How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life
Written by Peter Robinson
Narrated by Peter Robinson
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
On February 6, 2001, my nine-year-old daughter happened to wander into the room during a television segment marking Ronald Reagan's ninetieth birthday. She watched for a moment. Then she turned to me and asked, ""Dad, is that the President you worked for?""
What answer could I give her? How could I make her see? I wanted my daughter to recognize that the world she inhabited was freer and more prosperous because of that old, old man on television. But I also wanted her to grasp my personal debt to him, to understand all that he taught me-how to work and how to relax, how to think and how to use words, how to be a good husband, how to approach life itself...
I needed to tell my children how Ronald Reagan changed my life.
In 1982, as a young man, Peter Robinson was hired as a speechwriter in the Reagan White House. During the six years that followed, he was one of a core group of writers who became informal experts on Reagan, absorbing not just his political positions but his personality, manner, and way of carrying himself And the example Reagan set-as a confident, passionate, principled, generous-spirited older man-molded Robinson's outlook just as he was coming into his own. ""Hard work. A good marriage. A certain lightness of touch,"" he writes. ""The longer I studied Ronald Reagan, the more lessons I learned.""
At the core of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life are ten of the life lessons Robinson learned from the fortieth President-principles that have guided his own life ever since. But it also offers a warm and unforgettable portrait of a great yet ordinary man who touched the individuals around him as surely as he did his millions of admirers around the world.
Drawing on journal entries from his days at the White House, as well as interviews with those who knew the President best, Robinson etches his portrait with fresh observations, telling detail, and that ""certain lightness of touch"" that recalls the master himself The result is nothing less than a love story-an account of the profound respect and affection that one young man came to feel for the President who changed his life forever.
Peter Robinson
One of the world’s most popular and acclaimed writers, Peter Robinson was the bestselling, award-winning author of the DCI Banks series. He also wrote two short-story collections and three stand-alone novels, which combined have sold more than ten million copies around the world. Among his many honors and prizes were the Edgar Award, the CWA (UK) Dagger in the Library Award, and the Swedish Crime Writers’ Academy Martin Beck Award.
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Reviews for How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life
24 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My favorite president. It's a great story and a great time in American history.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5wonderful lessons for life...
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I always enjoy books about Ronald Reagan because the subject is so inspiring and American. I have been watching Uncommon Knowledge interviews from Stanford's Hoover Institution on YouTube for a few years; I never knew Peter Robinson, the host of the show was one of President Reagan's speech writers (after moving from the Vice President George H. W. Bush's office). This was a very touching book proving how multidimensional of a man our fortieth president turned out to be. I don't know whom I learned more about, the author or his boss. At any rate, the lessons Mr. Robinson learned from the President, are presented in ten chapters by subject. Throughout the book we learn how Peter Robinson was an Oxford graduate but hadn't necessarily matured, in almost an accidental surrogate father, Robinson's observations of Reagan taught him life lessons. Robinson weaves personal journal entries with firsthand and secondhand reminiscences of The Gipper. How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life was a heartfelt tribute to one of our greatest presidents and it was clear how much Peter Robinson appreciated Ronald Reagan.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Peter Robinson’s title – How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life – sounds a bit over the top. But when you discover that Robinson, while still in his 20s, wrote Reagan’s immortal ‘Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’ speech, you realize that this is a special story that fully merits a bit of hyperbole. Robinson is a skillful writer; his prose is folksy but measured; rich in details yet concise. I’m sure he wrote many excellent speeches for Mr Reagan. He also chooses a clever organizing device: he distills what he learned from the 40th President into ten lessons or maxims, and builds a chapter of reminiscences, reflections and even a bit of advice around each:The Pony in the Dung Heap – When Life Buries You, DigThe Posthole Digger – Do Your WorkHow to Act – Life Is a Drama. Do Something.Tear Down This Wall – Words MatterAt the Big Desk in the Master Bedroom – You Have a Head. Use It.The Man with the Natural Swing – Easy Does ItWithout Her, No Place – Marriage Can Save Your LifeThe Oak-Walled Cathedral – Say Your PrayersTomfools – Do What You Can, Where You Are, with What You HaveThe Lifeguard vs. Karl Marx – You MatterRobinson’s own voice is humble, which allows Reagan’s inimitable style come alive again and again, as Robinson recounts many events we all recall, plus quite a few ‘insider’ moments that are fresh and revealing.As you’d expect, Robinson deeply admires Ronald Reagan, so most of the book is suffused in a warm golden glow. But this is not a hagiography: one of the book’s later chapters deals directly with Reagan’s role in the Iran-Contra scandal, and with his strained relationships with his children. I would like to close with a characteristic quotation from How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life:You could see Reagan’s acceptance of human nature most clearly of all in his love of humor. We humans are utterly ridiculous, of course – half body, half spirit, always trying to take ourselves seriously, surprised when we find the little lectures on our own importance that we’re always giving ourselves interrupted by our need to use the bathroom. Instead of trying to remake human nature, as did, for example, Lenin and Hitler, Reagan simply told jokes – told jokes, then threw back his head and laughed. We’re all in this predicament together, the twinkle in his eyes seemed to say, but it’ll all come out all right in the end. This is wise, even profound stuff. I highly recommend this unique look into the life and work of one of the greatest presidents.