A review by lucasmiller
The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008 by Sean Wilentz

3.0

I enjoyed this book, but it was a real slog to get through parts of it. I appreciated the critical assessment of Reagan that was willing to give credit where credit was due but the overly forgiving portrait of Bill Clinton raised my hackles some. Perhaps, this just shows how much the assessment of Clinton's administration has shifted since 2008. It is always hard to read recent American history that doesn't include the shocking advent of the Trump era. I think that Wilentz argument for the victory of Reaganite politics in George W. Bush and its exhaustion by 2008 is compelling, but I know, that it gets more complicated afterward. More a functional book than a real barn burner.