Robert Mann's book is about Ronald Reagan's political evolution from his early days as a New Deal liberal to his famous 1964 speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater's doomed presidential campaign. Though no acolyte of Reagan's, Mann treats his subject seriously as he charts his emergence as an orator and political activist while flagging Reagan's frequent exaggerations and fictions in his statements. The result is a clearly-written and well-argued account of the emergence of one of the key political figures of postwar American politics, one that can be read profitably by anyone seeking to understand how an earnest young actor began a career that would end in the highest office in the land.