I haven't yet finished this book but it is amazing you learn history/foreing policy/domestic policy this book is filled with 1st drafts of Reagans radio speeches and its above 500 pages. You can also use the book for speech writing and learn writing methods from it if you were to examine how Reagan writes Reagan was quoted in the intro to the book saying
"you've written it so it can be read. It can be reprinted in the new york times or in you state department bulletin that goes in around the world. Thats perfectly appropriate. But I talk to people- when they are in front of me, or at the other end of a television camera or a radio microphone-and thats different. I'll show you what I mean"
Reagan then goes to take the speech from his secretary of state the secretary describes it as
He took the text of my speech, flipped it open at random, took out a pen and quickly began to edit the page. He made four or five edits and put a caret in the margin and wrote "story." The he handed it back to me.
As I read what he had done, I saw that he had changed the tone of my speech completely.
Before Reagan edited the speech or explained how reading and speaking is different he had called the speech " perfectly satisfactory". We should be able to learn a lot from a guy who was a sports caster, govenor, talk show radio host and eventually president.
Its also amazing how the issues of the 70's are a lot like the issues of today domesticly and how his solutions make sense the things were doing now are much like what Carter did which hurt the nation. The foreign policy though I learned why communism was so bad and maybe you would to as well as some things our nation has done and hasn't done some that make me furious out our nation .
I highly recommend this book.