was in his portrayals of events, but none of them would have ever mentioned the goldfish! I LOVED getting to read Reagan's personal, entertaining take on his life and presidency, and now understand why people of my parents' generation still love him so much. Sure, he had his faults and tripled the federal deficit, but he was basically the equivalent of a Fred Rogers in the White House. This book puts all of his charm, humor, humility, and kindness on display, and it also serves to fact-check the obnoxious myths that circulate about him.

For example, even though Reagan was sometimes tone-deaf to racial issues, he assigned more blacks and Hispanics to significant positions during his tenure as California's governor than all of the state's previous governors combined, and also promoted women's careers. Soundbite histories that try to paint Reagan as a horrible Eighties White Male don't bother to mention these things, and it was interesting to learn that despite Reagan's occasional policy missteps, he cared passionately about racial equality and was raised to believe that racial and religious prejudice were the worst sins someone could commit. The further I got into this book, the more disgusted I became with narrative-over-facts assessments of Reagan's presidency that I have come across in the past several years. This is why I'm a history major! I don't trust people to represent the past accurately, so I study it myself.

This book is one of my favorites that I have read this year, and I am very glad that I decided to take the history elective that required it. Even though this book requires a significant time commitment, I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in studying this period of American history or shares my affection for hilarious historical anecdotes.

This autobiography of Ronald Reagan was one of my most favorite book reads. It was encouraging to know that a man like him would be used by God in a position of one of the most important in our country. It shows that if God can use someone like Reagan to bring our country together, He can use anyone else to fulfill his purpose. I highly recommend it! All glory be to God.

Good book but take it with a pinch of salt.

The book is written by the man himself so this instantly means that he will let him look as good as possible. Still he sometimes is harsh for himself but that mostly contains private scenarios and not political. Although I agree with his political stance I still think the book could be written more objectively. But this is also the reason I have never read a autobiography.

But the book is written really well and Reagan really pictures the political landscape of this time as well as telling his life story before going into politics.

Straightforward and insightful autobiography by one of the great American presidents.

President Reagan wrote a narrative of his life focusing on his time in the White House in the greatest extent. He completed this autobiography in 1990, so he had limited perspective on the results of his presidency, aside from the fall of the Berlin Wall. He fortunately kept a diary with entries every day of his presidency, which he used several times in the writing of this book. The book is rich in primary sources, including diary entries and letters to and from him. The portion about the White House years is arranged topically, so domestic politics, Iran-Contra, and nuclear arms reduction each receive their own sections. He could have edited his negotiations with Gorbachev to be shorter, as that section traces his correspondence letter by letter, almost day by day. I recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand President Reagan’s version of his presidency.

I listened to this instead of reading because I wanted to hear Ronald Reagan talk about his life! I don't want to sound ignorant but I had no idea of the struggles he had during his presidency in the 80s! I thought communism died in the 50s but it clearly had not.
Also in this autobiography you can also hear the love he had for his wife, Nancy and it made me tear up to hear him speak about it. Great book! Really enjoyed it!

I loved this book. Listened to the book narrated by President Ronald W Reagan himself and it is one of the most amazing books that I had a privilege to enjoy. Thanks to my lovely wife for getting me a copy to listen to on the way to a business trip.

This book should be on the desk of every democratic statesman in the world. Our leaders need, more than ever, to abide by frugal government, uncompromising opposition to authoritarian regimes anywhere, and communication to the public that is intelligent, quick-witted, and uniting, as opposed to polarizing, aggressive, populist rhetorics.

This book could be a best-seller alone for being the autobiography of any of these:
- A Hollywood star.
- Someone who restored America's confidence and economy in the '80s, starting a domino effect of re-democratization in several countries.
- Someone who decisively helped end the Cold War.
It is, though, all of them.

Ronald Reagan was a man with a fascinating trajectory. He was born into a middle-class family in Tampico, Illinois, and could have remained working in a shop in the Chicago area. Instead, he decided to venture off the beaten track. First, as a radio broadcaster in Iowa; then off to California for the movie industry; WW2; then a path to governorship and presidency, unlikely for an actor.

The world was also lucky to witness the coexistence of Reagan and Gorbachev in power during the late '80s. Reagan's openness to communication with Gorbachev, and his advocacy of "peace through strength", as opposed to appeasement, reminded the Soviets that America was willing to defend its allies and outspend the Soviets as much as America wanted. However, whenever the Soviets wished to stop the spending folly, the US was open to negotiating long-lasting peace. The result was the START treaty, the first one actually to destroy nuclear weapons.

There's also much to be talked about his defense of individual freedoms and small government, which are the basis of the American Revolution, and often-ignored Economics 101, but suffice it to say:

"Every individual is unique, but we all want freedom and liberty, peace, love and security, a good home, and a chance to worship God in our own way; we all want the chance to get ahead and make our children’s lives better than our own. (...) And America, above all places, gives us the freedom to do that, the freedom to reach out and make our dreams come true."

""Liberty has never come from government,” Woodrow Wilson, one of FDR’s predecessors and another Democrat, said. “The history of liberty is the history of limitation of government’s power, not the increase of it.”

"The last thing that many of the people who supervised the welfare program wanted was to reduce their caseload because it might have threatened their jobs. As always, the first goal of the bureaucracy was to protect the bureaucracy."

This was my first president in life and he will always be an important part of who I am. I very much loved this autobiographical piece and I'm grateful that he was gracious enough to share his thoughts and experiences with the world; we are all so much better off because of him. I highly recommend this to anybody that loves Reagan, and I definitely recommend this book to anybody that doesn't.