I have mentioned before that I love to read biographical material, and I especially love it when those biographies are about great leaders. When I received Last Act: The Final Years And Emerging Legacy Of Ronald Reagan, I was pretty excited to dig into it.b

Craig Shirley has written extensively about Ronald Reagan before, and his books have been bestsellers. But this book was not all that impressive. I was somewhat disappointed in Last Act.

I knew going in that this book would be different than other biographies that I have read about Reagan. This book is solely focused upon the final years, the death and funeral, and the legacy of one of the greatest Presidents of the twentieth century. Very little of this book is about the years as an actor, or even the years in the Oval Office, except in passing.

The complete focus of Shirley’s work here is primarily on the death and funeral of Ronald Reagan, and the legacy that he left behind. The media hated, and still hates, Reagan. But the American people loved him greatly, and still do. And with that premise, Last Act had the potential to be a great examination of Reagan’s impact.

Sadly, that was not the case. I have not read any of Craig Shirley’s other works to compare, but his writing in this work was scattered and disjointed. He would break into his own thoughts with seemingly random paragraphs, often about American society in general, and give no explanation for why this was included right at that point. It was distracting and made for very difficult reading.

Much of the information Shirley presented was good information. If he had taken more time to edit his own work, paying attention to how the book flowed while reading, this could have been a much more interesting volume.

Finally, this book gives the expectation that there would be some discussion of the lasting legacy of Ronald Reagan’s influence upon the nation and the world. However, there is very little of this. The majority of the work is focused on the funeral week, and little else. Reagan’s legacy is mentioned frequently, but more often than not, only in the context of stating that this legacy was “emerging.” It was disappointing, to say the least.

I found this a very hard book to finish, and simply did not want to continue reading it. There are other, better Biographies of Reagan available, and they are much easier to read. I cannot recommend Last Act, other than for the sheer amount of research and work involved. You would be better off reading other books about Ronald Reagan.

Question: Who is your favorite President of the twentieth century and why? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

I received this book free from Harper Collins Christian Publishing as part of their BookLook Bloggers review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.