Last Act

The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan

By: Craig Shirley

Narrated by: Henry O. Arnold

Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's summary

His name in American politics is more cited than any other president. Both the Republican and Democratic parties are radically different today mainly as a result of Ronald Reagan and the force of his ideas. No 20th-century president shaped the American political landscape so profoundly.

Craig Shirley's Last Act is the important final chapter in the life of Reagan that no one has thus far covered. It's the kind of audiobook that widens our understanding of American history and of the presidency and the men who occupied it. To tell Reagan's story, Craig has secured the complete, exclusive, and enthusiastic support of the Reagan Foundation and Library and spent considerable time there reviewing sealed files and confidential information.

Cast in a grand and compelling narrative style, Last Act contains interesting and heretofore untold anecdotes about Reagan, Mrs. Reagan, their pleasure at retirement, the onslaught of the awful Alzheimer's, and how he and Mrs. Reagan dealt with the diagnosis, the slow demise, the extensive plans for a state funeral, the outpouring from the nation, which stunned the political establishment, the Reagan legacy, and how his shadow looms more and more over the Republican Party, Washington, the culture of America, and the world.

©2015 Craig Shirley (P)2015 Thomas Nelson Publishers

A great tribute

"Last Act" is perfectly written, very moving and an awesome account of the greatest President in our lifetime. I am privileged to have voted for him twice. I am more privileged to have heard this account of a hero in our lifetime.

Was this edited?

Reasonably well written with anecdotes which will unabashedly tug at your heart, especially if you are a Reaganite. But the editing is so poor -- the storyline jumping forward and backward in time without reason, entire sentences being repeated verbatim -- that one wonders if were edited at all.

Absolutely Wonderful

If you could sum up Last Act in three words, what would they be?

Engrossing, page-turning, insightful

Who was your favorite character and why?

Reagan. Besides the fact that this is based on him, Ronald Reagan is such an interesting president. His life from acting to politics and after his presidency is more than I can ever put into words.

Which scene was your favorite?

When Shirley talks about how Reagan pushed back death, as he had done to the opposed at his college, his acting career, and his criticizers.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

As Shirley says, "The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan"

Moving

I could not stop listening to this book, frequently with tears in my eyes. God Bless him and may this gentle and good man rest in peace.

Demi-God or Dirt?

I have been looking for a thorough and objective biography of Ronald Reagan (at least on Audible) for quite some time. Unfortunately, all the books I've found so far treat him like a demigod or like a fool. This book falls into the former category, with the added spice of attempting to trash every president since Reagan. There isn't much about his final years but a whole lot about his funeral, his tributes, his general wonderfulness. It's basically an eleven-hour eulogy. Less than a half hour into the book, the author verbally spits at President Obama, then sideswipes Bush 41, Clinton several times, and generally every president who wasn't Reagan. To top it off, the narrator mispronounces several common words. I didn't even bother to finish the book.