Read an Excerpt

This is not a political biography—that's a job best left for others. Neither does this book pretend to be an encyclopedic recounting of his entire life. It is simply my attempt to come to grips with the father with whom I grew up, with a public figure both revered and reviled and, most important, with a human being in all his stubborn enigma. Everyone thinks he knows Ronald Reagan, but those who truly knew him best still grapple with the enduring mystery of his inner character. I'm hoping that some light might penetrate that mystery if I can focus on the man I knew through the lens of his early, formative years.