His name is held up as a paragon of virtue in many Republican circles—and mentioned in admiration from seemingly any conservative looking to run for or maintain political office.

But despite a public life that was public for the bulk of it be it in show business or politics, Ronald Reagan remains surprisingly inscrutable.

So much so that even after having unprecedented access to him and his archives, biographer Edmund Morris was so vexed by trying to find the “real” Reagan behind the image, good natured joking, and seeming lack of intellectual curiosity, that he pleased no one with 1999’s Dutch.

With its title a nod to Reagan’s lifelong nickname, it was an odd mixture of journalism, fiction, and fantasy as Morris even inserted himself as a character into the story.

Historian H.W. Brands and journalist Bob Spitz have also offered hefty cradle-to-grave tomes, and now comes Max Boot’s Reagan: His Life and Legend (880 pp., $45, Liverlight).

A decade in the making, Boot uses newly unclassified documents, new reporting and analysis, and original interviews with more than 100 sources to craft the possible definitive look at the man.

Ronald Reagan’s early life was not easy as the son of a long-suffering mother and alcoholic father, whose continued firing from jobs put the family on the move. The Reagans eventually settled in Dixon, Illinois, a from-central-casting small town whose rose-colored values and memories he cherished for his entire life.

Boot deftly chronicles his early life and ambitions in college, working as a lifeguard (where he was credited with saving 77 people from drowning) and time as a popular sports broadcaster. A guy who could think on his feet and whose ease of delivery and public speaking eventually earned him the nickname of “The Great Communicator.”

But thrilled by the celluloid cowboy heroes of his youth, Reagan always wanted to be an actor. He found early success with his chiseled looks and smooth delivery in pictures ranging in quality from Kings Row to Bedtime for Bonzo. In one of those, his co-stars were Ann Sheridan and Robert Cummings. In another, a chimpanzee.

As President of the Screen Actors Guild, he began to explore his love of politics (and talking politics…and talking). And while he’d gain enemies from his obsessive quest to root the (non-existent or overblown) “Communist threat” in Hollywood, conservatives took notice. Even after his screen career dried up, he miraculously, he went on to even more fame as the host of the weekly TV show General Electric Theatre.

The bulk of Reagan concerns his two terms as Governor of California and two terms as President. And Boot deftly and evenhandedly details aspect of both via Reagan himself, but also second wife Nancy (Boot notes his “only true friend” in the world). Along with a whirlwind of advisors, employees, staff, and Cabinet members.
Some of whom were unsure even after years of working with him what Reagan actually thought or felt. He was a man who could stubbornly hold a position or opinion regardless of the facts, and often spouted untruths that were true to him because he wholeheartedly believed them himself.

Boot also delves into Reagan's often fractuous and indifferent relationships with and understanding of hs four children—two by first wife Jane Wyman and two by Nancy, who clearly favored her own. It's an odd note that a man who preached so much about the value of family would have such a chaotic one of his own. A man who could communicate with the world, but stumbled uncomfortably with his own flesh and blood.

The ‘80s come alive again in all the twists and turns of the Reagan Presidency. From the triumphs (peacetime prosperity, reduction of weapons levels and tensions with the Soviet Union, American image projection, Grenada, Sandra Day O’Connor) to mistakes (Iran-Contra Affair, Robert Bork, Lebanon, reluctances to address civil rights/race issues, response to AIDS).

Boot continually uses the word “pragmatic” to describe Reagan’s overriding political philosophy. And throughout, he shows that the inner core of Ronald Reagan as a decent, optimistic, and unpretentious man who often employed humor to diffused and address situations.
As famously when, after a 1981 assassination attempt when a bullet came within one inch of hitting his heart, he told Nancy on the gurney “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Or how prior to surgery, he looked into the faces of his concerned doctors above him and quipped "I hope you’re all Republicans.”

Of course, the political persuasions of the reader may color their view of each page in Reagan. Thankfully, Boot comes to the project wholly as a historian and not a hagiographer or critic.

Surprisingly, for such an Icon of the Right, Boot details how many of Reagan’s political views and decisions would be considered downright liberal by today’s MAGA-controlled party. While he was chastising protesting hippies and sending in troops to break up war protests as Governor, he also signed bills on the environment and abortion access that were surprisingly liberal.

So, while every reader will go into his massive work with a set different idea of Reagan the man, by the end of Reagan the book, those ideas may just change a bit. For better or worse.