Ronald Reagan: The Politics of Symbolism as written by Robert Dallek was primarily about the career of Ronald Reagan from his childhood to his presidential years. Dallek have shown how Reagan has been someone who seemingly provided a genuine concern for the nation and for the people when in fact he was only concern about himself. The book generally offers a history of Reagan’s life and how his being a former actor have helped him to touch the hearts of the people around him with a good use of rhetoric.The book then went on to show the different anomalies that have transpired during Reagan’s presidency and have later on shown how an ideologue Reagan has been. The book was generally good as a reference because it is dedicated only to one president and was concentrated only to one time frame which is that of Ronald Reagan’s life and works. As a reference material it would be useful for people who would like to dwell in the reality that the United States of America had experience during those years.
It would not be a good text book because it was too limited.The intended audiences of the book in my perspective are historians and undergraduate students. I believe that this is the case since the book was written in a highly critical and technical way. It would not be suitable for high school students who might find the book interesting but would not be able to fully capture what it intend to show.
Since the book is full of surveys and data’s from the Reagan regime, it would not be understandable for high school students who only posses basic knowledge regarding the matter.The strengths of the book can be seen on the way that the author has been able to imply the many anomalies that have transpired during Reagan’s term. The claim of the author was made with sufficient arguments and proofs from the past. The surveys as reflected from the number of the wealthy people that gain more power and wealth along with the significant increase in the national debt during Regan’s term have clearly express a summary of what must have happened during his regime.Nonetheless, it was not a balance report of what really had happened since it doesn’t give a record regarding how come that the national debt increase.
The author should have managed to offer a counter statement to all of his claims. Without a defense from Reagan and his cronies it would not be convincing that the book was not biased. The author has used several charts and graphs and surveys to support his claims. Nonetheless it was not fair to only provide a personal interpretation of the data.It would be best if the author have managed to gather needed information, comments and opinions from other respectable historians and economies that could put more authority in the book.
Robert Dallek was a great historian who has been known for his works regarding the exposition on the works of Lyndon Johnson and other presidents. Other historians such as that of James McGregor Burns, believed that Dallek have made a great deal of reality check on the different controversies that envelops the Reagan presidency. This historian believes that Reagan was a bad choice for a president.He believes that the different books that praise Reagan were all hoax. It differs from the personal view of the author of this paper since the author would want to see the other side of the story.
The author of this paper holds that the way the Dallek expresses his views and opinions in his book was quite bias and must be critically examined or reconsidered by an attempt to compare it with other books that provides contrary conclusion and by checking on the facts that can be read and found on historical and economical records.
