A longtime resident of Essex and Lancaster counties, noted presidential historian and Reagan biographer Craig Shirley, has just released his sixth book on Ronald Reagan, titled “The Search for Reagan,” published by Post Hill Press.

“In 2024, practically no political figure has an approval rating above 50 percent, but in 1984 President Ronald Reagan won reelection by carrying 49 of 50 states,” Shirley said. “And when he left the Oval Office he had an unheard of 73 percent approval rating. Why?”

The book is a deep study of the true story of Reagan and race, his dealings with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, and the attempted ban on gay public school teachers who were in California in 1978, his work as a labor leader, his faith, his dealings with communist provocateurs in Hollywood and other controversies and conflicts which arose in his life.

“Reagan’s old friend and aide Marty Anderson once told me he estimated Reagan’s IQ at 175. Anderson would know. He had all sorts of MI...