As one of the many young Americans first inspired to become politically active by Ronald Reagan’s stirring nationally televised speech on behalf of Barry Goldwater a few days before the 1964 presidential election, I am, shall we say, a bit biased in judging “Rendezvous with Destiny: Ronald Reagan and the campaign that changed America,” by Craig Shirley.

For one thing, I played a minor role in that epic 1980 campaign and first met Shirley then. In the years since, I’ve watched and admired him as he built a successful public relations and communications strategy firm. Today, his firm does work for a lengthy list of prominent clients, including this newspaper.