Max Boot Unravels Ronald Reagan’s ‘Myriad Contradictions’ in New Biography

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News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 9 October 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

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Summary

Much has been written about Ronald Reagan, but historian Max Boot’s new biography, which draws on new archival sources and interviews with nearly a hundred people who knew Reagan best, is being hailed as definitive. Boot says Reagan was possessed of “myriad contradictions and inconsistencies:” a skeptic of government who presided over vast spending increases; a gun rights advocate who supported tough gun laws; a man of strong convictions but little intellectual depth. We talk to Boot about why he did not want to write either a “hagiography or a hit job” of the former president and California governor, and both the contrasts and connections he sees between Reagan and Donald Trump. Boot’s new book is “Reagan: His Life and Legend.” What policy, event or moment do you most associate with Ronald Reagan? Guests: Max Boot, senior fellow for national security studies, Council on Foreign Relations - columnist, Washington Post; author, "Reagan: His Life and Legend" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:26.0	Much has been written about Ronald Reagan, but historian Max
1:29.2	Boote's new biography is being hailed as definitive. Boote says Reagan had myriad contradictions
1:35.0	and inconsistencies, a skeptic of government who presided over vast spending increases, a gun rights
1:40.9	advocate who supported gun control laws, a man of strong convictions, but little intellectual depth.
1:47.2	We'll talk to Boot about the contrasts and connections he sees between Reagan and the rise of Donald Trump.
1:54.0	What major event or policy do you most associate with President Reagan?
1:58.4	Join us.
2:35.4	Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim. Many Republicans revere Ronald Reagan, especially anti-Trump Republicans. Even Democrats will invoke the pro-immigration and pro-abortion rights legislation, Reagan signed into law during his presidency, and as governor of California, to remind the GOP of the obvious differences between the president they revere and the candidate they're rallying around today.
2:41.9	But Max Boot's new biography, drawing tremendous praise called Reagan, his life and legend,
2:49.2	raises the question of whether Reaganism stands in stark contrast to Trumpism, or is its precursor. Government is not the solution to our problem.
	...

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