AN AMERICAN LIFE :Ronald Reagan

Ronald Reagan's long-awaited autobiography, An American Life, gives a revealing look at the former U.S. president's life. This book is important because the former president explains things from a personal standpoint, which endears him to readers while he is attempting to get a point across.

Reagan says his career might not have happened had he failed to get the job he wanted in the sporting goods department of Montgomery Ward. The book is also important for its historical value. For instance, Reagan recalls being raised in the Great Depression of the 1930s, when he hitch-hiked back home, dejected, after failing to find work in Chicago (20). He finally got a job in Davenport, Illinois. His job, announcing the Iowa-Minnesota Homecoming Game, paid 5 dollars for a day's work (65).

One of the more interesting historical notes is Reagan's recollection of coming to Hollywood for the first time, in 1937 (116). Back then, "Hollywood was run a lot like an old-fashioned candy store . . . Each studio had a big stable of contract actors . . . and a nationwide chain of theatres where the pictures were exhibited" [Emphasis added] (116). Reagan describes the antitrust suit which was brought by a private chain of theaters. The Justice Department "issued a series of decrees declaring that the studios could either make pictures or open theatres--they couldn't do both," Reagan said (117). Reagan knows how to make monopolization tactics which were used by the big

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inflation, high unemployment, and a prime interest rate of 21.5 percent (the highest since the Civil War) (230). And here he makes a real point: most Americans would not want a prime rate of 21.5 percent because it makes the cost of owning a home or running a business too high. Thus, Reagan began working closely with his advisers on an economic recovery plan. The plan was Reagan's first priority while he was in office. The president sat down to work with a team of specialists in his first cabinet meeting, the morning after inauguration day, to coordinate U.S. economic policy. So, from the beginning of the president's first term, Reagan and his advisers and cabinet members worked together by planning to reduce federal income tax rates. Reagan explained how he used his cabinet officers and advisers to help him implement his goal of reducing "the proportion of our national wealth that was taken by Washington" so that the economy would improve and inflation would decrease (230-231). Reagan and his team were determined to balance the state budget in two or three years, by 1984 "at the latest" (235). Reagan's autobiography also discusses how the president dealt with Congressional leaders during his first and second terms.

Category: People - A