Landslide: The Unmaking of the President, 1984-1988

For six years, Ronald Reagan seemed invincible. But behind the glowing image of success was an administration courting disaster. In this spellbinding book, two top Washington reporters trace the origins of the Iran-contra affair and the unraveling of the Reagan presidency, taking us deep inside a white house that care more for stagecraft than statecraft and that mistook a landslide reelection for an unlimited mandate. Here is the startling illumination of power and personality, an explosive tale of a president’s unmaking—and a landmark book about the current state of the American presidency. “Many readers will savor Landslide simply for its high-level gossip. But the book has the far deeper value of exposing the ever-increasing discrepancy between substance and image in the American presidency.” –Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times