As long as you are not prejudiced or politically bigoted, it makes little difference if you are liberal, conservative, Democrat or Republican as you cogitate purchasing Dr. Paul Kengor's work, CRUSADER, Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism. The treatment is built on such solid research credentials, that it would be adolescent to dismiss it as another conservative woo-woo tabloid.

Before I read it, I had not encountered any information about Dr. Kengor that would trigger speculation regarding his conservative perspective. I thought that he had approached his subject objectively. 'A fair-minded liberal could have written this,' I thought. Now, after discovering his political bent, and what he could have said but didn't, I am thoroughly convinced of his objectivity. He must have had to work hard at it. His scholarship speaks for itself.

There is much sappy literature available in the bookstores on both sides of the liberal/conservative debate. This is not one of those books. If you want an engaging, supportable and honest interpretation of history, this work has it. If you want a straight-up appraisal of Reagan's presidency and his impact on the Soviets and communism, this work has it.

Ronald Reagan was not a god, but he did the work of one. Dr. Kengor shows us how in a definitive work that will likely go down as the most significant work on President Reagan in political literature.

Paul D. Morris

I have been a supporter of Ronald Reagan since his first run for the Presidency in 1976. I learned things about President Reagan that I did not know before reading this book. Most notably, this book details and documents just how President Reagan was in charge of his agenda, notwithstanding the best efforts of the American left to portray him otherwise, particularly the defeat and destruction of the Soviet Union.

The book is extremely well written and is a page turner from the first chapter on. This is a must read for any fan of the greatest president of the last century. Reagan haters and deniers will want to avoid this book so as not to have to confront real history and all its implications.

Ronald Reagan is one of the rare figures in history who transcends political ideology. Often portrayed as more communicator than true statesman, The Crusader presents a far different picture. Paul Kengor does a masterful work of combining Reagan's own words with seldom published source material. The picture that develops is of a man who truly believed communism was evil and dedicated the later part of his life to seeing its downfall.

Since President Reagan's death, more and more historians have begun to change their opinion of his effectiveness and influence as leader of the free world. No matter what your political leanings, The Crusader is a fine example of historical writing done right.

The late President Reagan's crusade against Communism in Russia freed millions of innocent people around the world, and in the end made the world a much better place when he died.

History will record that Reagan was one of the greatest presidents in American history, and we should all take his example in both moral leadership, and courageousness.

All future American leaders should look to Reagan as an example of honesty, sacrifice, and fortitude for taking on the problems of the 21rst century.

God rest the soul of President Ronald Reagan, and may God bless America.

If there was ever a book showing that one person can make a difference, it is "The Crusader," by Paul Kengor. It is amazing how many times Ronald Reagan went against the advice of most if not all of his advisors, and in the end proved to be correct.(Most advisors did not want Reagan to tell Garbachev to "tear down this wall," during his now famous speech.)
Today, President Bush often gets criticized for unilateral inclinations. The book shows that Ronald Reagan was the unilateralsit of all unilateralists. It was even humorous to read how Reagan would go through the motions during his cabinet meetings and often in press conferences, while at the same time he had this whole separate operation going on to bring down the Soviet Union, that very few, even very few of his cabinet members, knew about. Can anyone say leader? It also shows, that even though Reagan was calling the shots, how important Bill Casey and Bill Clark were to the entire operation.
This is the best book I have read on Ronald Reagan, and the best book that I have read on the process that actually ended the Cold War.
It really does put the final nail in the coffin for those clueless "intellectuals" who say that the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, and even the Berlin Wall would have fallen anyway. The book gives an amazingly detailed step by step account of the economic war against the Soviets and all of the National Security Decision Directives that Reagan virtually single-handedly initiated.
The book shows that Ronald Reagan would often go against conventional wisdom. For example, he had great disdain for the Yalta agreements, and for the policy of containment, and eventually, virtually reversed them.
The book also shows how Reagan's anti-communist passions go way back in his life, and how those sentiments are based on his respect for the human being. It tells of a time when he was in East Germany and saw a lady shopper accosted by an East German guard, and how this incident and others firmed his resolve against the evil of communism. It is pointed out how Reagan was actually motivated to act when others weren't, and how Reagan had an inborn sense of the right thing to do. And the book shows that Reagan's pattern to rescue those in distress goes back to his early days when saved 77 people over 7 summers from the swift currents of the Rock River in Dixon Illinois.
"The Crusader" goes into great detail about the relationship between President Reagan and the great Pope John Paul II, and his role in bringing down communism. And it details Reagan's great admiration for the Polish people, and how they admired him in return, and how Poland's Solidarity Movement was one of the major factors in Reagan's and the Pope's effort to bring down communism. And how the people of Poland, the rest of Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union gave great credit to Reagan for bringing them freedom.
The book also details how Reagan brought freedom to Central and South America.
Before I read "The Crusader," I thought that President Ronald Reagan was our greatest U.S. President. After reading the book, my opinion of him only improved. In fact, he and Pope John Paul II have to be two of the great men of the millenium.
It was often said that Reagan had very few, if any, close friends, except Nancy. Probably my favorite story in the book was when, in 1989, just before the previously unimaginable free elections in Poland, Reagan welcomed two members of Solidarity and the two Polish Americans who were hosting them, to his office in California. Reagan pointed to a picture of Pope John Paul II on his office wall and said: "He is my best friend. Yes, you know I am a Protestant, but he's still my best friend." If you are going to have a best friend, not a bad on to have. Thankyou.

