What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era - Hardcover

Noonan, Peggy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0394564952 ISBN 13: 9780394564951

Publisher: Random House, 1990

Synopsis

A special assistant to the president during the height of the Reagan era, Peggy Noonan worked with him, and with then vice-president Bush, on some of their most famous and memorable speeches. Now, in her thoroughly engaging and unanimously acclaimed memoir, Noonan shows us the world behind the words. Her sharp and vivid portraits of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, George Bush, Donald Regan, and a host of Washington's movers and shakers are rendered in her inimitable, witty prose. And her priceless account of what it was like to be a speechwriter among bureaucrats, and a woman in the last bastion of male power, makes this a Washington memoir that breaks the mold--as spirited, sensitive and thoughtful as Peggy Noonan herself.

A SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR


From the Paperback edition.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

sistant to the president during the height of the Reagan era, Peggy Noonan worked with him, and with then vice-president Bush, on some of their most famous and memorable speeches. Now, in her thoroughly engaging and unanimously acclaimed memoir, Noonan shows us the world behind the words. Her sharp and vivid portraits of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, George Bush, Donald Regan, and a host of Washington's movers and shakers are rendered in her inimitable, witty prose. And her priceless account of what it was like to be a speechwriter among bureaucrats, and a woman in the last bastion of male power, makes this a Washington memoir that breaks the mold--as spirited, sensitive and thoughtful as Peggy Noonan herself.

A SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR


From the Paperback edition.

Reviews

Noonan left a job as writer for Dan Rather at CBS-TV to join Reagan's White House as a speechwriter; later she helped Geoge Bush defeat Michael Dukakis, devising such catch phrases as "a thousand points of light." Part political memoir, part autobiography, this conversational, effusive, anecdotal reminiscence offers a reverential portrait of ex-president Reagan ("probably the sweetest, most innocent man ever to serve in the Oval Office") that at times borders on embarrassing, schoolgirlish adulation. Not surprisingly, perhaps, she gives us Reagan's view of himself instead of detached analysis. She discusses White House in-fighting, the 1984 presidential campaign, key speeches she wrote or helped shape, her clash with Don Regan, the drive to win public support for the contras. There are cameos of Pat Buchanan, Larry Speakes, Andy Rooney, Bill Moyers and others, along with an extended defense of conservative ideology and policies. First serial to New York Times Magazine, Mirabella and Saturday Evening Post; BOMC altenate.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0394564952
• ISBN 13: 9780394564951
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 353