The Social Animal is an instruction manual for politicians, the chief virtue of which is that it is practically useless. Faced with geopolitical and economic upheaval, the New York Times columnist offers a reassuring refuge from reality.
Jacob Heilbrunn analyzes a spate of recent Reagan biographies, which demonstrate that neither George W. Bush nor any of the presidential candidates can lay claim to Reagan's unique legacy.
Brands deserves congratulation on his new biography, an honest, enjoyable, sympathetic portrait of our twenty-sixth president, aside from a melodramatic prologue and some unfortunate bows to modern psychology.