Mark S.Robertson
Independence, Mo.

5 stars for the research, which includes documents declassified only in recent years, as well as confirmation from Soviet sources and press articles reaffirming what the Soviets feared, and what Reagan knew .. that the USSR could be brought down with economic pressure.
Despite doubters from even within his own administration (and Nancy), Reagan conspired to wage economic war on the Soviet Union, and succeeded. It was very normal during these times to consider the USSR invincible - understandably bringing about the detente of previous administrations both Republican and Democrat. But Reagan had a goal of actually WINNING the Cold War. Who knew it was even possible? Reagan did, that's who.
From conspiring against the USSR's natural gas lines into Western Europe (a major source of the USSR's revenues that even the West did not cooperate with him on), to actually sabotaging one of the lines, to SDI, and Reagan's military backing of the Afghans - all these factors and more contributed to straining the USSR's economy, and forcing the country to use increased funds into these endeavors - an unexpected expense for a government so thin on resources.
My biggest revlation from the book:
In addition, Reagan's friendliness with the Saudis was hugely beneficial to American interests of the day. Both sides' willingness to help one another led to the Saudis going against OPEC and lowering oil prices worldwide - something the Saudis faced huge criticism from Middle Eastern neighbors for.
Think about it: High oil prices in the 70s helped the Soviet (an oil-producing nation, remember) economy and naturally hurt the USA's - which led to increased military spending by the USSR and helped tighten its grip on the Eastern bloc. High oil also helped contribute to Americans' inferiority complex to the Soviets.
Then, low prices in the 80s hurt the Soviet economy drastically, helped the American consumer, which helped bring increased revenues to pay for Reagan's military spending.
Scholars may argue that each president during the Cold War contributed to the USSR's fall, and the USSR economy might have been on the tipping point anyway, but this book gives absolute, irrefutable evidence that Reagan accelerated the USSR's fall before a generation that never thought it would be possible.

This book was a great read, and I finished it in no time, but the fact that each section was broken into chapters and yet more sections made the reading rather choppy. Had the book not been broken up so much, it would have read like a captivating narrative. Instead, it was more like a time-line. If that's what you like reading, you'll love this book. Otherwise, you may have some trouble with it. As for actual content, though, the book would get 5 stars from me.

This is a great book on Ronald Reagan's lifelong crusade against Communism. I recommend it as an enjoyable read and a fascinating history of Reagan's role in the Cold War. Despite an obvious enthusiasm for Reagan, Kengor's research is extremely well-researched and authoritative. "The Crusader" is a "must read" book for anyone interested in the period.

However, the story presented here is one-dimensional and slightly different than the story Reagan tells in his autobiography "An American Life" and "The Reagan Diaries." Also, recent Reagan biographies by John Patrick Diggins and Richard Reeves tell a somewhat different story than "The Crusader." I recommend reading those books, along with the Crusader, to understand the complete story. None-the-less, this is a compelling work of research.

In the early 1940s, Reagan the visible actor spoke out against the threats of Nazism. After America won World War II, Reagan warned that there was another totalitarian threat called Communism. Yet Reagan's anti-Communist views were not well received in Hollywood where many naive liberals back then were intrigued with the delusions of Marxism. Communists were trying to infiltrate the film industry, and Reagan stood up to them and rooted them out. Reagan was threatened with having acid thrown in his face for his efforts. After James Roosevelt, FDR's son, and Reagan considered making a strong anti-Communist statement, they were attacked with insults. That's when Reagan, a staunch FDR supporter, began his journey to become a staunch conservative Republican and crusader against Communism. This book is so well researched and shows repeatedly that again and again, year after year, Reagan sincerely and forcefully spoke out against the threat of Communism - and he was right!

