S8 Ep248: A MIDWESTERN CHILDHOOD: ROOTS OF OPTIMISM AND DETACHMENT Colleague Max Boot. Biographer Max Boot discusses Ronald Reagan's difficult childhood in Illinois during the Great Depression. He details how Reagan's alcoholic father, Jack, created family instabil
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1916 THE REAGANS
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| 0:00.0 | Ramadan is a time to reflect, connect and experience the world more meaningfully. |
| 0:06.5 | In Abu Dhabi, Curiosity leads the way through adventure, wildlife and moments of wonder, culture, movement and well-being create lasting connections, while shared tables and rich flavors turn every meal into a story. |
| 0:23.6 | Travel deeper, travel richer. Experience Abu Dhabi. |
| 0:33.6 | This is CBS Eye on the World. |
| 0:38.3 | Here's John Batchelor. |
| 0:41.3 | This is CBS, I on the World. |
| 0:44.3 | I'm John Batchelor. |
| 0:45.3 | It is late 1932, come Christmas time. |
| 0:49.3 | A young man, Ronald Reagan, is visiting Springfield, Illinois. |
| 0:55.6 | His father, Jack, is running a shoe store to maintain what he can of an income for the family. |
| 1:02.9 | It is the very, very, very dark days of the United States in what becomes the Great Depression. |
| 1:17.6 | This is a moment when Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the disabled governor of New York, has been elected president, but it won't be until March that he takes office. |
| 1:21.6 | Everything is dire and we know that the banks are going to fail. |
| 1:25.6 | So there is no prosperity anywhere. |
| 1:29.8 | And yet Ronald Reagan records later what he saw of his father deeply, deeply hurt him. |
| 1:37.3 | And he cried. |
| 1:39.1 | I welcome a man who's told this story and all the others, his life and legend, Reagan, Max Boot. |
| 1:47.5 | Max and I have history 20 years ago when Max was at the Wall Street Journal and he visited Iraq |
| 1:53.4 | and came back and reported to me. |
| 1:55.6 | So it's a great pleasure to welcome him to this show. |
| 1:58.6 | After all these years, he's devoted to Ronald Reagan away from his family, and now he gets |
| 2:03.7 | to talk about it. |
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