Dutch

A Memoir of Ronald Reagan

By: Edmund Morris

Narrated by: Edmund Morris

This book, the only biography ever authorized by a sitting President - yet written with complete interpretive freedom - is as revolutionary in method as it is formidable in scholarship. When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1981, one of his first literary guests was Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. Morris developed a fascination for the genial yet inscrutable President and, after Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984, put aside the second volume of his life of Roosevelt to become an observing eye and ear at the White House.

Coming and going with Reagan's benign approval ("I'm not going to ride up San Juan Hill for you"), Morris found the President to be a man of extraordinary power and mystery. Although the historic early achievements were plain to see - the restoration of American optimism and patriotism, a repowering of the national economy, a massive arms buildup deliberately forcing the "Evil Empire" of Soviet Communism to come to terms - nobody, let alone Reagan himself, could explain how he succeeded in shaping events to his will. And when Reagan's second term came to grips with some of the most fundamental moral issues of the late 20th century - at Bitburg and Bergen-Belsen, at Geneva and Reykjavík, publicly outside the Brandenburg Gate ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"), and deep within the mother monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church, Morris realized that he had taken on a subject of epic dimensions.

Thus began a long biographical pilgrimage to the heart of Ronald Reagan's mystery, beginning with his birth in 1911 in the heart of rural Illinois (where he is still remembered as "Dutch", the dreamy son of an alcoholic father and a fiercely religious mother) and progressing through the way stations of an amazingly varied career: Young lifeguard (he saved 77 lives), aspiring writer, ace sportscaster, film star, soldier, union leader, corporate spokesman, Governor, and President. Reagan granted Morris full access to his personal papers, including early autobiographical stories and a handwritten White House diary.

The pilgrimage climaxes in 1993, when, in a moment of aching poignancy, Morris escorts his aged and failing subject back up the stairs of his birthplace. "An odd, Dantesque reversal of roles had occurred, as if I were now the leader rather than the led".

During 13 years of obsessive archival research and interviews with Reagan and his family, friends, admirers, and enemies (the book's enormous dramatis personae includes such varied characters as Mikhail Gorbachev, Michelangelo Antonioni, Elie Wiesel, Mario Savio, François Mitterrand, Grant Wood, and Zippy the Pinhead), Morris lived what amounted to a doppelgänger life, studying the young "Dutch", the middle-aged "Ronnie", and the septuagenarian Chief Executive with a closeness and dispassion, not to mention alternations of amusement, horror, and amazed respect, unmatched by any other presidential biographer.

This almost Boswellian closeness led to a unique literary method whereby, in the earlier chapters of Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, Morris's biographical mind becomes in effect another character in the narrative, recording long-ago events with the same eyewitness vividness (and absolute documentary fidelity) with which the author later describes the great dramas of Reagan's presidency, and the tragedy of a noble life now darkened by dementia.

"I quite understand", the author has remarked, "that readers will have to adjust, at first, to what amounts to a new biographical style. But the revelations of this style, which derive directly from Ronald Reagan's own way of looking at his life, are I think rewarding enough to convince them that one of the most interesting characters in recent American history looms here like a colossus".

©2000 Edmund Morris (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"A compelling, richly informative, conceptually courageous book that constitutes a relentless pursuit of truth... the most insightful book in print about Ronald Reagan and the meaning of his presidency." ( Baltimore Sun)

"A powerful and surprising portrait of a great world leader." ( USA Today)

"An absolute page-turner.... [Morris's] book is not just a riveting read. It takes as its model what is generally regarded as the greatest biography in the English language, James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson." ( The Washington Post Book World)

They Left the Parallel Biography of the Writer Out

A mixture of narration and authentic audio recordings. Thank goodness its sections of writer biography are left out. Mr. Morris is a biographer of poetic sentiments. This along with his narration, with a soft, educated, melodious voice, somehow misses the subject’s mark and drifts again towards being about the writer. His credentials are solid, nevertheless. He was certainly given wide access to Reagan’s Whitehouse. The very best in the book are glimpses of Reagan and his minions working at this or that activity, unconscious of Morris’ presence. Missing, at least in the abridged version from Audible, are references to the financial deregulation that caused the Savings and Loan scandal, and idiotic gaffs like the USDA’s toying with categorizing ketchup as a vegetable in school lunches—for which the president was blamed. Nor does Morris mention that the Marines in Lebanon, 241 of whom were blow sky-high in 1983, were guarded by men with unloaded weapons beside traffic barriers that didn’t stop traffic. Morris paints Nancy as one tough First Lady who, Morris hints, unjustly forced Donald Regan out of his job as Chief of Staff. Ronald Reagan comes over as a gentle, inwardly-directed, principled personality whose totality was more the result of natural than environmental influences. Worth the read but disappointing given what Mr. Morris was privy to.

Mediocre coverage on Reagans presidency.

Felt like a summary of Reagan's time as president.
i got to know more about is personality but n9t really about his policy so much.

Hard to listen to.

The narrator is terrible and they made it like a production. I wanted so badly to hear it, but just couldn't!

A good narrative history marred by author’s conceit and voice

A good narrative history of Ronald Reagan’s rise to the Presidency and the years that followed. That said, the author would have been better served hiring a professional voice actor to narrate. His own, whispy-yet-watery English accent makes for difficult listening at times. That, and his conceit of injecting himself into Reagan’s story to bear virtual witness to events he never saw seems rather arrogant. Still and all, an bearable listen if you’re interested in the subject matter.

Not what I expected

When I buy an audiobook I love the attempts Yep probably speak to transcribe the format more perfectly into an audiobook. What I don’t like is when large portions of the books are cut out and a general statement about what the rest of the chapter says or details. I’d prefer that that section be read or narrated. The reason I use the audio book format for the sake of time I can read the book but I’m not always able to sit and read a book so I rely on audiobooks to fill that gap.

I did appreciate the audio recordings of Reagan meeting with Gorbachev and other key moments.

Should have been called "Me and Dutch"

What would have made Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan better?

Cut out the parts about Morris. If he wanted to write an autobiography he should have. Making his a part of Reagan's was silly.

Has Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan turned you off from other books in this genre?

No, just Morris' books.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Talks about himself.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Anything about Reagan I would like.

Any additional comments?

Should have had a professional narrate it, not Morris himself. Could have done without the audio sound effects.

Do not waste your time

From an otherwise brilliant author, his Theodore Roosevelt books are a must read, Morris may have had unprecedented access to the president and those around him, but he never seemed to understand what made the man tick. Plus the gimmick of entering the narrative himself is more than a little off putting. Order the Roosevelt books and let this tome stay on the shelf.

Don’t power through it.

There is no payoff of covering major events in more detail. How is this the same author who did Teddy Roosevelt? Morris creates his on fictional character to interact with the real Ronald Regan which makes it more confusing than its worth.

severely disappointing

I have enjoyed edmund morris in the past but this book makes the outrage at its publication make sense. it's awful, as a biography, as a memoir, as a novel
and I'm a Republican

What a failure.

Morris wrote three volumes on a president he never met. But he can't write even one on the president he practically lived with for 13 years. It's like asking Picasso to paint a portrait in his cubist style. Creative maybe, but don't think your going to recognize who the portrait is of. There is a reason Picasso was never asked to paint a president in his cubist style. The only people who would want a cubist portrait of Reagan would be the people who didn't want an accurate portrait. I would like to see Morris write about JFK in this style. He'd be lampooned. I'd challenge Morris to write a biography of Reagan in a traditional style but he'd never do it because he couldn't. Want to know why? Ask Ayn Rand.