According to "The Crusader," once Reagan became president, he put in place a program of relentless pressure against USSR. He used speeches, economic warfare, a huge military build-up, and support of anti-Communist forces around the world. Reagan rejected containment and Detente, which maintained the status quo. His masterful speeches undermined the legitimacy of Communism. Reagan personally wrote to the Soviet leaders in longhand and insisted that they honor their promises in writing at Yalta, which they broke, to allow free elections in Poland and Eastern Europe.

The agreement at Yalta states: "The establishment of order in Europe and the rebuilding of national economic life must be achieved by processes which will enable the liberated peoples to destroy the last vestiges of Nazism and fascism and to create democratic institutions of their own choice. This is a principle of the Atlantic Charter - the right of all people to choose the form of government under which they will live - the restoration of sovereign rights and self-government to those peoples who have been forcibly deprived to them by the aggressor nations."

On August 17, 1984, Reagan said "We reject any INTERPRETATION of the Yalta agreement that suggests American consent for the division of Europe into spheres of influence. ON THE CONTRARY, we see that agreement as a pledge by the three great powers to restore full independence and to allow free and democratic elections in all countries liberated from the Nazis after World War II..." Reagan set out to make it happen. Reagan kept pushing and pushing to achieve his foreign policy political goals. It worked.

The chapter "The Coroner Comes to the Kremlin" is great. Read it. Under pressure to revive the ailing Soviet economy, Mikhail Gorbachev adopted bold reforms called Perestroika and Glasnost, but the results were not what he expected. Once the people tasted the freedoms he allowed, once the train was moving at high speed, it could not be turned back. Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost reforms opened Pandora's Box of freedom.

Ronald Reagan was the right man at the right time. Mikhail Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize, the first Ronald Reagan Freedom award, and was named Time Magazine's Man of the Decade for his role. Yet Gorbachev never intended to destroy the Communist Party. He hoped, instead, to save it through reforms. He inadvertently presided over its demise. Without Reagan shifting the winds of freedom and applying pressure the way he did, the Soviet Empire would not have unraveled when it did.

Reagan ranks as one of the greatest diplomats of the 20th Century for his role in the demise of the Soviet Empire and making the world safer from the threat of nuclear war, along with FDR and his Great Arsenal of Democracy, Four Freedoms, Atlantic Charter, winning World War II, and making America a superpower engaged in world affairs. Just compare those impressive records to the rigid neo-con blunders in Iraq. Reagan was not a rigid neo-con, and he was not an amiable dunce as his critics have falsely claimed.

I do have a few quibbles with this book. Ronald Reagan, in his autobiography "An American Life" and "The Reagan's Diaries," emphasizes his friendship with "Gorby" and his peaceful diplomacy. Recent Reagan biographies by John Patrick Diggins and Richard Reeves also credit Reagan's diplomacy and friendship with "Gorbachev." Reagan was so sincere and good-natured, with that twinkle in his eye, that he was irresistible. Once Reagan got his "high beams" on you, you were finished, Michael Reagan once said. Reagan was a crusader but, more importantly, he was a persuader.

At Gorbachev's friendly invitation, Reagan gave a speech on free markets at Moscow State University and received a standing ovation. Reagan sold the Russians on free markets and freedom. He WAS the Great Communicator. When a reporter asked Reagan if USSR was still "the evil empire," Reagan replied, "No. I was talking about another time, another era." Kengor does not mention this, and he describes the visit to Moscow as yet another time when Reagan pressured Gorbachev. In fact, it was Reagan's love of peace and diplomacy that won the Cold War. Reagan and "Gorby" became good friends. In his autobiography, Reagan shared his fear that Gorbachev might be toppled by Communist hardliners: "I was concerned for his safety... I've still worried about him: How hard and fast can he push reforms without risking his life?"

Kengor presents an incomplete and perhaps misleading story of the Reykjavik summit and the friendship between the two leaders. Kengor reveals that Reagan desired to abolish nukes, but Kengor does not mention that Reagan and Gorbachev tentatively agreed to abolish ALL nuclear weapons at the Reykjavik summit and that Reagan proposed sharing SDI, which Reagan believed would make nukes obsolete.

