Reagan: The Life (130 page)

H. W. Brands holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin. A
New York Times
best-selling author, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in biography for
The First American
and again for
Traitor to His Class
. His Web site is
www.hwbrands.com
.

Ronald Reagan got his good looks and his knack for telling stories from his father, Jack Reagan. But Jack was an alcoholic and utterly unreliable.

Little “Dutch” (in the eponymous haircut) is smiling in this Christmas photo, with Jack; elder brother Neil; and mother, Nelle. But he learned to dread the holidays, because that was when Jack fell off the wagon.

As a teenager he was a lifeguard in Dixon, Illinois. He took pride in the number of rescues he made, although some observers suspected that the pretty girls weren’t really drowning.

Reagan’s fondest hope at Eureka College was to become a football hero. He would have succeeded, if determination had sufficed. But at least he looked the part.