My Father at 100

Since his death in 2004, Ronald Reagan has remained not only one of the most popular and beloved presidents but also one of the most closely scrutinized, analyzed, and puzzled-over figures in recent American history. A paradox, an enigma, a mystery: Biographers and political scientists alike inevitably find themselves reaching similar conclusions about a man who was warm yet remote, a man of almost legendary affability who had virtually no close friends besides his wife in later life, a man who reveled in public display but remained intensely private, a man who was willing to call Soviet leaders to account yet behind the scenes carefully avoided conflict.

In 2011, at the centenary of his birth, we may be no closer to understanding the forces that motivated and compelled him, but in My Father at 100 we have a uniquely privileged portrait of Ronald Reagan by the man who knew him as teacher, moral compass, occasional adversary, and father: his son Ron Reagan. As Ron grew up under his father's watchful gaze, he observed the very qualities that made the future president such a powerful leader. Yet for all of their shared experiences of horse-back rides and swimming matches, there was much that Ron never knew about his father's youth, and so in 2010 he set off for the small midwestern towns that served as the forge of Ronald Reagan's character and values. That journey into the past---where Ron discovers a young "Dutch" Reagan who was himself a devoted son, a fearless lifeguard, an aspiring athlete, and a student who eagerly joined a revolt against his college president---illuminates many of his own memories of his father, which he shares with warmth and wit.

Whether stubbornly attempting to drive a pickup truck up an impossibly steep road on his ranch, facing down with almost uncanny cool a wildfire that threatened his home, or confronting his Alzheimer's disease with calm dignity, the Ronald Reagan we meet in this heartfelt and deeply touching portrait is not the man whom history and his own privacy have conspired to turn into a remote icon. Here, instead, is a father, a husband, a friend, and finally a human being with his own fears and foibles, yet armed with a set of unshakable principles that he sought to instill not only in his son, but also in the country he so fiercely loved.

Ron Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan. Formerly a dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, he has been a political commentator and cohost of MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast, as well as host of The Ron Reagan Show on Air America Radio. He has written for numerous magazines, including Newsweek, Playboy, Esquire, and The New Yorker. He lives in Seattle with his wife, Doria.