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Library Journal Review

This memoir is a bitter review of Stockman's years in the Reagan Administration. It is a book with few heroes and many fools. The author claims naivete as his excuse. Although the narrative is somewhat confusing, overall, its backstage view of policymaking leaves one discouraged, even frightened by the superficiality. The book is a necessary library purchase for two reasons: the notoriety of the book and its author, and the insider's view of key policies still in place and key personalities still in power. Richard C. Schiming, Economics Dept., Mankato State Univ., Minn. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Stockman is the most innocent and gullible person alive-according to him. He believed that the Reagan Revolution would reduce the role of government merely to providing order to permit capitalism to operate unhindered. He discovered a hundred times that politics directs the actions of congressmen, but never learned this until his last year in the administration. Then he did the only honorable thing-he quit. Vivid portraits of the people around Reagan provide excellent insights into the workings of American government, and Weinberger, Regan, and Meese are presented as particularly dangerous to the future welfare of the US. Reagan is pictured as the most pathetic person in the whole book-so optimistic that he is not willing to face reality. Reagan, like Stockman, apparently believed that Congress would rubber-stamp his economic program because it would be good for the country. The excesses of interest-group politics are accurately portrayed, and Stockman shows that the voters prefer interest-group politics to the stringencies of supply-side economics. Perhaps the most important parts of the book are the epilogue and appendix, where Stockman shows how much economically worse off the US is because of Reagan than it would have been if it had followed Democratic party politics. He correctly points out the contribution of Presidents Ford and Nixon and congressional Republicans in increasing the social welfare function of the state. All libraries should have a copy.-H.E. Albert, Clemson University