Hand Of Providence : The Strong and Quiet Faith of Ronald Reagan

Rating:
Summary: A Spiritual Glimpse of a Great Man
Review: "He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save." Such were the words of President George W. Bush upon the news of Reagan's death. Many wonder what made Ronald Reagan such a successful and dynamic man and leader who indeed revolutionized our nation and the world. This book does a fantastic job in explaining that Reagan was guided by his faith and deep belief in God and His involvement in the affairs of men-both individually and collectively. Indeed, Ronald Reagan refused to accept credit for what his decisions and actions caused because of his belief that he was a tool, if you will, for God to bring about his purposes. If you want to learn more about what kind of a man Ronald Reagan was and why he was such a successful Governor and President, read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic, easy read!
Review: Fantastic book. I received it as a gift. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. It surveys the life of Reagan and how God was preparing him for a specific purpose. I have always been a Reagan fan, but this book deppened my admiration even more.

Rating:
Summary: Hand of Providence is a Great Read
Review: Hand of Providence is an awesome book, and when I opened and read the Forward by Michael Reagan, I couldn't put the book down.

I was an admirer of President Reagan before, but this book shows how he was used by God throughout his life. Now I understand how extraordinary a man he really was. I learned thing I never knew about him before.

The book is not about policy, and it isn't about government, it is about how one man faces the diffuculties of life and overcomes them with the power of prayer and reliance on his Savior, Jesus Christ.

I could see this book upsetting many secular humanists that also admire President Reagan.

In the final analysis, this book strengthened my own faith, as I learned how President Reagan overcame many trials. Read it and be inspired on nearly every page.

Rating:
Summary: In light of Reagan's Death
Review: I have to admit to being suspicious of a book that purports to plumb the depths of the faith of someone who rarely went to worship services for decades, and whose main demonstration of faith seemed to be his references to good versus evil (e.g., the Soviets), and his stated belief in Armageddon. However, it is clear that Mr. Reagan did have a belief structure to his life, which makes the examination thereof a not-unreasonable task.

However, I found this book to be overly-facile and simplistic. Further, I do not detect the depth of research that, in my view, one should bring to as important a subject as an ex-President of Reagan's stature. Like him or not, one must admit that Reagan presided over the executive branch during some momentous events and that, further, he had not-negligible skills as a President. But after reading this book, I must admit that I still don't understand either Reagan the man or Reagan the president any better, nor do I feel that I have many insights, if any, into how his faith played into his policy decisions.

I am afraid that, unlike the other reviewers, I cannot recommend this book. There is an excellent book waiting to be written on this topic, but this isn't it.

I must admit that, in light of the current effort to canonize Reagan, I am completely unsurprised that my review has received so many "unhelpful" votes. I guess anything less than 5 stars is going to get that.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly-written, shallow introduction to a compelling subject
Review: Just to get the politics out of the way, I am definitely a fan of Reagan.

That said, I think this was a poorly written book. First, the tone is entirely too close to Reagan. Obviously, the author is not a historian by training or by profession, but the book would have been a better read if it had not had such a boosterish tone.

The book also suffers from a simple case of bad writing. Though there are no howlers such as dangling participles, the book certainly has a "rushed, first-draft" tone to it. It contains many stylistic false steps, and reminds me of a mediocre term paper written by a high school student. "Reagan did blah blah blah. Reagan blah blah blah." How about using the pronoun "he" once in a while?

The text is also pedantic and given to cliches. ("the period in life between the innocence of childhood and the full responsibilities is a very challenging time.")

It veers off-topic on occasion. A discussion of the assassination attempt leads to a page-plus discussion on Biblical texts relating to angels.

Citations from noted evangelical leaders (James Dobson, for example) serve more to indicate that the author is plugged into that community; they do not, however, give much illumination to Reagan. Since they don't add anything, they simply waste space.

While the book makes an attempt to link Reagan's foreign policy with his religious views, more time could have been spent making the same connection on the domestic front. Many people think that Christian charity requires government programs. I don't share that assessment, and neither did Reagan. What about Reagan's beliefs lead him to reject that association? A case can be made, but the author doesn't do it.

The book does have some value. The description of the assassination attempt and the medical aftermath was interesting; perhaps the author's medical training helped out here. I was unaware of the ecumenical nature (Catholic father and brother; Protestant mother) of his birth family. That experience may helped Reagan reach out to the pope as well as to evangelical protestant leaders. The interviews that Reagan gave in the 60s and earlier, dug out by the author, give this member of the faith the conviction that Reagan was a true believer, and not a poser who conveniently mouthed a belief system just in time for electoral success.

I have not read Paul Kengor's book on the same subject, but having seen him on C-SPAN, I suspect that he's given a more in-depth, better written treatment to this important question of Reagan the man, the president, and the Christian.

Rating:
Summary: Some new info, but largely other scholars
Review: The "Hand of Providence" is a pretty good read, just know that Mary Beth Brown brings little new research or insight to Ronald Reagan. This collection is largely the work of other Reagan biographers. If you are looking for a biography that deals with the political side of Reagan go to Lou Cannon and Peggy Noonan for character & faith. Mary Beth Brown does add some new info with her discussions with Michael Reagan. I understood a little bit more about President Reagan and Jane Wyman's divorce.

In terms of Reagan himself there is no doubt that faith deeply influenced his presidency and strategy during the Cold War, he says as much in his autobiography. Look, Reagan was the greatest president of the 20th century. He destroyed communism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Reagan is really a throw back in terms of his values, he symbolizes Americana, westward expansion, eternal optimism, faith in God and values.

