Ronald Reagan's autobiography, Where's the rest of me?, repeated the question the actor had asked in the movie King's Row, when he woke up in a hospital bed to discover that his legs had been amputated. Reagan lost his legs in Hollywood, the autobiography explains, and recovered 'the rest of me' (that phrase is the leitmotif of his text) by fighting Communist influence there, acquiring personal and institutional backing, and marrying Nancy Davis. This reassemblage of the actor/politician made him whole - the cause he supported and the people who supported him constituting the rest of Ronald Reagan.

LRB 13 October 1988 | PDF Download