Also, the achievements of President George Bush Sr. are not mentioned. Sweeping progress occurred when Bush was president, such as the summit at Malta between Bush and Gorbachev, the withdrawal of Soviet troop from Eastern Europe by Gorbachev's order, and Gorbachev allowing numerous free elections to take place. Bush was president for nearly three years when Gorbachev finally fell from power.

By the way, it was actually the 1975 Helsinki Accords by Gerald Ford - not Yalta - that officially recognized Soviet Control of Eastern Europe. In return, the Soviets promised to honor "human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief." Specifically, the Soviets recognized the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Eleanor Roosevelt helped achieved. This allowed the dissident movement in USSR to take root. According to Soviet Foreign Minister Anatoly Dobrynin, the publicity gained from finally receiving recognition of Soviet control in Eastern Europe was supposed to bolster the Communist Party. Instead, "it gradually became a manifesto of the dissident and liberal movement'... Brezhnev could hardly repudiate what he had agreed to... human rights..." (The Cold War a New History: John Lewis Gaddis) Kengor also does not mention anything about the Potsdam Conference when Harry Truman was president. That was the last summit of WWII - not Yalta.

This book does not mention the contributions of the dissident movement, including Nobel Peace Prize-winning Andrei Sakharov. He was named as one of the Time 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century. "By courageously speaking truth to power, he became the conscience of the cold war and inspired the movement that toppled Soviet communism...," Time wrote. "By the time of his death in 1989, this humble physicist had influenced the spread of democratic ideals throughout the communist world. His moral challenge to tyranny, his faith in the individual and the power of reason, his courage in the face of denunciation and, finally, house arrest -- made him a hero to ordinary citizens everywhere."

None-the-less, this is the best book on Reagan's lifelong crusade against Communism and a compelling work of research concerning Reagan's role. Kengor has done a fabulous job. Without Reagan, the Soviet Union would not have unraveled when it did. Reagan was the right man at the right time.

I am in a unique position to recommend this book. I studied the Cold War in college (although I eventually majored in business) when Gorbachev was in power. I traveled abroad and witnessed first-hand the rebellion in Lithuania against Soviet rule. I talked to several Lithuanians, who were participating in the rebellion, and I briefly met Vytautas Landsbergis, a professor of music and leader of the rebellion who became president after Lithuania gained independence. Tanks rolled through the streets of Vilnius while I was there (although Gorbachev refused to brutally suppress the rebellion). As a memento, I have a leaflet that Soviet helicopters dropped into the streets of Kaunas demanding an end to a huge demonstration. I had a friend who went to Poland and witnessed the Solidarity movement. Reagan encouraged those rebellions. I saw the world turn, and I know that Reagan had much to do with it. Reagan's life story is quite charming.

I highly recommend this book along with Reagan's excellent autobiography "An American Life" and "The Reagan Diaries." Both are essential to understanding the real Ronald Reagan. Also read "Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History" by John Patrick Diggins, the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lenin's Tomb" by David Remnick, "The Cold War: A New History" by John Lewis Gaddis, "From the Cold War to a New Era" by Don Oberdorfer, "President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination" by Richard Reeves, Paul Lettow's "Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons," and "Reagan and Gorbachev" by Jack Matlock, Reagan's top advisor and ambassador to USSR.

It is nice to finally read some of the history of the 1980s without the need to insult or suck up to those in power. Paul Kengor has added this book to the list of great biographies of Ronald Reagan (another was "Reagan's War" which is also excellent). Regardless of what you felt about the man, it is fairly important to understand Reagan's place in changing the world.

An odd thing about telling the story of Reagan is that most biographies don't mention what he did for Poland and other Soviet Block countries. In fact, the book, "Dutch" barely mentions Lech Wallesa and the solidarity movement. In many of those countries, Reagan is viewed as a liberator and hero. Again, regardless of your view of the man here in the U.S., he did change the world and was the linchpin for the fall of the U.S.S.R. This book is an excellent way to understand how and why he did it. What he did was put his vision on the block and stood by it, regardless of what some of his closest advisors told him. In the end, history has shown him to be the man with the vision of how to end the cold war.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough for ANYONE who wants to understand the fall of the Soviet Union or why Reagan is viewed as a God by many Republicans. At the same time, this book is not insulting, nor does it degrade those with different viewpoints. It is an exciting and fascinating book with information that I had never heard, and I've read 10-15 books about the man. Great work and as a fan of history... keep these types of books coming.