Brown's contribution with her book is that she recognizes the importance of Reagan's appeal in terms of faith with the "Reagan Democrats," her premise is that they were more attracted to his spiritual and faith politics than his economic ideas. This is no doubt very true, but they still work together for the kind of vast coalitions Reagan built. Another contribution by Brown, although not completely new was that Reagan knew how to win the votes of evangelical protestants and Roman Catholics at the same time. She was good to point that note out. She has some new information on Nelle Reagan as well. Overall this is a little simplified but largely accurate account of President Reagan and his faith. It's an interesting and very quick read, you could read it an afternoon. I wish she would have expanded her thoughts and had notes. I am glad Reagan's faith is getting more play in terms of publishing. It was so obvious with the language he used during the Cold War that there were obvious and overt spiritual overtones at work within the entire administration and their rhetoric.

Overall if you are just getting started in this area, this is a good place to start. After that check out the original sources.

Rating:
Summary: Good Introduction to Reagan
Review: This book does not claim to offer an in-depth biography of Reagan, just an introduction to a frequently ignored but fundamental aspect of Reagan: his religious faith in God's plan for each individual. The book is personally inspiring because Reagan himself had his tough times: an alcoholic father, a broken engagement early on, a terrible death threat from Hollywood Communists, losing an infant child, an unexpected divorce, a disappointing movie career, and a tough loss to Gerald Ford for the 1976 Republican nomination. And yet throughout all of this, Reagan maintained his sense of destiny rooted in trust that, by God's providence, all would in the end turn out for the better. And it did.

On a more political level, the book has a chapter that captures a coalition that came into its own under Reagan and may very well decide the current presidential election: the coalition of evangelical Protestants and conservative Catholics. The Republican Party of today is unimaginable without that coalition. And all of that is owed to Ronald Reagan who, as the book points out, was uniquely situated to foster this new coalition, given his background with a Catholic father and an evangelical Protestant mother.

The book captures what is most important about Reagan, and for that it is well worth the price.

Rating:
Summary: A superb piece of work
Review: This is a book with lots of heart and soul, but the research is also first rate. I highly recommend for Reagan fans and those interested in the power of God and inspiration.

Rating:
Summary: Reagan was a disaster
Review: To hear that this disaster of a human being was motivated by faith in god does not make me like or trust him more, to say the least. I'm much more concerned with the damage he did than with his spiritual life, and apparently that was of a piece with Nancy consulting astrologers. How I wish I could have written his obit!

"Ronald Reagan, one of the world's most successful terrorists and con men, died today at the age of 93. His mind had gone ten years earlier, or arguably much earlier than that, and rumors that he had a soul have never been confirmed. Indeed, lack of a soul might have been the one circumstance that could have won him forgiveness, for it would have made more understandable his complete lack of any moral compass,
and would have provided an explanation for his obvious and pathetic hollowness.

As an actor in Hollywood, he was a New Deal Democrat and the President of the Screen Actors' Guild. However, his allegiance to a better society and the American labor movement was as tenuous as it was to his fellow actors and supposed friends and constituents, whom he--with his trademark cheerfullness--ratted out to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee, naming names and reporting on who had attended what wartime rally to support our Soviet allies at what time. He was a man who unerringly took the main chance. inspired by Barry Goldwater, he became a Republican in 1962. He then worked ceaselessly to make sure that all of the country's resources and social privileges ended up in the hands of those who could best make use of them, that is, those who already had the most of them. His legacy lives on.

As president, convinced that he knew the one correct way for people everywhere in the world to live, he set about smashing emerging democracies like Nicaragua and funding death squad governments in El Salvador and Guatemala while describing these policies as being in support of freedom--the freedom of US corporate interests to brutally enslave Central Americans. In the service of this great and humanitarian idea, Reagan had the honor to instruct his puppet armies to target hospitals and schools, orders which have been very well documented.

Ironically, he was to go down in history as a kind man, at least among Americans. Reached for comment today, a ragged group of Guatemalan peasants had little to say about him that was compatible with this newspaper's family format.

He had the great good luck to happen to preside over a time in which the Soviet Union was crumbling from its own inherent cruelty and irrationality. He sold the preposturous and highly dangerous idea of a space-based missile defense to a paranoid and credulous American people that had, in general, very little education in physics or international relations. He did make one important contribution to the downfall of the Soviet Union when he supported Jihadist opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, one effect of which was to radicalize and popularize Muslim leaders such as Osama bin Laden, launching them on long and successful careers. The effects of this alliance, of course, linger with us today.

He was an amiable man who made friends easily, even with people whom others could not get along with, such as Saddam Hussein, Jonas Savimbi, and Pol Pot, manly warriors who between them killed several million innocent people in their megalomanical struggles to attain and maintain power. He did his best to win over the mad mullahs of Iran, kindly selling them missiles and using the profits to give even nicer gifts to his friends fighting that evil, nasty, popularly elected government in Nicaragua. When a spiteful little Congress tried to give him grief just because this was against the law and against the constitution, he didn't sink to their level, didn't get down in the mud with small-minded legislators; in his gentlemanly way, he merely replied, 'I don't remember...'"



Rating:
Summary: In light of Reagan's Death
Review: When President Reagan died I felt that I wanted know more about his faith and family. This book gave me a rare peek into the very private life of President and Mrs. Reagan. It answered my questions, like if he has a strong faith in God why didn't he go to church. I highly recommend this book. It is a quick and easy read and highly informative. Michael Reagan wrote the forward, and he amazed me with his hearty endorsement of the book's conclusions. This book has even helped me sort out my own beliefs.