Books, Arts & Manners: What Was Reagan?

Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988, by Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus (Houghton Mifflin, 468 pp., $21.95)

The thesis of this book by two very bright and industrious journalists, Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times and Jane Mayer of the Wall Street Journal, is that the Iran-Contra affair exposed a basic truth about the Reagan Administration and destroyed the President’s credibility. Full of court gossip, and containing finely etched portraits of such people as Bill Casey, Cap Weinberger, Oliver North, Mike Deaver, and Nancy Reagan, the book is irresistible to political junkies. But are the authors’ conclusions true?

About the Author

Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988, by Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus (Houghton Mifflin, 468 pp., $21.95)

The thesis of this book by two very bright and industrious journalists, Doyle McManus of the Los Angeles Times and Jane Mayer of the Wall Street Journal, is that the Iran-Contra affair exposed a basic truth about the Reagan Administration and destroyed the President’s credibility. Full of court gossip, and containing finely etched portraits of such people as Bill Casey, Cap Weinberger, Oliver North, Mike Deaver, and Nancy Reagan, the book is irresistible to political junkies. But are the authors’ conclusions true?