I remember the old view of Reagan: "Dumb Actor Following a Script Written By His Advisors" As I said, "old view" because now we know what many of us already knew...Reagan was a President who had a vision of a world without communism and the threat of nuclear war. Reagan was a President who seriously thought about the issues of the day and a combination of his views, actions, internal opposition to communism in Poland, and Gorbachev ended the Cold War. Kengor's book is an excellent, up to date, well written, and documented look at Reagan's role in ending the Cold War.

The book was easy to read, had great notes and footnotes. I also got a much better understanding of the role of Poland, Solidarity, and the Pope in ending the Cold War. I had not known this before, and certainly some of the revisionist professors I had neglected to mention this in class. Combined with the "Cold War" by Gaddis and the recent release of the many letters and speeches of Reagan, Kengor's book shows how Ronald Reagan helped end communism in Europe and defeat the Soviet Union.

On a personal note, Professor Kengor spoke to my students about his book, the Cold War, and his research. Not a lot of authors would take the time to speak to high school kids and I think this says a lot about the Professor's character.

Not only did this book show the greatness of Reagan but it showed the greatness of Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa and to a large extend Gorbachev. The book showed how great Reagan was without diminishing the contributions of others to the end of the Cold War.

I highly recommend this book. Order this book and "The Cold War" by Gaddis. After reading this book NO ONE should try and say Reagan was "just following a script." This is one of those books where at the end you learned a lot of things you didn't know before.

A few years back, I was having an argument with a (rather liberal) friend of mine about the collapse of European communism. We are both from Europe, but we grew up on different sides of the East-West divide. His was what I came to understand the conventional view of people on the left: the communism collapsed due to its internal contradictions, because it was not the "real" communism, and a string of similar sorts of nonsense. As with many other issues that we argued about, I could not have disagreed more. Indeed, communism had enough of the internal problems that its eventual demise was inevitable, however left to its own devices, the eventual collapse would surely taken many more years, or even decades if not longer to unravel, with incalculable cost in human misery that would have engendered. Those of us who have had the luck to avoid that misery are grateful for all the external pressures exercised on that political system that hastened its demise, in particular the pressure that United States has exercised during all those decades of the Cold War, culminating with the final strong push by president Ronald Reagan and his administration. This book is a valuable record of what motivated Reagan to see the communism for what it really was - an evil system bent on repressing its own citizens. The book documents Reagan's anti-communist stand from his earliest political days, all the way through his years in the office. It gives an invaluable event-by-event chronology of all the systematic and relentless effort that Reagan put into dismantling the communist influence everywhere in the world that culminated in the final collapse of the Soviet Union and its many Eastern European satellite-states.

If there is one criticism that I would have against this book, it would be that it sometimes portrays Reagan too one-dimensionally. The reader gets the impression that anti-communism was the only motivator behind this great American president. Nevertheless, this is a great andextremely well researched book and it is extremely valuable to anyone with interest in either Ronald Reagan or the Cold War.

This author understands absolutely nothing about Russian or Soviet history.

If you wish to worship Ronald Reagan, this is the book for you!

If you want to understand Russian and Soviet politics, history (warts and all) don't waste your time, you will find almost total propaganda.

His comments and quotes from Gorbachev, however, are appreciated. It is about time Americans got over their "gorby love".

I saw this author on BookTV -- he cannot even pronounce Russian names correctly, let alone get very much right about Russian people and Soviet life (one example: Russian churches were open to the public and widely attended during the Soviet period, even if Lenin and Marx were absolutely right about religion!)

Finally, this author fails to discuss how that sick triumvarate of Thatcher, Reagan and Gorbachev are very much responsible for a terrible upsetting of the power balance in the world, which has got us the mess we have today.

Russia and the former republics are in a pathetic state of ruin. Regions formerly controlled by the Soviets (including Afghanistan)are overrun with terrorists, resulting already in great tragedy, and who knows what will come next.

And this author waxes *poetic'* about how much "credit" should be given to such insanity.

The author is either utterly deluded or supremely stupid.

We have heard of how SDI was the breaking point for the Soviets but Paul Kengor, in his book The Crusader, reveals the many and varied strategies used by President Reagan and his team for bringing down the Soviet Union, many of which have only recently been declassified. For anyone who doubts that Reagan had much to do with the demise of the Soviet Union, this book will convince you that Reagan's staunch adherence to his belief that human freedom will win against totalitarian ideology was the catalyst in winning the cold war. He believed that as long as the oppressed are given hope, and the right pressures are applied on repressive regimes at the right time, these regimes will crumble.

