A Different Drummer: Thirty Years with Ronald Reagan

A Warm, personal portrait of Ronald Reagan, A Different Drummer brims with recollections from a relationship that has spanned three decades. A former aide and longtime family friend, Michael Deaver worked with the former chief executive for twenty consecutive years. Now he offers his memories of Ronald Reagan as governor, president, and friend.

Reagan remains a mystery even to biographers with total access. But in A Different Drummer, Deaver writes not only of his dazzling highs but also shares the lows, particularly his own periods of falling out with the Reagans, which tested the strength of their friendship. Finally, he shares a poignant look at Reagan today as he battles Alzheimer's disease. This is Nancy Reagan's "finest hour," Deaver writes, a validation of the greatest love story he has ever known. With anecdotes that are insightful, entertaining, intimate, and surprising, A Different Drummer sheds remarkable new light on an American icon admired by many and understood by few.