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 studios to squeeze out their competitors in the 1930s look like everyday normal business operations in a rural neighborhood's small, mom and pop-owned candystore. The former president's attitudes about antitrust issues were definite, even then. And, predictably, during Reagan's years as president, antitrust laws were relaxed and many large corporations merged.
Another interesting thing about this autobiography is its detailed history of Reagan's career as the governor of C...