The Crusader is a fascinating read as it shows how Reagan, the man, developed the confidence, the skills, and the philosophy that helped him deal with the Soviets. It shows how he was able to stand up to the intense pressure, even from those in his own administration at times, to follow the right course which led eventually to the collapse of Communism. You come away with the belief that without Reagan, the Soviet Union would still be controlling Eastern Europe and parts of Asia today.

Extremely well researched with new evidence from both U.S. and Soviet declassified files, the Crusader tells a story of courage, principled leadership, and faith in the power of freedom. It shows Reagan as a great leader who revived the American spirit and made us believe in ourselves again. It shows how Reagan who was often bitterly opposed by the opposition party, the Europeans, and the Kremlin was able to persevere and accomplish the thing that he had set out to do from the first days of his administration. This book offers many lessons that we need to learn in order to deal intelligently with the difficulties that the U.S. faces today. I highly recommend this book.

I'm about a third the way through this book and enjoying it immensely. It demonstrates, as others have pointed out, that Reagan not only ended communist tyranny over a third of the earth, he set out intelligently and systematically to do just that, hitting exactly where he aimed. And it's a measure of the his confidence that he never seems to have fretted that the Noble Prize Committee never recognized what he had done. Perhaps he realized that winning the Noble Peace Prize would put him in some less than impressive company--thugs like Arafat and pious twits like Carter.

There are, of course, parallels between what Reagan did to Soviet communism with what Bush is trying to do with Islamist terrorism, the most obvious being that Bush is drawing the same attacks from the precisely the same groups. But Bush seems to lack Reagan's understanding of the enemy. Reagan was one of the few native-born Americans to see first hand just how ruthless communism was when he risked his life fighting a communist-led attempt to take over our motion picture industry. He also learned tough negotiating skills as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. Bush has no such personal experience with radical Islam, so his words fall flat. And he lacks Reagan's toughness.

Through his mother Reagan was influenced by an older, sounder and more moral evanglical religion, one that is no respecter of persons and that is unimpressed by wealthy, power or celebrity. That's why, as this book suggests, the nasty criticism of the national elite, from Harvard to the NY Times never bothered Reagan. Not caring what they thought was one secret of his "Teflon Presidency." Bush, unfortunately, is more of the more modern Rick Warren 'milk and cookies' school of evangelicalism, one more interested in being regarded highly by the right sort of people, than in doing the right thing come what may. The 'right sort' are typically bullies. Once they see you sweating, they redouble their attacks.

Reagan was, as The Crusader repeated stresses, supremely confident. I love the account of when he debated Carter during the 1980 campagn. Afterward, one reporter asked him if he felt intimidated being on the same stage with the President. Reagan replied that he wasn't, that he'd "shared the same stage with John Wayne."

Read this book to discover why there's a world of difference between the presidencies of Carter and Reagan. Although I doubt Kengor uses the term, Reagan is the ultimate Real Man.

--Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien: A Chronology and Commentary for The Lord of the Rings.

This book The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism
by Paul Kengor is a wonderful History of Ronald Reagan and his goal to defeat communism. kengor was challenged to prove that Reagan brought down the USSR and he proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism is very well resourced and is comprehensive, you will learn a lot and yet its not dry history, its exciting. Just for the Kennedy and Carter mentions alone, its worth it the read. There should be a congressional investigation into both Carter and Kennedy actions. But I digress, you will find out that Ronald Reagan did not end communism alone, but he was a big factor and major player in bringing down the evil empire, and that evil system.

For substance "The Crusader" falls within the work of David Brinkley, Robert Caro and David McCullough. History which is fun to read but isn't fluff.

Not the very light writing of a Sean Hannity, Al Franken, Michael Savage or Bill O'Reilly. Nor an Ann Coulter foot-noted polemic intended to amuse or infuriate.

On the other hand, "The Crusader" is not as detailed as Yale university's Annals of Communism series (Think Sean McMeekin, Donald Rayfield and William J. Chase--wonderful history but not books one picks up and reads straight through).

Of the 432 pages in "The Crusader" 79 are footnotes. 12 pages mention Ted Kennedy. 4 pages out of those 12 pages are in the appendix--the KGB letter. Kengor received the Chebrikov document via Marko Suprun, Walter Zaryckyi and Herb Romerstein (author of the Venona papers). A brief excerpt from the letter was first published in the London Sunday Times (February 2, 1992 "Teddy, the KGB and the Top Secret File").